{"id":65,"date":"2010-09-15T10:35:28","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T10:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/09\/pc-police-unfairly-targets-mcdonalds.html"},"modified":"2010-09-15T10:35:28","modified_gmt":"2010-09-15T10:35:28","slug":"pc-police-unfairly-targets-mcdonalds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/09\/pc-police-unfairly-targets-mcdonalds.html","title":{"rendered":"PC Police unfairly targets McDonald’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new PSA debuting this week during The Daily Show <\/i>on Comedy Central  depicts an overweight corpse sprawled out on a stretcher clutching his hamburger while a doctor (or at least some guy in a white coat) attempts to console a woman (probably his wife) who apparently forgot to mail in his last life insurance premium.<\/p>\n

His toes-up position provides a nifty visual at the end of the spot as the McDonald’s golden arches wrap themselves around his dead tootsies while a very serious announcer tells us to “Make It Vegetarian.” 
      <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for healthy eating and have no problem at all with vegetarianism. I also am not on the McDonald’s payroll and, as far as I know (who knows what my 401ks or IRAs are doing), don’t own stock in the company.<\/p>\n

But I do think it violates Christian concepts of fairness to single out McDonald’s so directly in such a hit piece.  I mean it’s not as if the company invented hamburgers and fatty food. It’s not like every other restaurant sells nothing but broccoli.   <\/p>\n

Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream isn’t exactly health food but the PC Police Food Division seems much more obsessed with going after McDonald’s (which, for the left, has become a crass symbol American culture around the world) than the iconic frozen desert company linked to politically-correct liberal activism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, I love Ben & Jerry’s (I dream about Cherry Garcia!) and think its great that the company is committed to environmentalism, peace and justice and the economic welfare of its employees. This isn’t about attacking Ben & Jerry’s.<\/p>\n

It’s about defending McDonald’s which, as a company, I don’t think deserves to be so self-righteously assaulted on what has become a fairly regular basis. <\/p>\n

So, now, a few points in defense of the company.<\/p>\n

1.<\/b> It’s Dollar Menus offer affordable meals to the homeless <\/b>and other people struggling to stretch every dollar. That’s why when a San Francisco franchise owner<\/a> recently decided to jack up the price of Dollar Menu items to a still-cheap (but less-affordable to the truly needy) $1.50 there was understandable concern among the area’s homeless population.<\/p>\n

2.<\/b> The company offers great first job opportunities for teenagers (including those from poorer backgrounds)<\/b> to break into the work force. And, according to the company website<\/a>, over 50% of their owner-operators started behind counter as well as more than 75% percent of their restaurant managers.  <\/p>\n

3. Reasonably Healthy foods are, in fact, available at McDonald’s.<\/b>  According to HealthCheck Systems<\/a>, those healthier choices include the Chicken McGrill w\/o mayo and its regular hamburger.<\/p>\n

4. Ronald McDonald House.<\/b>  Since 1974 McDonald’s has opened nearly 300 home-away-from-home facilities<\/a> designed to help families in need of accommodations while seeking out-of-town medical care for sick children. It may not by “green” but helping families with seriously-ill kids is still a good cause in my book.<\/p>\n

I’m not saying that McDonald’s is perfect and should never be criticized. I’m just saying that the amount of criticism it has received is inordinate and unfair.<\/p>\n

The Defense rests and grabs a hamburger. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new PSA debuting this week during The Daily Show on Comedy Central  depicts an overweight corpse sprawled out on a stretcher clutching his hamburger while a doctor (or at least some guy in a white coat) attempts to console a woman (probably his wife) who apparently forgot to mail in his last life insurance…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,16,1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-family-matters","category-media","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nPC Police unfairly targets McDonald's - Catholics Media and Culture<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/09\/pc-police-unfairly-targets-mcdonalds.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PC Police unfairly targets McDonald's - Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A new PSA debuting this week during The Daily Show on Comedy Central  depicts an overweight corpse sprawled out on a stretcher clutching his hamburger while a doctor (or at least some guy in a white coat) attempts to console a woman (probably his wife) who apparently forgot to mail in his last life insurance…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/2010\/09\/pc-police-unfairly-targets-mcdonalds.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholics Media and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-09-15T10:35:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/d80\/d801bc09698c0995d9ae402b4b55ab61x96.jpg","caption":"John W. Kennedy"},"description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media & Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations & Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/catholicsmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}