Column | The cow dance: a PR moment with a cruel downside

Today I actually wanted to write populist prose, nice five hundred and fifty words to collecting unabashedly suffering around any prutser who has been tumbled in a role with political responsibility. Nationally and internationally, it is blunder for taking. In the slipstream of this, the stock markets also seemed like a nice subject: how the red numbers there in a fussy week got a panic for which the red figures of climate change can only be delighted.

Economy: « And that’s how you do it. You get them in the money. »

Climate: « But I do! »

Economy: « Too slow. »

Climate: « But irreparable! »

Economy: « Lo-Ser. »

Unfortunately, Dutch media again went to take care of PR machines for livestock farming and I could not ignore that. Certainly not then NRC Came with: « The annual cow dance is a rare positive PR moment for the cowing dance.« What followed was a report of an open day on a farm. Coincidentally the day on which the cows were allowed to go outside after months. Heart of the Netherlands,,  » Dagblad van het NoordenIt Adthey all did the same: send their reporters to farms to capture the so -called « cow dance ». That is as if you send reporters to a women’s prison on the day that the prisoners are ventilated after months of imprisonment and then publish about the joy prevailing there and how the ladies enjoyed the sun. Not a word about forced inseminations and taken away children, let alone over the transports to destruction. We would find one -sided reporting of that caliber unacceptable about people. At cows, farm visitors are quoted: « Wonderful to see the women run! Look at them from the grass! » Even the educational component of such a day is sung: « Can children see where the milk comes from ». If they really wanted to show how you get cow’s milk, at least a part of calf should be on the program and children with electric weapons were allowed to drive the least profitable animals in trucks.

A popular description of journalism is that if a party claims that the sun is shining and the other that it is raining, it is not the task of journalists to both quote but to go outside and return with the truth. At the pasture, livestock farming says that the sun is shining and crowded journalists will report on it. When it rains, when the weakened, milked cows are put on transport to the slaughterhouse and the calves are orphaned, complete editors will fail.

In the NRC-Pliece was quoted a farmer’s wife who said she knew there were people who thought it was pathetic for the animals, but that everyone could have their own opinion. Only to be able to form an honest opinion, you must have access to the facts. He does not get the dairy consumer. The images of the deadly negative PR moments are made almost exclusive and undercover by activists. Due to daredevils that put their freedom and safety at stake when they enter stables to bring out the truth. For its reports, the consumer must google for websites of organizations such as Animal Rights,,  » Unheard of and JOey Carbstrong.

Dairy farming makes good use of its possibilities to brush and hide the truth. She really doesn’t have to be helped with media attention for her rare positive PR moment. Certainly not when it is totally not in proportion to the media attention for the deep red figures for its atrocities.

Carolina Trujillo Is a writer.

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