{"id":980,"date":"2013-03-03T20:07:46","date_gmt":"2013-03-04T01:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/?p=980"},"modified":"2013-03-03T20:07:46","modified_gmt":"2013-03-04T01:07:46","slug":"ag-gags-for-carnivores-vegetarians-vegans-and-yes-photographers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/?p=980","title":{"rendered":"Ag Gags for Carnivores, Vegetarians, Vegans and Yes, Photographers"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/strong><\/em>No matter what our individual menu preferences are\u00a0we think we can all agree that “Everybody’s gotta’ to eat”.\u00a0People can get sick from tainted food whether it be vegetable, fruit or animal.\u00a0 There are unsanitary dairy farms, cattle ranches, supermarkets, importers\u00a0and who doesn’t have their own personal\u00a0restaurant horror story.\u00a0In the interests of fair disclosure we are both carnivores and Ed worked in a meat packing\u00a0plant during college.\u00a0 This issue should galvanize all of us regardless of diet as we can all agree that food safety is a biological imperative for\u00a0Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Conservatives, Socialists and Greens alike. Ahh, but if only life\u00a0in the 21st Century could be so simple!<\/p>\n

In 1906 muckraking journalist\u00a0Upton Sinclair wrote a novel entitled\u00a0The Jungle.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 Written principally about immigrants in America, it gained notoriety\u00a0 principally from the exposure\u00a0of\u00a0despicable practices then\u00a0occurring\u00a0in slaughterhouses. Sinclair had written several articles for a socialist newspaper on the meat industry and incorporated his discoveries into the novel.\u00a0 If asked today about the subject of The Jungle, <\/em>we dare say that most people would\u00a0say\u00a0that the book is about<\/em> the slaughterhouses in\u00a0Chicago at the turn of the 20th Century. So powerful were those aspects of the novel that the entire industry was eventually\u00a0forced to change its methods.<\/p>\n

In the 107 years that have\u00a0followed, countless undercover stories\u00a0have been written by investigative journalists, miles of video footage shot\u00a0and\u00a0many thousands of\u00a0still images created\u00a0exposing animal cruelty, unsanitary conditions and tainted items – whether animal, vegetable or mineral –\u00a0entering the food chain. Such stories\u00a0have become\u00a0standard fare\u00a0(pun intended) for\u00a0TV networks, local affiliates,\u00a0newspapers and magazines\u00a0and a buffet (couldn’t resist) of\u00a0political, trade and animal rights special interest\u00a0groups. Such stories are\u00a0“guaranteed ratings grabbers” says one of my clients, a former big city TV news producer.<\/p>\n

Now all the photographers, illustrators, journalists, publishers and even TV “suits” out there should start paying close attention.\u00a0\u00a0Legislation often termed Ag-Gag<\/strong> Bills, are being seeded\u00a0or have\u00a0otherwise been planted\u00a0throughout the land.\u00a0 The contents of these\u00a0bills\u00a0vary wildly and\u00a0already exist in Utah, Iowa and Mississippi.\u00a0 Bills have been introduced (or are\u00a0about to be) in NH, Indiana, AK and NC.\u00a0 These bills were ostensibly introduced\u00a0at the Federal level as anti -terrorism statutes.\u00a0The initial intent was to prevent acts of\u00a0eco-terrorism and\/or assist\u00a0law enforcement in the apprehension of individuals and groups involved in the physical destruction of food\u00a0processing or animal raising facilities and any attendant loss of human life in connection with such violent activities..\u00a0\u00a0Federal Laws already exist but do not seem<\/em><\/strong> to be\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>as limiting as\u00a0the local bills which are typically pushed by food company lobbyists and trade associations.\u00a0 Photographers as we have often noted, are rarely politically active and thus politicians understandably ignore them.<\/p>\n

That initial anti-terrorism\u00a0purpose seems to have\u00a0been perverted in at least some cases. Some of the bills\u00a0either passed or\u00a0being considered\u00a0would explicitly outlaw undercover reporting as well as the publication of material gathered by undercover reporting.\u00a0 Now lets say that again real slow so it really sinks in – some of these bills would criminalize the shooting of video, taking of photographs and the possession and\/or distribution of same as they relate to the farming of crops, animals, food handling\u00a0and the production of food.\u00a0<\/em> Whether the photos were taken from a public roadway in some instances would be irrelevant. Also known as “farm privacy” bills, the intent of these laws is to protect the privacy of\u00a0say\u00a0a\u00a0farmer from someone seeking to\u00a0inflict “economic terrorism” or “economic harm” by photographic the farm’s questionable practices.<\/p>\n

Politicians, whose knowledge of\u00a0media practices typically\u00a0extends only the manners in which they can\u00a0get their faces on as many home HD screens as\u00a0possible, either did not realize or care that such laws can effectively prevent stories on unsanitary and\/or illegal practices from ever seeing the light of day. No\u00a0one subjected to criminal penalties will likely shoot, write, possess, print\u00a0or\u00a0broadcast such stories.\u00a0 Groups\u00a0whose agendas are rather clear, ie PETA, The Humane\u00a0Society and\u00a0Green is the New Red, have openly criticized these new bills.\u00a0 Elected officials who support these bills have espoused the\u00a0view that none of this legislation is intended to be used against whistle blowers or muckrakers or investigative journalists.\u00a0 Rather these bills are intended to prevent violent acts of eco-terrorism period.\u00a0 When politicians say, “we have nothing to worry about” we start worrying.<\/p>\n

We are not so presumptuous as to try to tell\u00a0photographers, journalists and news gatherers\u00a0how<\/em> to think about these bills.\u00a0 We urge you to do your own homework and run Google ragged in the process.\u00a0Come to your own conclusions. But here’s some food for thought (last one, we promise) – the worst damage any “eco-terrorist” can do short of murder, is to ruin a business financially. We know of at least a few thousand lawyers who could make a damn good argument as follows:\u00a0\u00a0a journalist\/photographer team doing an expose which ran in\u00a0a newspaper read by thousands,\u00a0on a farm selling tainted milk, helped put that farm out of business and thus committed an act of economic terrorism.\u00a0\u00a0It bears repeating that some of these bills criminalize the creation, possession and publication of images of such conditions even if taken from public property.<\/p>\n

Now if you should come to the conclusion that this is an outrageous,\u00a0“can’t make it up”, abridgement of the basic rights of the press and the people to be informed under (at least) The First Amendment to the United States Constitution, we think you might consider spending some time writing to your elected officials to\u00a0let them know your views –\u00a0immediately.\u00a0 If you disagree, then by all means return to this week’s episode of Kim and Kanye.<\/p>\n

Some stories for more background and info to look at:<\/p>\n

ABC News on blocking animal cruelty news\u00a0 http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/a28nzht<\/a><\/p>\n

Two States pushing Ag \u2013Gag laws\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/auofvfa<\/a><\/p>\n

Five More States seeking Ag Gag laws http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/ceewdd5<\/a><\/p>\n

Wave of \u2018Ag-Gag\u2019 Laws Aimed at Criminalizing Whistleblowers and Keeping Consumers in the Dark http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/cc7calt<\/a><\/p>\n

Hiding Factory Farm Abuses From Public Scrutiny http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/bkwq4gq<\/a><\/p>\n

Ag-Gag Whistleblower Suppression Legislation http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/bax6yd2<\/p>\n

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No matter what our individual menu preferences are\u00a0we think we can all agree that “Everybody’s gotta’ to eat”.\u00a0People can get sick from tainted food whether it be vegetable, fruit or animal.\u00a0 There are unsanitary dairy farms, cattle ranches, supermarkets, importers\u00a0and who doesn’t have their own personal\u00a0restaurant horror story.\u00a0In the interests of fair disclosure we are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-copyright-info"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=980"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":983,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/980\/revisions\/983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecopyrightzone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}