Boston Legal and BSE

[Big Muddy rancher]

Anybody see the show last night "Boston Legal" It was a real promo piece for BSE done up Hollywood style. I don't usually watch the show but wasn't much else on so sat with my daughter and cringed the whole show.
The AKC agility finals on later were much more fun to watch.

[Guest]

Could tell us what it was about?

[Tam]

I saw parts of it and it was about a Mayor of a small town that had banned the sale of beef in his town. He was taken to court to stop him from enforcing the law. During the trial they spoke about the USDA's rules to allow Canadian beef in to the US, the handling of the Washington cow and how she wasn't a downer even though the USDA said she was. And how the fact she was tested at all was a fluke. The human risk came into the play, it was all there like BMr said in Hollywood Style. The only good thing was the Judge ruled in favor of Candice Bergen and William Shater, the beef eating lawyers. He found they there wasn't any reason to rule to uphold the law on the fear that was around BSE and instead he ruled against the law in favor of the science that is KNOWN about BSE .

[Tommy]

[Murgen]

Sounds like a good, foreshadowing ending to me. Would the Mayor be R-calf in this fiction?

[Tam]

Tommy I realize this was only Hollywood but if people see this and start thinking about the BSE issue in the NEWS that is not Hollywood, they may come to the same conclusion that maybe the fear that R-CALF is feeding us is just ment to scare us and maybe we should take a closer look at the science of the issue instead of just believing their garbage.

[PPRM]

Actually, Boston Legal is one of my favorite shows. I didn't feel there was damage. I think the story showed they really had explored quite a bit. I saw the shows stars were argueing for the restaurant wanting to sell beef. If there were some issues we feel uncomfortable about, maybe it is a sign that we haven't answered all of the issues.

The Lawyers on the show basically brought up the inherent risks of everydaty life being greater than catching BSE, most of the negative reaction wa fear for the sake of fear. I also liked how Shattner portrayed the people against red meat as nansy pansies.

I had a burger after the show and then went to bed,


PPRM

[Big Muddy rancher]

Re: Boston Legal on ABC
| Main Index |

Posted by ~SH~ on Feb-14-05 4:48pm from 64.251.162.43
(In reply to: Boston Legal on ABC posted by SJS on Feb-14-05 10:53am)

SJS,

Yeh, I saw the program. In fact, Boston Legal is my favorite show which was preceded by "The Practice".

The verdict was in the favor of the retailer but anytime you create the negative image of BSE, we lose potential customers. Both sides of the argument were presented. The prosecution presented the emotional R-CALF type arguments and the defense presented the factual NCBA type arguments. The judge ruled with the defense.

The prosecution sounded like R-CALF with their BSE fear mongering about Cruetzfeld Jakob disease to keep the Canadian border closed.

USDA was accused of favoring special interest (cattlemen) over human health and safety by opening the Canadian border. Which was a self defeating argument and ironic considering R-CALF's suit that USDA is not doing enough to protect consumers.

A lot of research was conducted to write the script. The prosecution was critical of USDA for not being able to track all the cattle from the Washington cow.

I can assure you enough research was done that nobody tried to suggest that BSE was just a Canadian problem.

It was mentioned that Canada recently had 2 cases of BSE and USDA was still opening the border. A classic R-CALF argument.

In the end the judge ruled that there was no evidence to support the food safety allegation.

What the show revealed is how damaging any BSE fear mongering is to the U.S. cattle industry which is driven solely by beef consumption.


~SH~