Foxed again

Apr 27 2009 by Derek Torres Print This Article

You can always count on Fox News to argue the inarguable or to make unreasonable extrapolations. For instance, last week they tried to compare the link between obesity and global warming to a rampage against fat people in the workplace. Sigh, if only. Where to start?

Let's not even give credence to the mocking of any notion that obese people might indulge activities that aren't good for the planet. Smoking isn't good for you, who will dispute that? Obesity isn't much better for you – so why the problem with fighting these issues in the workplace? Isn't it the truth that we spend a good portion of our day – indeed the majority of our functioning hours at the office? What better place to advocate good health practices?

Fox's weird comparison of two equally big problems in modern health – and then denigration of them as if smoking or obesity aren't problems – is simply ridiculous. Fox gives the impression that such issues are none of the workplace's business. It's our American birthright to be fat and smoke – that's freedom! I bet that proponents of such thinking feel that the federal government is intruding upon our lives.

Regardless, I can't speak to whether or not obesity has any affect on global warming, that's for people much smarter than me to decide, but to associate anti-smoking and obesity campaigns in the workplace are somehow a war against the common man is not only ridiculous, it's making a bad problem worse.

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