Media portrayal of vegetarians?

I am not surprised at all. Veg*ns only make up about 2 or 3% of the population. It's easy to make fun of someone when you outnumber them about 50 to 1.

As far as the Don Imus thing, I don't even put it in the same category. We chose to be veg*ns... no one has the privilege of choosing their race. Making fun of someone for something they can not control is much worse than making fun of someone for a choice they made.

I wouldn't take the rants of shock jocks too seriously... my cousin called one up last week to volunteer to be punched in the face... they can't be too bright.

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I agree that it is always wrong. However, it just doesn't offend me the same way as someone angrily shouting, "N*****!" The difference is huge. I think racism is a bigger problem than people being uncomfortable with my diet.

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Bob... don't be a d***.

People often fear what they don't understand. Simply by others living a different lifestyle to theirs can often challenge a persons sense of ethos, not to mention ego.

As for the media, some shows only thrive when their is conflict and negativity. This is the same reason only people with a trailer trash story to tell will get on Jerry Springer regardless of whether it is really true or not. It seems veg*ns are an easy target because there is no high profile political figure to give them hell for doing so. I also believe veg*ns tend to be more peaceful and less likely to put up a fight even in the case of insult. The meek will inherit the earth

Personally I believe our greatest vote and influence is our dollar, and sadly so. But if we recognize this we can use this for good. By not buying meat and by supporting more compassionate industries like, organic, fair trade, no sweat, local where possible, alternative energy, etc we can make a very large difference.

When it comes to the media I would also encourage you to vote with you time. If a station like this is purposefully being offensive I'd write the station and demand a formal apology else you will take you listening ears else where.

Or if this more than you are willing to do only listen to the more intelligent shows. And as for the others, simply push the ignore button by turning the dial. At such times silence can be golden.

Many Blessings : )

For some reason, most Radio DJ's (and some talk show hosts) seem to have strong views without anything to back them up, and since they're controlling the show, they don't let the other side get an opinion. There's one specific DJ where I live who I can't stand, he hasn't bashed veg*ns yet, but he's said some pretty stupid things. Unfortunately, even if I could talk to him and explain to him why he's wrong based off facts, he'd probably just attack me and continue to believe his opinion. So I just ignore whatever he says because I've come to realize he's pretty much just an uninformed idiot. And obviously since your DJ doesn't even want to hear an educated opinion from the other side, he's just trying to get ratings/wants to rant/ has no intention of having a discussion/etc. All you can do is ignore him and educate people about veg*nism any other way you can. If you have a lot of other veggie friends in the area, maybe you can get together and set up an informational booth outside the radio station, for have a veg*an fair somewhere in town. There was a question on here once about a vegan group giving away free vegan food to the community. That would be a great way to show people that veg*an's eat great and don't just eat salad and carrot sticks.

Yes I agree with you about the media portrayal.

In the last year I have seen two news broadcasts on the topics of vegetarians.

One was about that poor baby that died who had the vegan parents (they blamed the death on veganism not child neglect, like it should have been.)

The second was about a local vegetarian restaurant which is owned by a Buddhist sect which some see as a cult. They were basically talking about brainwashing.

Online, I have come across numerous studies recently that have shown that vegetarian diets can significantly reduce the symptoms of Rheumatoid Arthritis. Did they say anything about it on the medical breakthroughs part of the news?...No!

Just last Monday, on a new show called "Unhitched" they portrayed a woman as being an animal rights supporter. They showed her and her animal rights friends protesting outside of a restaurant to liberate a lobster that was the restaurant namesake. The acted "protest" just looked dumb and I felt it portrayed vegetarians as being silly and ignorant.

Don Imus is an idiot. Everyone knows that. The person whose show you tried to call into is an idiot. We all know that now.

I could say, it's okay it doesn't matter what people think. But, NO, I'm pissed. Because when people (omnivores) constantly hear this banter they begin to side against us.

How can we break into the media corporations and shed some light on the regular, normal people who are vegetarians and vegans?

I'm with VeggieTart on this one. The comparison to slamming racial minorities isn't a great one. While we are being judged, often arbitrarily, for a small slice of our identities, I couldn't say we've suffered the same sort of injustices for it. If I was black someone interviewing me for a job would see that and, if they chose to apply their prejudices, I could end up unemployed because of it. If they had similar prejudices toward veg*ns, I might still end up with the job because they wouldn't have any way of knowing. I chose veg*nism and I can choose to conceal it also - it's just not really the same thing.

You're a highly intelligent woman, a helluva a persuasive writer and someone whose opinion I thoroughly respect here. We need to be attacking negative media protrayals at the source. Write the station manager. You're articulate and well-informed; I know you can craft a letter that will get their attention. It may not get you anywhere this time, but if we all stand up for ourselves in that way, eventually it will sink in that we're just not a group to be mocked.

That said, I do agree with you that the media goes out of its way to portray as as something well outside the norm. Your radio show was doing exactly what some of the trolls do here: accepting answers only from supporters and blocking anyone who would offer an informed, but differing opinion. It sucks but it's the reality we have to work with.

It's about ratings. Controversy equalls ratings. Half the time these guys don't even care or at least feel much less strongly than they make out- the ones that really are passionate about being psycho end up getting sacked because they are uncontrollable.

Remember that broadcasting is a very political career where everybody is playing roles and being nice here and nasty there and well practised at it. It is easy to find a skilled improviser who enjoys the attention of talkback radio to say controversial crap about whatever will get the phone calls coming in.

I'm more worried about the most famous vegans in the world being drug users like Woody Harrelson. He has great messages which are obscured by his televised admissions of drug use. It's hard to complain about the image painted on us when this is what people use to identify as a vego...

Pretty good dialogues and debates in answers , but what is the remedial measures ? Nothing . Has anyone takes to media or tell the radio programmer about the behaviour of their staff ? No no one. Vegetarians and vegans is the community as a whole on the planet , and surrounded or covered with their own thinking and opinions. Similarly the meat eaters have the logic as has been mentioned by the Ph.D in Nutritiation person with his own thoughts and logic. This is unended deabate. I feel there has to be stern action, but that is not possible

I can't help but think that people who slam vegans and vegetarians like that must feel threatened by them on some level. I kind of wonder if it's because being around veg*ns makes them almost question the rightness of their diet and lifestyle and they just can't handle it. You're right, though. The media portrayal of veg*ns is often blatantly false and unfair and something should be done about it. I'm tired of people spouting out misconceptions about veg*nism and portraying us all as hippies or nutcases. And I'm not at all surprised that they hung up on you. Like you said, the show was obviously biased, and from the sound of things, the show isn't exactly aimed at an intelligent or well-educated audience.

the media makes me laugh where i live in england. It continually incites hatred towards Islam, prints untrue stories that have been proved to be lies by Dispatches programmes by channel 4, segragates muslims as some kind of backwards religion and makes a huge and ridiculous deal out of anything that happens to do with a muslim in the least. It is a vile source of information and pretty much every stupid person believes it, including my own family members and also former friends. It brainwashes people into believing lies and God forbid it ever gives Islam a chance to explain. The west is so full of its ideas on 'freedom' and 'womens liberation'. i guess thats why we have an unbelievable amount of rapes and assaults on young girls and women, females being used to market products on their looks alone as well as the gross WAG culture that sends children as young as 10 into anorexia and no self esteem, oh yes, the west is brilliant at covering its own disgusting flaws and highlighting everyone elses. But then again its all about drinking as much as possible, having tonnes of unprotected sex and unplanned pregnancies, STD'S and handing out condoms to kids as young as 12 like candy bars. And then mocks Islam for forbidding these things? What a joke.

I think it depends on what media you are talking about. Mainstream North American media? Perhaps. People generally fear things they don't understand, and many people don't understand why people would avoid eating meat.

I remember listening to Dennis Leary's stand-up album, No Cure for Cancer, where he goes on a long (and remarkably funny) tirade about meat. At the time (mid 90s), I loved it, and said, yeah... I love meat! But much later, I went vegetarian for two years, and am slowly but surely working back to it today. Even bad press for veg*n lifestyles is still good press.

People look to gain their information through the media that reflect their own views. If people who hate vegetarians look for info on hating vegetarians, they'll find that, but if they're curious about reasons one might become vegetarian, they'll find a spectrum of information, and not all sources will be as boneheaded as that radio show.

Change by definition has to occur within people, and the media simply reflects the people. Don't hate on other people's opinions, even if they hate on yours.