Texas Cattlemen vs O. Whinfrey

A detailed Summary of Texas Cattlemen vs O. Whinfrey

On April 16, 1996, Oprah Winfrey featured former cattle farmer turned vegetarian activist, Howard Lyman, as part of the Humane Society's, Eating with Conscience Campaign. The topic was Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) which is very similar to mad cow disease. Only one month earlier the British Government had announced that 10 citizens were dead or dying from mad cow disease. The disease can lie dormant inside of a person for years, and would only be discovered when the victim began to experience Alzheimer's like symptoms. Lyman made a comparison between BSE and AIDS, then raised the possibility that a form of mad cow disease could exist in the U.S. Lyman also suggested that the practice of grinding up dead cattle and feeding it to other cows as a protein supplement in cattle feed might have contributed to a potential outbreak. Oprah was horrified by the possibility that something like this could exist right under our noses. She asked, "...you say this disease could make AIDS look like the common cold?" "Absolutely," Lyman responded. To which Oprah responded, "It has just st

What started out as a media scare that might have been more easily fixed, turned into a media frenzy that portrayed Oprah as the righteous victim of an attack on her civil liberties. So now not only do you have the easily startled masses afraid of your product, but they also think of you as the villain. Had they kept a cool head they would only have had the mad cow scare to deal with, instead they also had to manage image issues.

So what could the cattle ranchers have done to protect their image and reputation? They could have implemented a campaign to assure the public that their products were safe and disease free, rather than jumping the gun and going straight to court. A point by point analysis of Lyman's comments could have been made to refute the claims he made regarding the safety of beef. They could have challenged Lyman to public debates at a forum like Larry King Live. They might hire experts in the field to support their side and use the facts to refute the opinions that were expressed on the show. Or they could have even turned to their end-users, like fast food chai

Some common words found in the essay are:
Winfrey Lyman, Amarillo TX, King Live, Absolutely Lyman, BSE AIDS, British Government, Paul Engler, Oprah Winfrey, Encephalopathy BSE, Oprah Lyman, mad cow, cattle ranchers, mad cow disease, cow disease,

Approximate Word count = 733
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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