Weekend Diversion: Night Of The Ponies
Pedway, First Store Open At Block 37
Around Town
Around Town
Red-Light Cameras Not So Special?
We were downtown at work yesterday when a co-worker said "What's with the protest outside? There's someone chanting for justice or something." Knowing from the "Saturday Plans" post that The Lady herself, Paula Deen was appearing, this was a head-scratcher. Who could be so upset at a TV chef? Besides the obvious, of course.
Well, fans of Food Network's favorite Southern mother probably showed up at the Chicago Theater Saturday expecting the use of a lot of butter and cream, an overemphasized southern accent, multiple references to her sons and maybe some cooking in there somewhere. What they weren't expecting was a protest from the Justice at Smithfield Campaign.
Deen is the spokesperson for Smithfield Foods, the worlds largest pork producer. You might have a Smithfield turkey in your fridge right now - they're the country's fourth largest processor of the bird. Smithfield Foods has also been accused of multiple human rights and working condition violations by the United Food and Commercial Workers union. Read more of their charges here.
Protests of the ever-ebullient Deen have followed her wherever she goes - on November 2nd they rallied at a stop in DC. It's not just her position as spokesperson for Smithfield that has the UFCW cheesed off at her. She's pledged on Larry King Live to meet with the workers to hear their complaints, but as yet hasn't made any effort to do so. Watching the above video, it's hard to see her as feeding us anything but the company line. Which is, of course, her job.
Image from Smithfield Justice.com.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Chicagoist, thanks for sharing that info, because I didn't know about this situation. We as consumers need to stand with the little guys against these greedy cooperations...and by Paula not talking with the workers as she promised, she's now comes across as a liar and sell out.
Man that chick is creepy. And why are her two sons on every show, don't they work?
@matty:
They DO work-- for her. I think they are like CEO, and COO of her company.
And I think it is dumb to punish spokespeople for a company's mistakes. They pay her to endorse their product, not their standards. Whatever. People will protest anything.
Actually (and god help me for even knowing this), they run her Georgia restaurants.
They also have a Food Network show of their own called Road Tasted, which is actually one of the more entertaining shows on that network. (Is it still on?)
But yeah, her overdone accent really drives me nuts. "Hey yawl, ain't this romantical?" Shut the fuck up.
"They" meaning her sons, Bobby and Jamie.
The real tragedy is the fact that Paula's cooking is for shock value only. The fat content just adds to the freak factor of it. Now Ina Garten can cook. Her copious amounts of sugar & fat are justified by the fact her food is quite good.
I love Barefoot Contessa. Paula is just... scary. I saw her make pumpkin cheesecake on a show this weekend and she said "this is almost like a diet cake, since I'm only putting in a cup and a half of sugar." No pumpkin cheesecake is ever going to be diet.
I can't watch Barefoot Contessa, she gives me the creeps. She's a cross between Martha Stewart and Kathy Bates from Misery.
Better than Kathy Bates from About Schmidt.
They pay her to endorse their product, not their standards. Whatever. People will protest anything.
That's quite a mental leap there, to come to that conclusion.