SLEEPING GIANT AWAKES?

Could the complacent media that have for so long rubber-stamped the outlandish claims of the meat and dairy industries finally be rousing themselves from their stupor and looking at these commercial campaigns for what they are? Two of the latest initiatives are getting a less than ringing endorsement. The cattlemen's "Cool 2 Be Real" site, an attempt to stem the tide of vegetarianism among young girls, has been met with snickers and even outright guffaws - for example, this pithy Salon description: "This is an I-got-a-cow-to-sell-ya sales job that insults the intelligence of the average 12-year-old." And the Dairy Council's 3-A-Day program mentioned earlier is being fought hardest not by PETA and PCRM but by the National Cancer Institute, along with the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Association, with even the New York Times asking in its headline, "For Your Health or Their Business?" Well, duh. Kind of a rhetorical question - but at least they're asking.