Today in class we were introduced to lobbyist, Rick Berman. Berman is very similar to the character Nick Naylor from Thank You for Smoking in that they both are trying to advocate for things that are known to be bad for people. We saw 2 interviews today where Rick was asked about his job and about the nonprofit websites that he published. In the second interview the reporter was asking why Berman doesn't reveal who his non profit benefactors are but he refuses to answer. Legally, he cannot provide the names of the companies but he continues to bring up that many leftists don't reveal their benefactors either. To me, it seems like he's just trying to make an enemy of the left side and those who oppose his beliefs.
While I agree that it is important to question these controversial topics, I don't believe this mentality of "find out for yourself" is a good tactic. Berman made the argument that eating fish while pregnant isn't bad for women as we have been told. However, with this mentality of "finding out for yourself" women put themselves at risk of contamination with bacteria and salmonella. This mentality to any kind of controversial topic (like smoking, eating trans fats, etc.) could lead to unhealthy outcomes.
I personally, don't find him at all convincing and see his arguments to be complete fluff. I believe that he likes to be devil's advocate because he likes the attention and the money that he is being paid. It is not just him, but everyone in his position. Everyone should be looking out for the people and looking out for their best interest. People like Berman are the ones promoting unhealthy practices and causing things like smoking rates to increase because people start to believe that it is not all that bad and they "need to find out for themselves".
While I agree that it is important to question these controversial topics, I don't believe this mentality of "find out for yourself" is a good tactic. Berman made the argument that eating fish while pregnant isn't bad for women as we have been told. However, with this mentality of "finding out for yourself" women put themselves at risk of contamination with bacteria and salmonella. This mentality to any kind of controversial topic (like smoking, eating trans fats, etc.) could lead to unhealthy outcomes.
I personally, don't find him at all convincing and see his arguments to be complete fluff. I believe that he likes to be devil's advocate because he likes the attention and the money that he is being paid. It is not just him, but everyone in his position. Everyone should be looking out for the people and looking out for their best interest. People like Berman are the ones promoting unhealthy practices and causing things like smoking rates to increase because people start to believe that it is not all that bad and they "need to find out for themselves".
I feel that in the second video with the young lady there was a lot of questions not answered because the lady that was interviewing Rick Berman could not progress in her interview because she was stuck on one question. Why are you not revealing who are the non profit benefactors? Because Rick Berman could not reveal his benefactors, that was the main topic of the interview when in fact the main point of this interview was to gather information on the many websites that his name popped up on and if the information was provided by a specialist .These answer were somewhat answer but not to my satisfaction.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I feel like Rick Berman is feeding the media a bunch of lies for his own profit, I do believe he handled himself in a professional way. The lady who was interviewing him, in my opinion, was very unprofessional because she kept interrupting Rick, especially when he wouldn't disclose who his benefactors are. I may not agree with Rick, but at least he stayed professional.
ReplyDeleteI do see why a lot of people wouldn't agree with Rick Berman. He does support a company that sells products that are awful for your health, but at the same time it is his job and if he didn't do it then they would just find someone else. Everyone has to make a living somehow and if it means coming down to promoting cigarettes then that's just what you have to do. I also do think that he handled himself very professional rather than the interviewer.
ReplyDeleteI feel like a lot of people don't like Rick Berman but this is his job and he gets paid to do the things he do. So regardless if he is not satisfying others he is still getting paid for what he tells the world. Do I agree with everything he does? No but at the end of the day he is good at what he does and NOBODY is going to stop him. He is definitely respectful in different ways and knows how to handle things when it gets hard, when people don't like what he says and he is going to say it in the calmest way possible.
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