Bad Company III
For American Businessmen in the News,
the Defense Never Rests
 

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Glorious Fat, Dog Beer and Lawn Flamingos

     Running a huge, successful corporation that provides vital resources may get you abused on the nightly news, but if you make doggie beverages or lawn ornaments, your chances of good coverage are better. Here are a few of the most outlandish stories about businessmen and women in 2006.

     The media have decried fatty foods, as NBC’s chief medical editor Dr. Nancy Snyderman did on October 30 when she called fat “the new tobacco.” But maybe that’s just big-business fat? Another story earlier in the year had praised a high-fat product from a small business.

     “Finally tonight, in this era of mass-produced food, one woman who is making her better butter one pound at a time,” said ABC’s Jim Avila June 24. Reporter Bob Jamieson gushed, “Diane and her cows produce butter – butter like none found in the supermarket. And for her it’s not a job, it’s a passion.”

     “This time of year, the churn produces glorious yellow high-fat butter,” Jamieson said, adding, “If the future, as many believe, is bland, inexpensive factory food, Diane St. Clair wants to live in the past.”

     Avila rejoined, “And how could that be bad for you?”

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     If you were looking for an excuse to toss back a few with man’s best friend, you should have caught the “CBS Evening News” February 5 report on Happy Tail Ale, one businesswoman’s new beer for dogs.

     Jamie Miller discovered by accident that Koddy, her dog, loved beer, “but beer [didn’t] love dogs,” John Blackstone reported. “So on her kitchen stove, Miller brewed up a recipe for dog beer, no alcohol but a hint of beef to give it some bite.”

     The Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, even picked up some of the new beer – “Proof, if any,” Blackstone affirmed, “that even the strong can weaken when it comes to their dogs.”

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     It’s everyone’s favorite kitschy lawn ornament: the pink flamingo. But what happens when the flamingo factory shuts down? “NBC Nightly News” wanted you to know they won’t be going extinct.

     In a November 1 story, Bob Faw journeyed to the flamingo plant that was shutting down after cranking out 5,000 flamingo pairs a day.

     Anchor Brian Williams explained, “They may not qualify as wildlife, but as birds go, the pink flamingo is as much a fixture in the American wild, or at least the American suburbs, as any other animal, real or manufactured.”

     Several companies were in negotiations to buy the “flamingo molds,” so Faw still ended with this song: “When the sun hangs low in a ruby sky, some will always go where flamingos fly.”