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Trying (and failing) to justify media treatment of mcdonald'sand carrefour by ferujkll sdff
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Trying (and failing) to justify media treatment of mcdonald'sand carrefour by FERUJKLL SDFF
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| Article Posted: 06/22/2012 |
| Article Views: 92 |
| Articles Written: 2023 - MORE ARTICLES FROM THIS AUTHOR |
| Word Count: 850 |
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Trying (and failing) to justify media treatment of mcdonald'sand carrefour |
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Business,Business News,Business Opportunities
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Global Times tried it, in an editorial by "Doug Young" that was run yesterday. Although there was one good point made,the editorial on the whole was a spectacular fail, albeit in thebest traditions of Global Times . I'm sure we all appreciate the effort. Just for the record, I wrote about the media attention McDonald's and Carrefour received during the Consumer RightsDay holiday, which included some investigative journalism thatuncovered dodgy practices, including selling expired food that wasdeliberately mislabeled.
My feeling here is that: 1) thesecompanies have to take the hit for these practices; 2) the mediadid target them because they are foreign companies; and 3) at theend of the day, "media fairness" is kind of irrelevant.It's just a cost of doing business here, and foreigninvestors simply have to deal with it. OK, on to the Op/Ed. Here's the issue: Chinese media have set their sights on big Western names in anational drive to improve food safety, targeting high-profilecompanies like McDonalds and Wal-Mart for relatively smalloffenses. Some may say this approach is unfair because many ofthese big names have much better records than their Chinesecounterparts. Actually, I haven't really read too much written aboutfairness.
(On a side note, when my earlier post was run on Business Insider , it carried a headline (that I didn't write) suggesting thatI indeed thought the whole thing was unfair and that the claimsagainst the companies were "trumped up." If you readthe post, that wasn't my point at all.) But let's go there anyway. Is it unfair that companies aretargeted by the media just because they are foreign? On its face,the answer is obvious. Why would it ever be fair to do so? AsForest Gump would say, I don't have anything else to sayabout that right now. The thing is, the author of the Op/Ed doesn't actuallyaddress the foreign vs. domestic question anyway.
The justificationventures into other territory, such as the large size of thesecompanies: By going after such big global names and avoiding smaller players,Chinese media are taking a smart approach for two reasons. Such bignames have abundant resources and experience handling these kindsof crises, with strong public relations and quality control teamsthat can quickly take action and bolster consumer confidence,resulting in only minor damage to their public image. Hold on a second. The media should pick and choose their targetsbased on their resources and PR teams? That's downrightfunky, although I suppose it at least has the advantage of beingobjective! And, bless their journo hearts, if they only go afterthe big boys, then the reputational damage will be minimized.
Isn't that nice? Journalists should make story choices based,in part, on the damage done to their targets. I'm gladWoodward and Bernstein didn't adopt that ethos in the early1970s. This also assumes that large companies have some sort ofmagic ability to withstand public criticism. I wonder if MikeDaisey believes that? Targeting the big names also has the advantage of quickly grabbingnational headlines, not only spreading awareness, but serving as ahigh-profile warning to many smaller restaurants and grocery storechains.
This is the one statement that I agree with. It still might not be"fair" to only go after the big boys, but if thestandard is to grab the readers' attention, then certainly aname like McDonald's is going to get the job done. Whetherthat "spreads awareness" and warns the small guys,well, that sounds like wishful thinking. In a country where unemployment is a big issue, targeting smallernames could not only be ineffective from a public relationsstandpoint but also economically risky as many of these chainscould easily be forced to close – costing thousands of jobs– if they came under the similar spotlight.
Two issues here. First, is he saying that the journos should beworried about a PR backlash in the event their stories cause acompany to go under? Again, I don't think that they teachthat at Columbia. Second, if McDonald's profits take a hitbecause they have to close a few stores for several weeks, I thinkthe unemployment consequences would be more severe than if a couplesmall stores were shuttered. The thing is, large companies hire alot of people and end up firing them when things go south. If all this wasn't lame enough, this is what we're leftwith as a summing up: The big name global chains most certainly aren t happy about thehigh degree of scrutiny they receive in China, but probably realizethey can also serve as important examples to tackle and raiseawareness of the important food safety issue.
I could be way off here, but somehow I don't think thateither McDonald's or Carrefour sees it that way. And while Idon't think that anyone at either company is losing sleepover the unfairness of the whole thing (multinational executivestend to be realists), somehow I doubt that they are basking incivic pride at their contribution to food quality awareness. I am a professional writer from Routers, which contains a great deal of information about self seal pouch , spa pedicure chairs, welcome to visit!
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