Anti-factory farming rhetoric is all the rage on the left, so when the USDA announced changes to its inspection for the first time since 1957, liberal outrage was sure to follow.
Al Jazeera America devoted most of an episode of “The Stream” to criticism of the changes on Aug. 20. And the left-wing slant of that episode about USDA changes to poultry inspections was predictable, given the personal views of host Lisa Fletcher.
Lisa Fletcher
By Julia A. Seymour | August 27, 2014 | 11:18 AM EDT
By Brad Wilmouth | March 31, 2009 | 10:29 AM EDT
On the March 28 World News Saturday, ABC gave rare attention to the plight of drought-stricken farmers in California who have been denied access to a major water supply by a judge citing the Endangered Species Act to protect a type of fish. During a story recounting the unusual level of problems facing these farmers – a recession coinciding with drought – correspondent Lisa Fletcher informed viewers: "And for the first time ever, farmers may be completely cut off from one of their sources of water. Farmers don't have access to this water that runs right through the center of their farmland. It is being allocated to the delta smelt, a little fish protected by the Endangered Species Act. Conservationists say the smelt are dying in the irrigation pumps, so a judge ruled they must be shut off for much of the growing season."
By Scott Whitlock | September 9, 2008 | 5:26 PM EDT
ABC reporter Lisa Fletcher interviewed friends of Sarah Palin for a segment on Monday's "Nightline" and grilled them on whether a "small town mom" will be able to "sit down with Putin and deal with foreign issues?" Fletcher, who herself was a small town reporter before joining ABC in December of 2007, mostly avoided friendly queries and instead grilled the Alaskan friends of the Republican vice presidential candidate.
At one point she asked pal Sandy Hoest, "She's spent less than two years as the governor of Alaska. Why should Americans have any confidence whatsoever that this woman can fulfill the duties of vice president of the United States?" Later on, the journalist challenged, "Is it possible to be pro-choice and vote for Sarah Palin?" When a few of Palin's friends identified themselves as pro-choice, Fletcher pounced, "Does that put a strain on your friendship with Sarah?"