Center for Consumer Freedom

Last night, CBS TV newsmagazine 60 Minutes re-ran its April profile of the Center for Consumer Freedom's Executive Director. Unsurprisingly, the viewer response -- just like the first time around -- has been overwhelmingly positive, as anti-food-fascist Americans are flooding the 60 Minutes message board and our feedback section with signs of support for our freedom-of-choice mission. Some of our favorites:

• “I'm glad to know there is someone in Washington standing up against the ‘nannies.’”
• “It is about time someone decided to help Americans to become responsible for their own actions.”
• “I don't smoke, I'm not obese, I'm American. I want the right to eat what I want...”
• "You are so right. America has turned into a governed state.”

The gist of the piece is that our fearless leader-- affectionately nicknamed “Dr. Evil” by our nanny nemeses -- is fighting back against the legislators, health activists, and food-purity fanatics bent on controlling the nation’s diet. He summed up our mission quite nicely, telling 60 Minutes correspondent Morley Safer: 

If the government is truly interested in my health and welfare, I'm appreciative of it. But, I think I can take care of myself… [Activists] create this Chicken Little mentality that the sky is falling over everything. You know, the latest study says this, the latest study says that. And they drive the government to satisfy that artificial public need … I don't think that the other side should be allowed to talk and the response be intimidated into submission or silence.

Of course, we’ve got some critics, not least of whom is Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) president Michael Jacobson. Safer gave Jacobson a chance to speak for the other side in the food-freedom debate. But instead of providing, say, an evidence-based critique of our positions, Jacobson simply regurgitated his condescending talking points, reinforcing our suspicion that he and CSPI are just power-hungry pleasure-phobes who enjoy telling other people how to live.