On the occasion of Lynn Swann’s Pennsylvania gubernatorial defeat
From League of Fans, January 25, 2005:
Over the last 20 years, rates of obesity have doubled in children and tripled in teens and there is a nationwide movement against the junk food and vending machine industries for their roles in this epidemic. Lynn Swann was hired by the National Automatic Merchandising Association (NAMA) to help push a plan to place labels ranking the nutritional value of vending-machine products in an attempt to beat back efforts by parents and public health groups to curb the sale and marketing of junk food in public schools. This public relations ploy is called the Snackwise Nutrition Rating System and is being promoted as a “national campaign to fight childhood obesity.”
“A presidential appointee whose primary job is to promote physical fitness has no business cutting financial deals with an industry that is peddling junk food,” said Merrill Goozner of the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). “It is a gross conflict of interest. His job is to do just the opposite. His job is to get the junk food out of kids daily diets because it is a major contributor to childhood obesity which is growing at epidemic proportions in this country.”
“We knew that [Swann] was with the President’s Council,” NAMA spokesperson Jackie Clark said. “That matched our message very nicely. But Lynn Swann asked us not to mention his relationship because it would look like an endorsement from the President’s Council. And he is doing this as an individual.” But NAMA’s press advisory for the event identified him as the chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
Michael Jacobson, the executive director for CSPI, wrote a letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson to urge President Bush to fire Swann and to dismiss any other council members who take junk food money. “An appointment to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports is a great honor,” Jacobson wrote. “Surely we can reserve it just for those athletes and others who choose not to profit financially through affiliations with makers and distributors of junk foods.”
It is the position of League of Fans that schools should help parents promote health, fitness and good nutrition, rather than support junk food companies that target children with products high in added sugar and fat. School lunch programs should be fully funded and should make healthful food available to children. The marketing and sale of junk food should be prohibited on school property. We discourage sports personalities from paid endorsements for unhealthful products, especially for those marketed to children and those marketed in schools.
More Information:
Nutrition Watchdogs Urge Firing of Lynn Swann
Center for Science in the Public Interest – January 13, 2005
Michael Jacobson Wants Bush to Fire Lynn Swann
Corporate Crime Reporter – January 13, 2005
Guidelines for Marketing Food to Kids Proposed
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Childhood Obesity Prevention Agenda for States, Municipalities and School Boards
Commercial Alert
Parents’ Bill of Rights (PDF)
Commercial Alert
The Fast Food Trap: How Commercialism Creates Overweight Children
Gary Ruskin, Mothering – November/December 2003
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Episode #28 – League of Fans’ Sports Forum podcast: A Chat With Mano Watsa, a Leading Basketball and Life Educator – Watsa is President of PGC Basketball, the largest education basketball camp in the world, with over 150 camps in 30+ U.S. states and Canada. We discuss problems in youth sports today, including single sport specialization, the growing gap between the “haves” and “have-nots,” the high drop-out rate in competitive sports, and the growing mental health challenges young athletes are dealing with today.
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Media
"How We Can Save Sports" author Ken Reed appears on Fox & Friends to explain how there's "too much adult in youth sports."
Ken Reed appears on Mornings with Gail from KFKA Radio in Colorado to discuss bad parenting in youth athletics.
“Should College Athletes Be Paid?” Ken Reed on The Morning Show from Wisconsin Public Radio
Ken Reed appears on KGNU Community Radio in Colorado (at 02:30) to discuss equality in sports and Title IX.
Ken Reed appears on the Ralph Nader Radio Hour (at 38:35) to discuss his book The Sports Reformers: Working to Make the World of Sports a Better Place, and to talk about some current sports issues.
- League of Fans Sports Policy Director Ken Reed quoted in Washington Post column titled "What happened to P.E.? It’s losing ground in our push for academic improvement," by Jay Mathews
League of Fans is a sports reform project founded by Ralph Nader to fight for the higher principles of justice, fair play, equal opportunity and civil rights in sports; and to encourage safety and civic responsibility in sports industry and culture.
Vanderbilt Sport & Society - On The Ball with Andrew Maraniss with guest Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director for League of Fans and author of How We Can Save Sports: A Game Plan
Sports & Torts – Ken Reed, Sports Policy Director, League of Fans – at the American Museum of Tort Law
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