Thread by @TheCounter

#THREAD: This weekend, @SmithfieldFoods ran a full-page ad in newspapers across the country to defend its handling of the Covid-19 crisis.

Among other clever turns of phrase, the company invoked Teddy Roosevelt to accuse its “critics”—namely the media—of “perpetuating a false narrative about the company.”

(2/12)

Without specifics, Smithfield claimed it adopted “aggressive measures” to protect the health of its employees during the pandemic, making it the latest company to tout its workplace safety accomplishments in a nationwide ad.

(3/12)

As @samkbloch reports, this form of reputation-bolstering consumer outreach is a fixture of the pandemic. But Smithfield’s ad was notable for surpassing self-promotion: Its amounted to a pointed attack on the media. thecounter.org/consumer-group…

(4/12)

Reporting has focused on meatpackers’ role in the spread of Covid-19, the company wrote, “because stories that create controversy and cast blame are more effective in garnering viewers or clicks,” and help “advance their activist agenda.”

(5/12)

In other words, @SmithfieldFoods is claiming that press reports irresponsibly exaggerate the role meatpackers play in spreading Covid-19, overplaying the risks their business model poses to employees.

But is that criticism, itself, objective?

(6/12)

In its response to an investigation by Senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren, Smithfield said it had tens of millions on PPE, outfitting “every single worker” with masks and face shields before CDC recommended doing so on 04/26.

media.socastsrm.com/wordpress/wp-c…

(7/12)

But reporting from @JessTiaFu found that, as of April, the company was still observing basic safety practices, while avoiding sophisticated tools like contact tracing.
bit.ly/318cMSw

“I don’t feel safe,” an employee of Smithfield’s Crete, NE plant told The Counter.

Meanwhile, OSHA, the agency in charge of overseeing the health and safety of America’s workforce, has issued only temporary, optional safety guidelines for meatpackers, which puts enforcement and accountability in company hands. thecounter.org/covid-19-osha-…

(9/12)

The latest, thx to our friends @FERNnews cc: @leahjdouglas: 52,485 workers (39,056 meatpacking workers, 7,908 food processing workers, & 5,521 farmworkers) have tested positive. At least 222 workers (174 meatpacking workers, 34 food processing workers, & 14 farmworkers) died.

We’ve repeatedly asked #Smithfield to characterize the nature of the false narratives it claims have been lobbied against it by the media, including a request for specifics on caseloads and deaths today.

(11/12)

If you insist “the critics who are first and fastest to point the finger typically have little knowledge of the facts,” we amplify @TedGenoways @jayfug @LisaKaczke @marionnestle and others: @SmithfieldFoods, invite us in to get the facts right(er).

(12/12)