Labeling Columnists

New York Times food blogger Mark Bittman recently called for a traffic light-type label for foods (My Dream Food Label, Oct. 13). In response, HOTH proposes a label for columnists.

Like Bittman’s, the label would use a color system. Red would be for conservative columnists, blue for liberal writers and yellow, of course, would be for columnists who use sensationalism and distortion.

This would allow readers “to make truly enlightened decisions” about the columns they read, letting them know how much stock to put in a column written, for example, by a “yellow” journalist who touts organic produce as somehow safer than conventionally grown produce or who believes the welfare of pigs raised outdoors and exposed to the elements and diseases is better than the ones raised in clean, climate-controlled barns.

HOTH realizes such a label system for columnists, like Bittman’s food labels, might destroy jobs and people’s lives, but let’s not quibble with details. Readers have a right to know.