Today marks the debut of a media project I’ve been working on for a year with writer and historian James McWilliams: The Daily Pitchfork. It’s a web site specifically dedicated to bringing accuracy and context to the way media presents and analyzes animal issues. We will do this by showcasing the best animal journalism, constructively critiquing the rest, and providing the media with valuable resources to foster the most effective coverage.
Please hop on over and poke around. Our two debut features: “Grass-Fraud Beef” and “Misrepresenting Wild Horses At The New York Times,” are reviews of articles in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times that short-change readers on facts and relevant background, failing to disclose the extent of economic self-interest underlying the article’s main sources and their “information.”
The Times piece, in particular, stirred a large reaction among readers, many of whom shared with me their outreach to the Times over what it had gotten wrong. The Times’ refusal to make corrections on a deeply flawed story earned it an “F” from the Daily Pitchfork’s editors. The Wall Street Journal article earned a “D”.
If you’re wondering what we base our standards on, you’ll find them here.
We’ll be adding site features, notably a “subscribe” button and eventually, a deep database of experts, to help journalists get animal stories rights. Stay tuned—and our thanks for spreading the word.
Vickery Eckhoff 
It’s wonderful, Vickery! Well done and much appreciated. I hope it catches fire. I’m sending the link to Rachel Maddow and everyone on MSNBC in hopes they will begin a discussion on what is really happening on our public lands. They spoke a little about Clive Bundy and I thought that might open the door but, they seemed to totally miss the reason why it was all happening. I’ll try again. Thank you for all your efforts and I look forward to reading all your articles and sharing the info because I know your information is sound, along with Laura Leigh.
Thanks, Claudia. It would be great to get the media in on this discussion. Without that happening, little will change. But a little is what we are hoping for at this point.
This information is very much needed because very few of the newspaper articles are accurate. They write mostly second hand information that they picked up on the internet or google very few of them actually talk to both sides to really gather information that is important for the public about all of this. The rounding up to extinction of our mustangs how much of the population of the US actually know about this? Very few is my guess, how many of the public really know about horse slaughter? Again very few from what I have seen on Facebook and other sites. Most of the general public have never seen a horse up close and never ridden one so this is what you are dealing with.