Oprah on Proposition 2

Oprah's show yesterday dealt with California's Proposition 2, a ballot initiative aimed at giving egg-laying hens ample space to spread their wings.

Although it was easy to tell that she felt passionately about the issue, I found the show level headed and balanced. As expected, animal rights activists faulted her for giving equal time to industrial farmers and for failing to point out that it's not simply a choice between industrial and free range meat: one can also stop eating meat altogether.

I thought it was brave of her to do the show, especially after the lawsuit over her 1996 Mad Cow Disease show. Perhaps she set a deliberately restrained tone because of that earlier experience. The farmers she interviewed who did confine their animals didn't come from massive, industrial farms, but rather from medium-size, family run operations. They also tended to not be particularly smooth speakers, and both of these considerations made me feel more sympathetic to them, although I'm certainly on Oprah's side of the debate.

I do think that this kind of even handed piece can go a long way to changing people's minds and hearts, perhaps even more so than some of the more disturbing, charged material.