Although I am a former newspaper reporter and magazine editor, I am not an online media critic (although I have my opinions).
But it gets my attention that the New York Times has recently run a Style-section photo piece on waterfowling shotguns, another business story on ammunition marketing, and today a straightforward piece on Long Island's first public turkey hunt.
The cooking of wild turkeys is also acknowledged.
Is the "mainstream media" starting to mainstream hunting and shooting just a little?
UPDATE: In her comment, Holly Heyser points to yet another piece about foodies-turned-hunters. It's a trend for sure!
You bet it is. NYT has a reporter who's regularly doing hunting stories (Michael Brick). My local paper - the Sacramento Bee - is also showing way more openness to the idea that hunting has value (which is nice because they pay me to write about it from time to time).
ReplyDeleteI personally think the slow food/sustainable food movement has a lot to do with it - the media can see that plenty of ethical people who care about the environment and their health are hunting for their food.
Conversely, have you seen the latest Field & Stream? There's a huge spread on high-end food from wild game, with contributions from lots of chefs (and yes, my boyfriend too).
And I almost hate to use this word, but I'm going to anyway: I think we're seeing some gentrification here. I just hope it doesn't come with the usual backlash. I have seen it once or twice - most notably in response to an SF Chronicle story about a group of foodies becoming hunters. Some hunter trashed them in the comments section online - ridiculed their hunting and their motives, which was utterly unhelpful.
And speak of the devil, here's a NYT story today about foodie hunters, quoting (among others) the SF group.
ReplyDeleteVery interesting, Holly.
ReplyDeleteThree stories--it must be a trend!