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VegNews pisses off vegans everywhere
Thanks to a mouse at wank_report for this!

VegNews is "an award-winning vegan magazine and website packed with recipes, travel, news, food, reviews, and so much more."

"So much more" apparently means stock photos of meat used to illustrate vegan recipes. Comments are posted, comments are deleted, and users are banned when they point out that using photos of meat (some of them poorly photoshopped to remove bones) seems contrary to the tenets of the magazine.

“Thank you for your interest in VegNews. However, your inappropriate and mean-spirited commenting has violated the policy of VegNews, and we have and will continue to remove any future comments. Please know that we welcome constructive criticism from all viewpoints, and rarely unpublish comments from readers. Should you have any constructive feedback, feel free to email me directly. I’d love to hear from you.”

People are extremely not happy. (But their wanking is done in the most non-violent, humane way possible.)

VegNews posts a non-apology. Surprise, surprise, it doesn't go over well.

(Gothamist's closing line about this debacle is priceless: "Should VegNews change its name to CarnNews, was their apology enough, or is this all just much tofu about nothing?")

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the__ivorytower
2011-04-15 11:57 pm UTC (link)

When I was telling my boyfriend about this, apparently on Discovery some years back they had a neat thing about how the food for that kind of thing is made. It's usually plastic, or Crisco with food colouring, varnish, paint and the like.

In Canada, however, this is illegal, and when you are seeing images on menus and the like, the food *had* to have been real at some point. Which means the food looks less good, but it's real.

/themoreyouknow

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	bienegold 2011-04-16 12:19 am UTC (link)
	I think it was one of Food Network's chintzy competitions, but there was one with food styling and it was both fascinating and totally gross. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	argylespy 2011-04-16 12:57 am UTC (link)
	That was the first thing I thought of when I saw this! Seconding the fascinating but totally gross assessment. And I always thought it was hilarious that, if I remember right, only one or two of the four contestants had been actual chefs at one point in their careers. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	risha 2011-04-16 12:24 am UTC (link)
	The obvious question, of course, is what prompted them to pass such a law. A similar scandal? Keeping the chefs employed? Moral objections to mashed potato ice cream? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	the__ivorytower 2011-04-16 12:32 am UTC (link)
	I honestly don't know. I also know when we have parodied news, we have to have clear warnings that it is comedy, or it's after a certain time of day. We're weird. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	cmdr_zoom 2011-04-16 01:24 am UTC (link)
	That's just sensibly acknowledging Poe's Law - that without disclaimers, it would be very difficult if not impossible to tell the deliberate jokes from the actual jokes that pass for politics, etc. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	the__ivorytower 2011-04-16 01:25 am UTC (link)
	I know some people who think Colbert is serious. I don't know what to say. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sepiamagpie 2011-04-16 01:57 am UTC (link)
	Especially with Canadian politics. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sandglass 2011-04-16 11:24 pm UTC (link)
	Probably was just part of a truth in advertising law/group of laws. Which America really, really, really needs. Remember a while ago when the US wanted to make it illegal for dieting companies to lie about the results? They'd have to show the actual, typical results and not just say, "Results not typical". That sort of thing. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	visp 2011-04-16 12:50 am UTC (link)
	Yay, Canada! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	kookaburra 2011-04-16 05:26 am UTC (link)
	I saw that one! The meat was real, but it was totally raw, they burned it with a butane torch and special "grill mark" stamps to get it to look cooked. The droplets of water on the side of cold beverage glasses were glycerin. The ice cream was margarine, and the strawberries were unripe green ones with lipstick on to make them shiny. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	chibikaijuu 2011-04-17 06:09 am UTC (link)
	I'm pretty sure in the US, if you are advertizing a food product, the product itself has to be real. That doesn't mean that anything else in the shot does, though, or that it can't be heavily altered, just at some point, it has to have actually been the product being advertized. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	vzg 2011-04-18 03:21 am UTC (link)
	Maybe in certain parts of the US, but I'm fairly certain that most images of burgers from big name chains you see on television and in commercials aren't real. Or, if they are, there are a whole lot of non-food products plastered on them. I've never seen a burger from a fast food place that looks anything like the ads. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	chibikaijuu 2011-04-18 04:09 am UTC (link)
	The burgers have to be real, I'm fairly certain, but they can then be glued and shellacked and painted and propped up and sprayed with whateverthefuck to make them look prettier. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	lady_ganesh 2011-04-19 02:34 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, that's how I remember it too. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	vzg 2011-04-18 03:24 am UTC (link)
	One more reason to move to Canada! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

the__ivorytower
2011-04-18 03:34 am UTC (link)

Speaking of Canada, I live in Southern Ontario (Hamilton Mountain, specifically), and would you like to know what weather we've had today?

- Sun.
- Rain.
- Wet snow.
- Actual snow.
- HAIL
- Sun
- Some kind of thunderstorm, we heard thunder twice
- Rain
- MORE HAIL

And it finally cleared up when we were having our usual Sunday BBQ. Welcome to Canada: if you don't like the weather, wait five minutes.

*wanders off, muttering*

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	vzg 2011-04-18 04:29 am UTC (link)
	I am okay with unpredictable weather! At least I makes things interesting. ~~Okay the rain would probably bother me, but I could deal.~~ Too bad the career I hope to start keeps me in the states! ...also lack of money. And hey, at least it cleared up for the barbecue! See, even the weather is polite! (Reply to this)(Parent)

	bcaluroso 2011-04-20 10:29 pm UTC (link)
	That's okay. I live in California, and you know what weather we've had recently? -Sun -Sun -Sun -Sun -Sun -Sun -Sun -Sun -Sun -Sun -Sun -Sun -Surprise surprise, even more sun. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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