On Tuesday night, British chef Jamie Oliver premiered the second season of his obesity-fighting show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. But, things didn't go as planned. Since the Los Angeles school system refused to submit to Oliver's "transparency" demands, he opted to work with a local burger joint. And ratings plummeted, with the premiere down nearly 40 percent from last season. Meanwhile, online commentators are starting to question Oliver's methods, saying they infringe on personal freedom. Do they really?
Yes, he takes it too far: While "I'm actually a big fan of Jamie Oliver's," the tone of the premiere, and maybe the entire show, "really irk[s] the hell out of me," says Chez Pazienza in The Huffington Post. I don't think Oliver's "condescendingly castigat[ing]" the owner of an independent burger joint for having the gall to serve milkshakes instead of smoothies is really helping America's obesity crisis. There's "something decidedly draconian about pushing to reflexively relieve us of our freedom of choice when it comes to what we eat," even if his motives are good.
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