VegNews is one of the most popular forms of journalism in the vegetarian and vegan communities. Their magazine has been in print for an impressive 11 years and is on shelves in many big stores. VegNews runs great articles on all things plant-based, featuring recipes and interviews with people making strides, as well as running huge contests to showcase the best vegan companies. What an amazing magazine you might say, and I agree, but unfortunately many vegans have turned their backs on VegNews due to some disturbing news.
Last week VegNews was exposed for using stock photos of meat in their magazine and photoshopping them to look like vegan food. To a journalist this might seem like a big deal, but to vegetarians this is unacceptable. Fans and subscribers of the magazine were outraged and felt betrayed because VegNews hid this from them and was in a way financially supporting the meat industry by buying the photos. And to make matters worse, they didn't apologize for it...until yesterday.
A letter (which you can read here) came almost immediately from the VegNews team but did not use the words "sorry" or "apologize" and many people felt like they weren't owning up to the issue and were making excuses. After thousands of emails, blog comments, and social media messages, VegNews finally gave what everyone was asking for: an apology letter (read it here).
To some, this entire ruckus may seem absurdly trivial in the grand scheme of things, and I agree. In fact, I was so saddened by the ordeal and all the strong negative reactions that I wrote an article on Eco-Vegan Gal addressing my feelings, which you can read here. Regardless, it's important that all companies do things with integrity and transparency, and this incident has reminded everyone of that.
Whitney Lauritsen is a filmmaker, environmentalist, and vegan who promotes healthy living on her site www.ecovegangal.com. She shares tips on how to be kind to your body and the earth via video, photography, and writing. You can find her talking about being healthy and green on Twitter and Facebook
Anil Kapur
said on April 19, 2011
It is good to see VegNews make the right steps by apologizing and also listening to their readers.