Michelle Obama Pens Newsweek Cover Story
ABC News’ Yunji de Nies reports:Michelle Obama has landed another magazine cover – not for fashion, but for her Let’s Move! initiative. The First Lady wrote the cover story for next week’s Newsweek. The March 22nd magazine cover shows the First Lady with an apple and title “Feed Your Children Well: My Fight Against Childhood Obesity.” Her article touches on familiar themes from her recent speeches on the topic – centering on idea that adults, not kids, need to take charge of this problem.She writes, “And let's be honest with ourselves: our kids didn't do this to themselves. Our kids don't decide what's served in the school cafeteria or whether there's time for gym class or recess. Our kids don't choose to make food products with tons of sugar and sodium in supersize portions, and then have those products marketed to them everywhere they turn. And no matter how much they beg for fast food and candy, our kids shouldn't be the ones calling the shots at dinnertime. We're in charge. We make these decisions.”The First Lady says the solution to childhood obesity rests not with a bill from Congress or executive order from her husband, but “Instead, it's about what all of us can do to help our kids lead active, healthy lives: parents making healthier choices for their families; mayors and governors doing their part to build healthier cities and states; and the private sector doing its part as well—from food manufacturers offering healthier options to retailers understanding that what's good for kids and families can be good for businesses too.”Tomorrow, she’ll address the Grocery Manufacturers Association, whose members may all not be keen on the kind of changes the First Lady wants. Her article in Newsweek is timely – on Wednesday she joins the magazine in a Q and A forum called "Challenges and Ways to Promote Health and Wellness in America's Communities” at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
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Why didn’t she tackle teenage pregnancy?
Posted by: MichelleIndependent | March 15, 2010, 8:27 pm 8:27 pm
talk about blurring the lines between the press and the people they cover.
Posted by: cindy | March 15, 2010, 9:40 pm 9:40 pm
I Love this women. I Love what she says about this issue. so true. I see eye to eye with her on this and my kids have no weight issues at all, and the majority of kids in their school do. My kids actually drink white milk with lunch I pack, with fruit everyday, a veggie at every supper at night. My five year old eats salad! not too hard. You just give it to them since htey’re young, you say “this is what we eat” and they eat it. If htey complain, ah well, you can go to bed with no supper. This is what we’re eating. Do that a few times they will finish their plate of veggies, and once they get used to veggies they dont think they taste so bad anymore . I love this women. She is so much more productive and active in doing things than any former first lady in many decades. So much of waht first ladies do is such stupid nothing. photo ops. Michelle talks straight talk. She is a fabulous first lady.
Posted by: seriously | March 15, 2010, 10:08 pm 10:08 pm
Why didn’t she tackle teenage pregnancy?—why dont you? If this means something to you ,get off your rear end and do something. Her kids are young, she can relate to this issue, and she understands it. maybe when her kids are late teens she’ll tackle teen pregnancy. She’s tackling this and she’s doing a great job. Good for her. There are so many fat kids out there it’s ridiculous. This is the first generation of kids, even my pediatrician says it, that the kids will live shorter lives than their parents.
Posted by: seriously | March 15, 2010, 10:11 pm 10:11 pm
The Obama’s sure are playing the American people for suckers! For those of you that the cool aid hasn’t worn off yet, you are in for a rude awakening.
Posted by: Bandera Scout | March 16, 2010, 12:41 am 12:41 am
What’s “Newsweek”?
Why does it seem the Obama administration is hellbent on removing choices (and by extension, freedoms) on our society? Example: Healthcare, automobiles, energy sources, and now food. The march towards a statist society continues…
Posted by: tjp612 | March 16, 2010, 7:02 am 7:02 am
what about the karl marx apple on the cover????
Posted by: Redd | March 16, 2010, 9:44 am 9:44 am
This woman is clueless. Children do so choose what they eat. It’s up to their parents – not the all-powerful federal government – to teach them to make the right choices. The Obamas and their wannabe despotism should get the hell out of our personal lives.
Posted by: ferd | March 16, 2010, 9:45 am 9:45 am
I doubt that we will be able to discern Michele’s political leanings from normal Newsweek articles. They are selling so few magazines that they now need a weekly celebrity article to try and stay in business. No change, no hope
Posted by: jerry | March 16, 2010, 9:47 am 9:47 am
I guess the child hunger problem is over!
Posted by: adam | March 16, 2010, 9:51 am 9:51 am
If only Michelle and her BFF Oprah could apply the theory to their posteriors we would all be better off.
Posted by: Snoozer | March 16, 2010, 9:57 am 9:57 am
===So much of waht first ladies do is such stupid nothing. photo ops.===
Absolutely. Because the world began and ends with the Obamas.
Michelle needs to pass up the pastry chef’s treats. They are starting to show.
Posted by: Axey | March 16, 2010, 9:58 am 9:58 am
My understanding is that if you look closely, you will see the image of Karl Marx in the apple.
So, here we are in the capitalist garden being offered the fruit of the tree of Marxism by the first woman.
Hmmmmm, didn’t we see the image of Øbama next to the cross yesterday? The religious imagery just keeps coming doesn’t it? I guess those two learned a lot while they weren’t listening in Rev. Wright’s church for twenty years.
Posted by: Odysseus | March 16, 2010, 10:01 am 10:01 am
Michelle Obama would be happy if she or the government had the ultimate decision over what your kids ate, how much of a portion they got, what it’s made of, etc etc etc. You and your kids are too dumb to figure this out on your own. Only she or the government can know exactly what’s good for you. I’m sure she would love to run the US the way Mao ran China, Stalin ran the Soviet Union, and Pol Pot ran Cambodia.
Posted by: Al Gibson | March 16, 2010, 10:02 am 10:02 am
For those few Kool-Aid Kids who still worshipping at the altar of Obama’s lies. Remember when Obama the Boy King promised the “most transparent administration evah?” Remember that?
WASHINGTON (AP) Federal agencies haven’t lived up to President Barack Obama’s promise of a more open government, INCREASING their use of legal exemptions to keep records secret during his first year in office.
An Associated Press review of Freedom of Information Act reports filed by 17 major agencies found that the use of nearly every one of the law’s nine exemptions to withhold information from the public ROSE in fiscal year 2009, which ended last October.
Major agencies cited that exemption at least 70,779 times during the 2009 budget year, UP MORE THAN 24,000 TIMES from President George W. Bush’s final budget year, according to annual FOIA reports filed by federal agencies.
Obama lies. And lies. And lies. And lies.
Posted by: Beck | March 16, 2010, 10:09 am 10:09 am
Michelle Obama’s salary at a hospital went from $160,000 to $300,000 in the year her husband was elected as senator. Who paid for that massive increase in her no-show “administration” job? Insurance companies paid that bill for her cushy salary and benefits.
She never saw a patient, helped a doctor, or did anything that contributed to the wellbeing of anyone.
Do we wonder why health insurance rates skyrocket when liberals fill hospitals with unqualified people and charge insurance companies through “overhead”?
Posted by: Karen | March 16, 2010, 10:10 am 10:10 am
She should tackle smoking in the home first.
Posted by: Karen | March 16, 2010, 10:11 am 10:11 am
Can’t these people stay out of our faces? We’re sick to death of them trying to dominate every aspect of our lives and every nanosecond of media coverage. They are asphyxiating us. Enough already, no mas!
Posted by: fresca | March 16, 2010, 10:12 am 10:12 am
Does anyone think SHE is really writing this? I’d love to have some coverage on how much this campaign of hers is really costing the taxpayers. Her staff is huge, her influence is outsized. She’s the first lady, not a lawmaker. Simmer down, Chelle-baby.
Posted by: Lizzie | March 16, 2010, 10:30 am 10:30 am
Newsweek is owned by the Washington Post, owner and operator of Kaplan Education. Kaplan is the Golden Goose that has kept Newsweek/WAPO afloat.
Kaplan has profited massively from No Cnild Left Behind and now with all of Obama’s enormous education spending.
In return for all that money Newsweek/WAPO play the role of Obama cheerleader/apologist. Evan Thomas, the Newsweek Editor compared Obama to God. More like Santa Claus.
The whole arangement is very similar to the corrupt GE/MSNBC/Obama partnership.
Posted by: LaFong | March 16, 2010, 10:34 am 10:34 am
Look closely into the apple, folks. I’m serious. What’s that image?
Posted by: pjean | March 16, 2010, 10:34 am 10:34 am
The March issue of Health Affairs also addresses childhood obesity and there are a lot of good articles, video clips and op-eds at their blog on the issue. David Wallanga has a good article tying the issue to agriculture policy in this country.
I applaud Michelle Obama for taking this on as its a very important public health issue.
Posted by: progressive mama | March 16, 2010, 11:06 am 11:06 am
Intriguing. Newsweek has suddenly started to crop that apple out of the image. Guess you’ll have to look a little harder on the net. You’ll find it.
Posted by: pjean | March 16, 2010, 11:14 am 11:14 am
Valid concern and focus, but why the subtle, subliminal messaging?
Posted by: pjean | March 16, 2010, 11:16 am 11:16 am
I really objected to the glamour fashion magazine thing that Michelle Obama was doing. To me, and I am sure to others, this was the promotion of the values (materialism, excesses, consumption) that go along with it (spend 10,000′s on a dress worn once–I voted for a change. Where is my change?). AT LEAST it is not “Vogue” or “Glamour” but I wonder. I wonder if she really is the one promoting this agenda of if this is just another “teleprompter” smoke and mirrors campaign that the Obama people have been noted for. You know, what Michelle is talking about is a shift in american lifestyle and lifestyle changes are not made fast or easy. It took decades for McDonalds to be located in almost every community of any size. They had to have long range plans and have people seriously working to this goal (McDonalds located 10-15 minutes from where you are). Is Michalle building a solid foundation for the long range goals of achieving any objective or is it all just a short term attention getting agenda? Americans are too fat…nobody is debating that. With explosive growth in the fast food business this is a difficult operation. You live in a free society and this free society does not promote and support only the things deemed “good for you”. I’m going out and have “a smoke”. This agenda done with freedom and free enterprise in mind might be worthwhile. However, if done wrong this could be just another example of totalitarianism. Government is saying “we know what is good for you”.
Posted by: R Fitzgerald-Bourbon- Von Mitter-Von Habsberg-Guise | March 16, 2010, 11:24 am 11:24 am
$10 Billion to tell people how to eat and exercise.
How long before the Obama Administration starts paying people to lose weight? Anything to make Let’s Move and Michelle look successful.
Posted by: mick | March 16, 2010, 11:26 am 11:26 am
Cradle to grave.
Pelosi, Reid, Obama will gladly shackle you to the government.
Posted by: cal | March 16, 2010, 11:29 am 11:29 am
Michele will need to shut down fast food joints, provide healthy foods, and install web cams to see that families are obeying.
But I put nothing past her husband.
If BHO could get away with it, he would control us like Chavez controls his country.
Posted by: tyler | March 16, 2010, 11:36 am 11:36 am
Michelle and Barry.
You raise your kids the way you want to.
Leave the rest of us alone.
Posted by: fran | March 16, 2010, 11:38 am 11:38 am
the apple is karl marx.
Posted by: redd | March 16, 2010, 11:58 am 11:58 am
Now the official magazine of Obama World actually has an Obama writing its material. How appropriate.
Posted by: Renee | March 16, 2010, 12:01 pm 12:01 pm
From the article: “The First Lady says the solution to childhood obesity rests not with a bill from Congress or executive order from her husband”
AND YET THE FIRST FEW COMMENTS HERE ARE RIGHTWINGERS CLAIMING THE OBAMAS WANT TO OPPRESS US BY PROMOTING HEALTHY EATING. DISGUSTING. YOUR FRIGHT TACTICS ARENT GOING TO WORK IN 2010. PEOPLE ARE WAKING UP TO THE SMEAR CAMPAIGNS YOU SUPPOSED CONSERVATIVES HAVE DONE ON ALL THE POSITIVE EFFORTS FROM THE WHITE HOUSE!
Posted by: Arthur from Pennsylvania | March 16, 2010, 12:02 pm 12:02 pm
Why doesn’t Newsweek just go ahead and change their name to “O” Magazine? Oh wait, that’s taken….
Posted by: Steve | March 16, 2010, 12:08 pm 12:08 pm
Shame on ABC for removing my prior post.. and the odd thing is, Jamie Oliver is scheduled to run a program *ON* ABC about the food nightmare he encountered in a southern U.S. city..
Don’t worry folks, our healthcare costs are set to soar (like in Massachusetts) once we ALL are mandated, captive customers to the insurance industry..
Then we’ll see if the majority of Americans appreciate having to pay high premiums to cover the healthcare costs of the junk-food eaters of America.
75% of our costs go to cover CHRONIC diseases, most of which ARE diet related.
Tuck in kittens!
Posted by: Deborah Terreson | March 16, 2010, 12:20 pm 12:20 pm
Barry smokes.
Michelle is overweight.
And these two want to tell us how to lead healthy lives?
ROFL
Posted by: MichelleIndependent | March 16, 2010, 12:40 pm 12:40 pm
P.S.
Just call the magazine Obamaweek.
Posted by: MichelleIndependent | March 16, 2010, 12:42 pm 12:42 pm
GET YOUR HANDS OUT OF MY POCKET, OBAMAS! Let ME take care of my OWN self! I’m healthy enough without YOUR advice!
Posted by: Mphilly | March 16, 2010, 12:49 pm 12:49 pm
What’s Newsweek?
Posted by: tjp612 | March 16, 2010, 1:09 pm 1:09 pm
We get it.
America is bad.
It must be transformed.
Posted by: millie | March 16, 2010, 1:45 pm 1:45 pm
Another day, another entitlement program.
Another day, another power grab.
Another day, another loss of liberty.
Posted by: cassie | March 16, 2010, 1:47 pm 1:47 pm
GET YOUR HANDS OUT OF MY POCKET, OBAMAS! Let ME take care of my OWN self! I’m healthy enough without YOUR advice!
———-
Yeah but are your kids healthy???
Posted by: justayreal74 | March 16, 2010, 2:10 pm 2:10 pm
If you applaud this constant intrusion into your personal life- you are a Kool Aid Drinker.
The only people who need guidance on how to eat are the entitlement recipients who spent their food stamp money on twinkies and cracklin’s.
Stay out of our lives- you over-reaching Marxists.
If you people think the Nanny State can do a better job of feeding your children than you- then you shouldn’t have had them to begin with.
I hope all bloggers out there find the original Karl Marx on the apple photo.
Posted by: coolpillow | March 16, 2010, 6:16 pm 6:16 pm
There’s an interesting post over at the Health Journal Club that makes the case that people should just not eat anything that wasn’t a food 100 years ago. Gets rid of the aspartame, bleached GM flour, high fructose corn syrup garbage they try to pass off as food these days.
Posted by: Philip | March 17, 2010, 2:44 am 2:44 am
i know ….
America is bad.
It must be transformed.
Posted by: Ilan Ben Menachem | March 18, 2010, 5:03 am 5:03 am
Michelle Obama looks overweight. Her husband smokes and has high cholesterol. Her mother is definitely overweight and one of her daughters is borderline. What kind of a role model is she projecting. She talks about her burger and fries ,pastry, pie fests etc. But then gets up and tells others to change their lifestyle with regard to diet. I think the first thing she needs to do is get her own house in order!!!!
Posted by: Linda | March 30, 2010, 10:00 pm 10:00 pm
Thanks for sharing the tut with me/us. It was beautifully described. Well done. Looking forward for more tuts from you!
Posted by: custom promotional | June 18, 2010, 11:16 am 11:16 am