Super-sized misinformation isn’t new, but it’s getting worse
I’ve recently been seeing posts about Morgan Spurlock showing up in social media, which alerted me to the fact that he had died of cancer in late May at the age of 53. I wasn’t a huge follower of his work, but his documentary Super Size Me was a big hit with me back when it came out in 2004. My then-husband and I both were fascinated by the 30-day experiment of eating nothing but McDonald’s and documenting his decline in health while also sharing notable stats and other information related to food, health, and nutrition in between his scenes about his temporary eating habits and the consequences of it.
My husband and I must have watched the DVD at least four times, never being bored of it.
Except that as I see people talking about Spurlock, it turns out he wasn’t honest with us. At one point in the documentary during a doctor’s visit, the physician comments how Spurlock’s liver damage “caused” by this new diet seems more like something from alcohol binging.
Spurlock admitted in 2017 that he had been struggling with alcoholism since the age of 13 and hadn’t been sober more than a week in three decades. I don’t think he ever acknowledged that his health problems (not just liver issues but constant morning headaches, depression, and more) during the filming of Super Size Me were probably more from alcohol than from his food intake. Not saying the food might not have made things worse, but I doubt it was the root cause. Also interesting that in 2017, the very same year he publicly admitted his alcohol problems, he did a sequel to Super Size Me. It was a different kind of angle on the fast food industry, so I’m not going to comment negatively on that film—but the fact he did that without (to my knowledge) ever admitting the original documentary was colored by his alcoholism makes the points he made in the original documentary feel even more hollow and untrue.
No doubt that there are many unhealthy things about fast food and a 30-day diet of nothing but that is probably pretty bad for you. There were many true facts presented that are valuable to know. And it’s not like his documentary, however much I liked it, put me off McDonald’s. Fast food has never been a staple for me but I do enjoy a double cheeseburger combo and some fresh fries from the golden arches, and I love me some Popeye’s chicken.
But, as people with more time and interest to devote to this have noted, Super Size Me now has a complicated history and a dubious premise and questionable conclusions.
I’m not saying any of this to malign Spurlock in death. It’s just an interesting footnote to me—plus it makes me think of modern-day misinformation. And let’s be honest, Spurlock either knew his documentary was disingenuous on many levels either when he put it out or shortly thereafter, so he’s guilty of spreading misinformation even if his intentions were good. Anyway, like I said, he isn’t the only person in a documentary or a news piece or anything else to lead people astray while ignoring one or more core problems and blaming something else that might have been, at best, an ancillary problem or not even a part of the equation.
The problem is how much worse this has gotten. In the age of social media, in 2017, Spurlock didn’t hesitate to coast off the reputation, success and history of Super Size Me to make his final documentary a sequel to it. Anti-vaxxers didn’t let facts get in the way of one single dishonest and poorly constructed study suggesting vaccines cause autism, and they are still riding that story to this day despite plenty of research to refute them. And so we have measles coming back and plenty of other problems and people making even sillier claims about vaccines like the idea they contain tracking chips. We have had lies to refute climate change issues and keep us on a doomsday track for years flowing steady and unstopping.
Major media outlets are mostly owned by conservative (often far right wing) billionaires and independent media is mostly dead. Twitter went from being a major source of important news to a cesspool thanks to Elon Musk buying it. TikTok celebrities and others concoct and film stories and narratives that aren’t even real but act like they are. The internet in general and social media in particular are a huge part of most of our lives and so much of what we get just isn’t true. So many lies that have so many people doing so many wrong things or attacking the wrong people or subverting decades of social and scientific progress.
Spurlock send shockwaves through the fast food industry and made McDonald’s have to do PR damage control for years with just one documentary that, while successful, most of you have probably never seen. Think of how much worse the damage has been from dishonest or biased social media and conservative-spun news and worse, all flowing ceaselessly from our phones and pads and computers. Think of how much worse it could get.
I don’t have any solution to the problem. Just know that it isn’t new. Know that it’s getting worse. Know when to second-guess and double-check. Because sometimes even our heroes and trusted sources lead us astray.