THE GIST
On Dec. 21, Beer Business Daily (BBD), a beer industry newsletter published by Harry Schuhmacher, posted a newsletter under the headline “Eat Doors: The Coming Lockdown Backlash.” The paywalled newsletter (and now-deleted public tweets) said Schuhmacher was contacted last week by a “prominent” beer industry executive whose name rhymes with “Eat Doors.” In BBD, the executive advocates for “mass civil disobedience” by businesses, urging them to defy government orders to shut down on-premise drinking and dining in response to COVID-19.
The executive is widely believed to be Pete Coors. Coors neither confirmed nor denied his role in the BBD report, only telling GBH, “I cannot comment.”
In an excerpt from an email written to Schuhmacher and published on BBD, “Eat Doors” writes:
“They [bars and restaurants] all need to open up. The civil authorities won’t be able to lock them all up, and they can simply refuse to pay fines or penalties.” That call is contrary to public health guidance, government orders, and scientific consensus. Schuhmacher tells GBH he received his source’s permission before publishing the remarks.
Pete Coors is the former chief customer relations officer for Molson Coors. He unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate as a Republican and has fundraised for President Donald Trump. Coors remains an “ambassador” for the company after stepping away from day-to-day duties last year. In an email statement provided to GBH, Molson Coors did not address speculation that Coors is the executive quoted by BBD. Instead, it affirmed the company’s policy of following health regulations.
The statement read, in part: “Molson Coors has been, and is, fully committed to following the guidance of local, state, and federal health authorities to protect the health and well-being of our employees and the communities we serve.”
The executive states in BBD that “enough is enough” when it comes to shutdowns. Schuhmacher calls this opinion “prescient.” The BBD article states as fact that there is “a revolt going on against shutdowns” as “the scrappier elements of the on-premise are fighting back.” This is based on a few disparate anecdotes. However, there is no national, organized effort to revolt, and public sentiment is more sympathetic to health and safety guidelines, which include social distancing, masking, and more. The former beer executive quoted in the piece concludes: “If people are scared to go to a restaurant, stay home. If the virus spreads … well, it is spreading anyway.”
WHY IT MATTERS
On the concluding point, the executive is right: The virus is spreading widely in the U.S. and the country has recently tracked new record-high numbers of cases and deaths because some Americans are refusing to follow safety guidelines. As the New York Times reported the same day the BBD piece published, this rise is not “a statistical mirage” from widespread testing that leads to higher raw totals—the percentage of Americans testing positive for COVID-19 is now almost 12%. Calling for mass resistance to public health orders has potentially dangerous results during a pandemic; so does publishing such an extreme viewpoint.
While many hospitality businesses are threatened by government restrictions that aren’t offset by financial relief, it’s a slim minority that are flouting such directives. “Eat Doors’” views are radical, even within a beer industry that would benefit from more on-premise consumption. The reality is that most breweries are following government orders and getting creative with takeout menus, modified events, e-commerce sales, or outdoor dining to stay afloat. These breweries’ frustration at the government isn’t over regulations that protect public health; it’s at a lack of financial relief. Meanwhile, the anger expressed by the unnamed executive in BBD is more reflective of anxiety about financial losses, not protecting the health of Americans.
BBD cites Reason, a libertarian online magazine, as saying “many Americans are thoroughly sick of impoverishing, socially isolating lockdown orders, and are revolting against the often-hypocritical politicians who issue them.” In reality, Gallup polling shows an increasing percentage of Americans are worried that the pandemic is getting worse, not better. Furthermore, people are visiting restaurants, salons, and hotels at the same rates they were this summer—hardly a mass revolt.
The notion that the pandemic’s spread is inevitable—and therefore masks and social distancing are irrelevant—is one shared by a portion of Trump advisors and supporters who advocate for “herd immunity” to COVID-19. Herd immunity would result in millions more Americans becoming infected by the virus and a mounting death count. Scientists have noted that every 100 new cases lead to about 1.6 additional deaths, and the U.S. is expected to surpass 3,000 deaths a day in coming weeks.
BBD’s website says its newsletter “gives our clients the information they need to make them more powerful and effective managers and leaders.” But in its Dec. 21 edition, it uncritically repeats a source’s calls to violate public health orders and ignore scientifically proven information in a way that puts people’s health and lives at risk.
Schuhmacher tells GBH that there is a spectrum of opposition to lockdown orders. He says he doesn’t agree totally with his source’s views but says, in general, “I think that we are locked down too much.”
The BBD article cites examples of violent opposition to government orders, including a Staten Island, New York bar owner who repeatedly defied curfews and other pandemic protocol. When sheriff’s deputies attempted to arrest him, he ran into a deputy with his Jeep, breaking the deputy’s legs.
“Obviously the guy running over the sheriff belongs in jail. But it’s for people to decide. I have a readership that leans way way toward distributors and they tend to be more conservative so I am writing to an audience,” Schuhmacher says. He adds that his readership responded “very well” to the article.
Resistance to federal and state laws is out of character for the distributor-heavy BBD readership, who rely on following rules and regulations to succeed within the distribution portion of America's three-tier system. Calls for retailers, producers, and wholesalers to flout state and federal mandates puts businesses at risk of losing their alcohol licenses. And for any executive of a heavily regulated alcohol company to encourage other business owners to behave illegally comes at a risk to that company.
On the other hand, if BBD readers are overwhelmingly politically conservative, as Schuhmacher suggests, their acceptance of the views presented in the Dec. 21 newsletter tracks with public opinion research. Gallup found that Republicans are less likely than Democrats to see the pandemic as an increasing threat. Pew Research has also found that Republicans are less likely to trust scientists, and more likely to think scientists should stay out of policy debates.
But leaving readers to decide what’s appropriate in response to public health orders is a razor-thin line to walk as tensions escalate and, in some places, turn violent. Furthermore, providing scientifically valid information is critical during public health emergencies. When GBH asked Schuhmacher whether he also has an obligation, as a journalist, to challenge his readers’ views or present an objective public health case for shutdowns, Schuhmacher said no.
“I don’t feel obligated at all. Our motto has always been: ‘not always right but never uncertain.’ I’ve never made any bones that Beer Business Daily is my publication. It’s an extension of my personality.”
Schuhmacher, who recently recovered from a COVID-19 infection himself, says young and healthy people should be able to “assess their own risk” and decide whether they want to go to bars and restaurants. He does believe bars and restaurants should follow social distancing and mask protocols, but acknowledges that there will always be a portion of businesses that don’t. He says he’s especially bothered by the hypocrisy of politicians who have ordered restrictions on bars and restaurants while defying those rules themselves.
BBD’s article concludes that “it seems like there is a revolt going on against shutdowns.” But the examples cited are extreme and isolated; one could also find examples of businesses closing their establishments even when public health orders would allow them to open (see: Hopewell Brewing Co., 3 Floyds Brewing Co., Long Road Distillers, Hopleaf Bar, and others).
When Seattle’s Fremont Brewing voluntarily closed to the public in mid-June following an asymptomatic employee’s positive COVID test, owner Matt Lincecum found drinkers to be appreciative and gracious.
“The most positive responses we got on a social media post over the previous 12 months was on the day we closed,” Lincecum told GBH in August, saying drinkers appreciated the company’s transparency.
Far from rioting in the streets, most Americans and the small businesses where they work are following the rules during the pandemic. Wishing they didn’t have to be in place doesn’t make them any less necessary.
Editor’s note: Sightlines Premium articles linked to in this story are non-paywalled so as to better inform our audiences of the true risks and legal strategies for operating during the global COVID-19 pandemic. More information can be found here.
Words by Kate Bernot