Which Makes Kids Fatter, the Chicken or the Egg?

Yesterday FCC Chairman Kevin Martin decided to grab his slice of the childhood obesity hysteria pie. Concerned that ads featuring cartoon characters are making kids fat, Martin announced plans to create a task force to consider the plight of the average child who "watches 2 to 4 hours of TV per day and views about 40,000 TV ads every year, most of them for cereal, candy, toys and fast food."

The evil genius behind the creation of the task force is Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan). But don't worry, he and the FCC just want voluntary cooperation from the television companies that are completely dependent on the whims for the federal government for their survival, and food companies already under siege from the CDC, the FDA, and their alphabet soup brethren:

"If we start down the road of saying we're going to limit everything and we're going to do it with a regulatory regime, I think you get everybody in a quick adversarial relationship," Brownback said. … "We urge their participation and we would love to have them participate in the process," Brownback said.

No word on whether the task force will consider the possibility that kids who watch a lot of TV are fat because they come home and sit around on their asses 2 to 4 hours a day, not because SpongeBob is selling them candy.

In other news, Krispy Kreme just appointed a former tobacco exec to serve on their board of directors.