ABC Apologizes for Stossel

[Guest guest]

ABC has had to apologize for him once...now, let's get them to apologize

for his comments about breast implants.

ABC to Apologize for " 20/20 " Report

by Josh Grossberg

Aug 8, 2000, 1:00 PM PT

So much for reporter Stossel's unconventional wisdom.

ABC News has announced it will issue a rare mea culpa on Friday's

edition of 20/20 for a fraudulent on-air report by Stossel on the safety

of organic foods.

In his " Give Me a Break " segment first aired February 8 and repeated

July 7, Stossel asserted organic foods contain more pesticide residue

than conventional supermarket foods, and are less safe to eat.

Stossel said his claims were based on tests commissioned by ABC News

that revealed " by a small margin, more of the organic produce was

contaminated [by E. Coli bacteria] than the conventional stuff. " He then

concluded by saying that, although the food supply is " pretty safe, "

organic foods may be " no better and maybe worse " for consumers trying to

eat healthy.

Soon after the report first aired, the Washington, D.C., based

Environmental Working Group questioned the validity of the story. The

group launched its own investigation (a report titled " Give Us a Fake " ),

which accused the network of faking pesticide tests and debunked each of

Stossel's claims.

In a July 31 letter to Westin, EWG President Cook wrote: " I am

writing to inform you or our conclusion that ABC News does not possess,

and has never possessed, the test results Mr. Stossel reported. The

reason is simple: we have confirmed with the experts ABC hired for its

organic food story that the pesticide test results in question do not

exist because no such laboratory tests were ever conducted for ABC

News. "

Stossel told the group through his assistant that he would not respond

" in any fashion " to their accusations. That is, until ABC announced that

Stossel himself will apologize on Friday's broadcast for his mistake,

acknowledging that pesticide tests were never really conducted.

While Cook and company has called on ABC News to fire Stossel for his

" remarkable breach of journalistic ethics and conduct, " an analyst

speaking for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting believes he'll most

likely stay on the job.

" He'll be disciplined but not in any severe way, " said FAIR analyst

Hart. " I think the most troubling thing is that EWG released the

information in February and ABC was less than interested in looking into

it. It's aired twice and only now are they looking at the error.

However, we'd rather ABC look at his overall record. "

Stossel's been in another recent toxic broiler over a 20/20 report that

raised doubts about the real-life Brockovich's research into

Chromium 6, which helped a small California desert town win a whopping

$330 million settlement against utility Pacific Gas & Electric.

Brockovich, whose life story became the basis for the hit

film Brockovich, said Stossel's report was not grounded in fact.

Article taken from 20/20 In the News

SBIPrayerForum