California parents attack ABC News Stossel special

"Tampering with Nature"

Steve Gorman / Reuters 29jun01

LOS ANGELES -- ABC News dropped plans to air footage of California school children interviewed by correspondent John Stossel for his upcoming TV special on the environment Tuesday, due to objections raised by several parents.

Demanding that their children be left out of the special, "Tampering with Nature," set to air on Friday, the seven parents charged that they were duped into allowing their kids to be interviewed by Stossel and that he manipulated the youngsters into giving answers that supported his point of view.

ABC News defended the reporting of the journalist who has drawn the ire of environmentalists for often challenging their views, and network officials said they were only withdrawing the children because of parental objections.

The parents' complaint, in a letter to Stossel on Monday, came two months after the interview was taped at a Los Angeles–area elementary school. The parents said they felt uneasy about the interview at the time, noticing that Stossel asked the children "leading questions to get them to say what (he) wanted."

They said their concerns were heightened when they learned Stossel was behind a controversial ABC News report last year on organic food safety that the Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based advocacy organization, attacked as misleading. ABC News ended up suspending a producer of that program without pay for a month, publicly reprimanding Stossel, and forcing him to issue an on-air apology for citing nonexistent laboratory tests in his report challenging the widely assumed health benefits of organic foods.

Stossel's latest special deals with the human impact on the environment, from genetic engineering to global warming, suggesting that mankind has "tampered with nature" for centuries and that much of the outcome has been beneficial.

PARENTAL CONSENT

After reviewing tape of Stossel's question-and-answer session with the California children, ABC News said it found his interview was "conducted in a professional and responsible manner according to the highest journalistic standards."

However, the network's statement said, "ABC News has decided it will respect the belated decision of a number of parents to withdraw their consent." That means "the children will be taken out of the special," a network spokesman said. He added that the "issue was decided narrowly on this issue of parental consent" for young children to appear on television.

In their letter on Monday, the parents said ABC News staff initially concealed Stossel's involvement in the segment and "misrepresented the nature of the piece.... Had we known in advance of your interview tactics, or the nature of the piece, we would never have allowed you to interview our children," they wrote.

One parent, attorney Michael Scott, said he was particularly troubled by a portion of the interview in which Stossel had the children respond in unison to a question about whether any scientists disagree with the cause of global warming, to which they all answered "No!" at once.

Scott, who was present for the interview, said in retrospect it was clear that Stossel was "trying to show the kids are brainwashed" by educators about the environment.

Tess Cacciatore of the California-based World Trust Foundation told The Washington Post that she helped arrange the Earth Day interview at Canyon Charter School at the request of ABC producers who approached her about the story but never mentioned Stossel's involvement.

"They said they were doing an educational piece about global warming," she told the Post. "They never said anything about their negative slant. They never told me John Stossel would be involved. They knew from the get go we would not have wanted John Stossel to do this piece."