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Two US congressmen lambast 20/20 report
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Posted on Jul 09 1999
Two US congressmen lambasted ABC’s 20/20 report about the alleged sweatshop and prostitution in the CNMI, saying the show’s producer sensationalized its piece in an effort to raise its TV rating.
In a “Dear Colleague” letter addressed to members of the US Congress, Reps. John Doolittle and Joel Heeley wrote that the ABC report entitled “The Shame of Saipan” was just “a rehash of an earlier show.”
“The real shame was that in its report on the Saipan garment industry, 20/20 decided to jettison facts as well as any degree of balance and piece together a story fraught into bias, mistruth and sensationalism in order to win a TV ratings war,” Doolittle and Heeley wrote.
The congressmen noted that the trial lawyers interviewed on the show were the same lawyers who filed the class action lawsuits against some of the biggest names in American retailing and manufacturers.
“20/20 went on to attempt to vilify Majority Whip Tom Delay simply because he opposes Rep. George Miller’s Saipan ‘reform’ legislation,” the congressmen said.
Doolittle and Heeley said “20/20 got the facts wrong.”
They said Delay has constantly engaged government leaders in taking steps toward reform in the CNMI to ensure and maintain a variant economy under local control.
“He recognizes that it is the obligation of Congress to promote economic, social and political development which will lead to a greater self-government economic self-reliance and the active participation of the people of the CNMI in the determination of their own future,” they said.
