Date: Fri, 15 Aug 1997 18:04:39 -0500 From: "J. Rachael Hamlet & Duncan L. Cooper" <[log in to unmask]> Subject: 20/20 Rachel Hamlet said (in part): <<After speaking to Stefanie Hirsch...I have considerable hope that she is serious about researching the piece and presenting it in a way that doesn't make us all look like freaks. I am not surprised that she feels compelled to find a opposing person for "balance" This is...the "centrist bias" of the press: present two wildly opposing views as if they are of equal value and proclaim the truth to be somewhere in the middle. Maybe we can give her a name of an "expert" who will proclaim [extended nursing] to be sexual abuse, but not have a crumb of scientific evidence to back it up. Next to our articulate, learned and funny Dr. Kathy D., that person will look like the idiot s/he is.>> First, let me say that my earlier post ("Can 20/20 be trusted? I think not!") was not directed towards our learned and media wise Katherine Dettwyler and Elizabeth Baldwin. I have complete faith in their ability to explain the benefits of extended nursing on national television. However, I'm considerably less confident that their calm, rational, intelligent exposition will be shown in its entirety. Their interviews will be prerecorded and edited. Even the best and the brightest are vulnerable when their carefully prepared speeches are shredded by an editor who prefers sensationalism to science. 20/20 is not Nova! I am also concerned because Ms. Hirsch is soliciting interviews from mothers practicing extended nursing---mothers who may not have much media savvy, and who may regret their participation once they see the finished product. Once again, I would recommend that everyone involved proceed with caution. Best wishes, Rita