ABC
Uses Old Interview for One-Sided Trade Story
By Amy Menefee [1]
March 15, 2005
ABCs World News Tonight
offered up a painfully one-sided view of U.S. trade in its March 11
broadcast. Citing recently released numbers on the trade deficit,
Peter Jennings lamented that The U.S. imported $58.3 billion more
in goods than it exported, adding in a dire tone that A trade gap
at record levels has consequences.
But apparently there is only one consequence, according
to ABC. Reporter Betsy Stark presented one undisputed claim that
American manufacturing is all-but-dead. This tragic picture was
illustrated by manufacturing worker Delores Gambrell, who said that
if the United States keeps importing, In the next year or two
there will not be nothing made here in America by American people.
The interview ABC used was recorded in October 2003, so if
Gambrells predictions were accurate, we should be nearing the
collapse of the American economy.
Stark interviewed one economist but allowed him to say
only that the trade deficit is big. No professors, politicians or
manufacturers weighed in. Just one worker who happens to be a
former union organizer and media favorite was on hand to address
the meaning behind the story.
According to news reports, Delores Gambrell was one of
thousands of North Carolina textile mill workers who lost their jobs
when Pillowtex Corp. closed a plant in 2003. She has been
interviewed by at least five different news outlets, and by some
multiple times, since 1997. She has spoken out in favor of unionized
labor, and reporters used her more than once as an example of
someone losing a job due to the progression of global trade.
According to ABCs report, Gambrell now has a job manufacturing auto
parts, but reporter Stark warned that the U.S. imports auto parts
at record levels, too.
At the end of the story, Jennings let slip a note of
admiration for Gambrells economic analysis. That Ms. Gambrells
pretty smart about whats going on, he said. She sure is, Stark
agreed.