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February 4, 2000 - ABC's 20/20 airs John Stossel
segment, "How Good is Organic Food."
February 4, 2000 - Organic Trade Organization (OTA) responds
to program.
February 8, 2000 - Environmental Working Group (EWG) president
Ken Cook sends
letter to ABC questioning statement that ABC-commissioned studies
did not find pesticide residues on either organic or conventional
produce.
July 7, 2000 - ABC re-airs segment "How Good is Organic
Food?" and Stossel repeats error.
July 31, 2000 - EWG
writes to ABCcalling for John Stossel's termination and a complete
retraction of organic food report.
New
York Times article
August 1, 2000 - EWG publicly
calls on ABC to fire Stossel.
August 7, 2000 -- ABC reports error; ABC-commissioned
study did not include tests on pesticide residues on produce as
they previously believed.
August 8, 2000 - ABC announces it will offer apology on its August 11 program of
20/20.
August 9, 2000 -
OTA letter to ABC News calls for full censorship of ABC report,
demanding that ABC erase from history everything related to the
story. Anti-free speech demands as listed in the letter:
- "Air full retraction of the story about organic agriculture
on 20/20 on August 11, 2000.
- Immediately withdraw all archived files containing the story.
- Agree never to itself or through its affiliates, or other
means, redistribute or rebroadcast the story.
- Prominently broadcast a full and detailed correction and retraction
of the story on 20/20 when the regular season resumes, including
an apology to the organic food industry and its millions of
customers.
- Prominently post the correction and retraction on ABC's and
Mr. Stossel's respective websites, in as prominent a manner
as ABC News and Mr. Stossel posted their organic industry story
for the same period of time that ABC News and Mr. Stossel had
posted the story."
August 9, 2000 - ABC News reprimands
John Stossel David W. Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick suspended.
August 10, 2000 - TomPaine.com publishes
full-page advertisement in New York Times attacking Stossel.
August 11, 2000- The OTA threatens a class action lawsuit
if ABC does not silence Stossel's comments on organic food reports New York Daily News.
August 11 - Stossel offers
public apology for error.
August 12, 2000 - OTA says
apology not good enough.
August 12 - EWG calls
Stossel apology an "insult."
August 14, 2000 - New York Times business section runs
story
that notes why ABC considered the error an honest mistake.
"They said Mr. Fitzpatrick was receiving a spate of different
test results on organic and conventional foods, had become confused."
According to the New York Times, Fitzpatrick says he called the
researcher who conducted the tests, and he confirmed they were
done on produce. However, the researcher noted recently that he
thought he was confirming that the studies were done on poultry,
not produce.
August 16, 2000 - Savejohnstossel.org
site launched (eventually renamed to Supportjohnstossel.org) and hundreds of petitioners express support for
Stossel. CNS
News article
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