NEW YORK
–– ABC News admitted on Monday that a "20/20"
report by John Stossel questioning the safety of organic produce
was wrong and that the reporter would apologize on the air for
his mistake on Friday.
The network
wouldn't say whether Stossel or any "20/20" staffers
would be disciplined. An environmental watchdog group is calling
for Stossel to be fired.
The report,
first aired in February and repeated last month, seemed to debunk
the common belief that organic food is safer than regular foods
because no pesticides are used.
Stossel said
on the air that tests conducted on produce for ABC News "surprisingly
found no pesticide residue on the conventional samples or the
organic."
The Washington-based
Environmental Working Group charged that pesticide tests on produce
were never conducted for the show. ABC, in its statement on Monday,
confirmed that the tests were not done.
ABC said Stossel
was relying on inaccurate information that had been provided to
him by a staff member. "We are reviewing the circumstances
surrounding the error," the network said.
A producer
mistakenly believed that a test done on chicken had also been
done on produce, said an ABC executive who spoke on condition
of anonymity.
Stossel did
not return a message left on his answering machine Monday. A staff
member said she believed Stossel was on vacation.
The environmental
group also said that chicken was tested for pesticides at ABC's
request, and traces were found on the regular poultry but not
on the organic poultry. This finding favorable to the organic
food proponents was not mentioned on the show, the group said.
ABC had no
comment on Monday about any pesticide tests for chicken, saying
it was still reviewing the report.
Kenneth Cook,
president of the Environmental Working Group, said that he was
not satisfied with ABC's statement.
About Stossel,
Cook said: "He's not a contrarian, he's a counterfeiter who'll
do anything for ratings. He needs to be fired."
The group
said it had complained to ABC about the report's accuracy after
it originally aired in February. Despite this, Stossel repeated
the mistake on July 7 in a comment made to anchorwoman Cynthia
McFadden: "It's logical to worry about pesticide residues,
but in our tests, we found none on either organic or regular produce."
After the
environmentalists' original complaints, the network sent a form
letter erroneously claiming that pesticide tests had been conducted
on produce, said Mike Casey, the group's spokesman. "They
absolutely didn't take this seriously," he said.
ABC said it
was investigating why the mistake was repeated despite the outside
warnings.
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