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June 25, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The ABC television newsmagazine, 20/20, has announced that it will air a program in which a young single mother, Jessica, decides which of a group of couples will adopt her child.

The pregnant 16 year-old has submitted to having the decision televised as part of what is being billed as a documentary on the practice of open adoption. 20/20 has promoted the program using the kind of language that is usually found in so-called Reality TV such as “The Bachelor” where a group of women compete for the sexual attention of a single young man. The ABC website says, “Imagine five couples vying for the same unborn baby. Then imagine the mother of the baby, a teenager, trying to decide which couple should raise her child. What if there were a round of interviews, in which each of the five couples would try to convince the teenager they are the best parents?”  The program, which airs tonight, is already being heavily criticized by viewers who say the show is exceeding the boundaries even of modern sensibilities. Writing to the ABC website, one outraged viewer wrote, “Children are not to be auctioned off in a game show – compare this to a scene from a slave auction in central Virginia circa 1860 – notice any differences? As an adoptee and mother I am sickened beyond belief. I mourn for this child, whose parents may show videotape of 20/20 to family members in future years – “look how cute Tommy was when we won him!’” Barbara Walters, the show’s anchor, has an adopted child and has often covered adoption issues.

Reality TV programs have pushed the bounds of what was once considered acceptable and have come under considerable fire from pro-family groups in the US. They originated in 1988 when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike and producers scrambled to get something, anything, on the screens. The television talk show, game shows and the evening news were combined to create a new genre that spotlighted the individual sufferings of private persons.

The popularity of such shows, re-worked from their 1960’s antecedents, has forced venerable news programs such as 20/20 and CBS’s 60 Minutes to incorporate a more voyeuristic, populist style of reporting. The 60 Minutes website admits to and defends the change: “By telling stories through the eyes of those involved, by personalizing stories and issues, by writing in a relaxed, contemporary fashion, 60 Minutes has broken new ground in the staid world of current affairs reporting.”  20/20 wesbite:  https://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/Living/Adoption_main_040430-1.html ph