Win This Baby (Hell Freezes Over At ABC)

New York Post ^ | 4-28-04 | CHRISTENE BARBERICH

[My Favorite Headache]

By CHRISTENE BARBERICH -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jessica, 16, will choose new parents for her son on Friday's "20/20" with Barbara Walters.

April 28, 2004 -- A giant-sized controversy is brewing over a baby adoption special on "20/20" - and sending ABC execs into a tailspin. Millions of viewers across the country watched in surprise over the weekend as the network aired a sensational promo for Friday's segment, which pits five desperate couples against each other for the privilege of adopting a 16-year-old's baby. A very personal, intimate process was made to look like a reality-show contest, with prospective parents dubbed "winners" and "losers."

[My Favorite Headache]

[baltodog]

If this works, we should have a reality show where people duke it out for a donated transplant organ...

[mvpel]

Now you might begin to understand why my wife and I have no interest in adopting in the US, and will be flying twelve hours each way, twice, to adopt a son from Eastern Europe.

Nearly every domestic adoption is pretty much like a reality show contest, except there's a dozen or more childless couples vying for the infant, rather than just five, and there's no cameras.

[IncPen]

The looks on the three faces in this photo tell you eveything you need to know about this story:

Mom: "I got famous. Problem solved."

Barbra Walters:"I got ratings."

Baby:"I got screwed"

[FourPeas]

The looks on the three faces in this photo tell you eveything you need to know about this story:

So true. My first reaction to the photo was: how sick.

[PAR35]

flying twelve hours each way,

Try 19 hours each way across 14 time zones. (Yes, it would have been closer to fly the other direction, but they won't let you.)

[SuziQ]

"We didn't go into this to outrage anyone," she says.

Probably not; but it just goes to show how STOOPID and clueless these folks are!

[Thebaddog]

Barbara would shiv both your mother and mine if it got a rating. And she would be proud of it. Her and the blonde, they would do you in a heartbeat with a dirty knife.

[NewRomeTacitus]

"Baptized? Dear me no, can't use it."

Just pointing out that it's far better to use established organizations over demeaning television stunts.

[Brainhose]

ABC has been blurring the line between news and entertainment for years. I recently read an old piece where
Edward R. Murrow warned about this in the 50's. He was quite prophetic

[vetvetdoug]

Didn't King Solomon already have a remedy for a situation such as this? Instead of halves this program would have sixths.

[mvpel]

Northwest/KLM's flight 38 from Boston to Amsterdam takes 6 hours and 50 minutes, with a 1:45 layover, then KLM flight 903 takes 3 hours and 15 minutes from Amsterdam to Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow, for a total of 11 hours and 50 minutes.

We'd leave Wednesday at 6:15pm and arrive Thursday at 3:05pm, so throwing the time zones into the mix comes to 21 "hours," but it's the flight time that governs the incidence of DVT.

We've saved up a hundred thousand frequent flyer miles each so we can go first class on the way home with our tyke, but I expect even in first class it'll be gruelling - but far less gruelling and emotionally draining than trying to convince a knocked-up teenager that we're the ones she should give her baby to. "Dear Birth Mother, ..."

[vikingchick]

A very personal, intimate process was made to look like a reality-show contest, with prospective parents dubbed "winners" and "losers."

Sensitivity at its finest!

[spycatcher]

What the??? You have got to be kidding me!

The baby in the photo is going to own ABC when he grows up and files his lawsuit.

[battousai]

The looks on the three faces in this photo tell you eveything you need to know about this story:

Mom: "I got famous. Problem solved."

Barbra Walters:"I got ratings."

Baby:"I got screwed"

I agree with you, but it could have been worse for the baby at least s/he wasn't aborted and has a chance at life that millions of others didn't get.

[McGavin999]

Better yet, they could hold an auction. Sort of an ABC-Ebay.

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

Maybe they could join up with fear factor and do a special where the prospective parents have to go without sleep for 48 hours and eat some baby poo?

[1Old Pro]

CALL YOUR AFFILIATES, ASK THEM TO PULL THIS.

This is disgusting. If ever we should be "thinking of the children" this is the time.

[going hot]

Baby:"I got screwed"

That baby looks like it needs a diaper change and someone to hold it tight and love it for the rest of it's life. Something that is currently missing.