Perfect! Beatutiful! Now Zoom in Tight on the Blind Woman;s Face'
Nessen, Ron
Perfect! Beautiful! Now Zoom in Tight on the Blind Woman's Face' by Ron Nessen [Editor's note: 'The following case study, drawn from Ron Nessen's novel, The Hour, describes how the...
...I thought you were going to nail somebody for giving a payoff to the president,' said the producer...
...Barrish: No, it didn't come back...
...Besides, you couldn't understand half of what she was talking about...
...Mrs...
...Now Francine, I want you to tell us about your wonderful family,' said the assistant producer to the blind woman...
...It contained Mitch's interview with Denise McDowell...
...It's a small company out on Long Island ." "Sounds too small to be a story for us," Iry said, losing interest...
...Francine Barrish and her family...
...The young woman said nothing...
...Then shape up, goddam it...
...His subcommittee is responsible for our budget ." * * * Seated in McDowell's office, Holton Taft removed a sheaf of test results from his briefcase and began arguing that they proved the safety of Steril-Sof...
...That's supposed to be us...
...I assumed—I thought you had done the research and determined that Steril-Sof was the cause of these cases...
...McDowell: Whoa...
...Barrish: Yes, he did...
...We won't know tonight's 'numbers for a few days...
...Then the bacterium invade the inside of the eye and cause an enophthalmas infection ." "What are the symptoms...
...Zoom in tight on tears on cheek...
...That will allow me to refinance the company's debt, and it should give me breathing room...
...All right," Iry began, reading from Taft's letter, "what about his charge that the redos of Mitch's questions were different from the questions he asked Manheim in the interview...
...That would make it two or three weeks, wouldn't it...
...She refused to talk...
...It was safe when we approved it and it's safe now...
...Mrs...
...Crawford, to be sure that all our products are completely safe to use...
...The camera showed a close-up of Mitch leaning forward aggressively...
...Crawford's investigation and he would pin down the...
...Mrs...
...Barrish...
...Barrish (on left half of screen, crying): Why did this have to happen to me...
...By nightfall on Monday, the New York Post, the "CBS Evening News", and the Los Angeles Times had found its own Steril-Sof victims...
...Okay, Phil...
...This tragedy is not entirely his fault...
...El stinko...
...If we convince them of that, they'll defend the story and get rid of Taft...
...Go to the newspapers and tell them the FDA banned a perfectly safe product because of political pressure from Capitol Hill and baseless fears generated by the know-nothing media...
...One by one the researchers read from file folders stuffed with newspaper clippings, notes on preliminary telephone interviews, and letters from tipsters...
...Manheim: I feel sorry for her...
...On the wall behind him hung a blowup of the Time magazine cover on "The Hour...
...Barrish: Are you kidding...
...Crawford (on camera in studio): What we have shown you on "The Hour" tonight . . . is a modern medical horror story...
...All right, all right...
...I don't understand why you've accepted his right to interrogate us...
...To get the answer, "The Hour" took its cameras to the Manheim plant in Garden City, Long Island, where Steril-Sof and other eye care products are manufactured...
...Maybe contributed to it indirectly...
...No, wait a minute, I asked it a different way...
...Sometimes it takes six, seven, eight, nine years of testing to prove to the FDA that a new product is safe...
...Ultimately, in some cases, there is loss of vision ." "This woman used Steril-Sof to disinfect her contacts...
...Crawford: And you believe Steril-Sof is the cause of your blindness...
...Then she realized that the voices were people off camera talking in between Mitch's questions and Mrs...
...Taft...
...Who is Mrs...
...Yes," the researcher replied...
...It was a common TV news tactic, called a redo or a reverse, designed to bridge portions cut from interviews and to show the correspondent's face on the screen...
...I didn't test it personally...
...Now Zoom in Tight on the Blind Woman's Face' by Ron Nessen [Editor's note: 'The following case study, drawn from Ron Nessen's novel, The Hour, describes how the pressures of working in a variety of institutions—a television network, Congress, the federal bureaucracy—can subvert the truth in both journalism and government...
...And you let him...
...Barrish: The doctor said I had to keep my contacts real clean by using a special solution on them every day...
...Mrs...
...I'm transferring her to the morning show," Iry said when the door had close...
...This stuff, some kind of watery stuff, was coming out of my eyes...
...Okay, let's go...
...The ratings...
...Something seemed to be wrong with the sound...
...He told our public relations people he was filming a story about the popularity of contact lenses...
...Taft persuaded the congressman's legislative assistant to squeeze him into the congressman's schedule for 15 minutes, between a visiting junior high school class from Providence and a subcommittee meeting...
...Manheim: Oh, yes, absolutely, Mr...
...Crawford: You are a public servant, Miss McDowell...
...After she'd had time to think up excuses, she agreed to the interview...
...Mrs...
...Show it, if you can...
...Iry pressed...
...She had to defend it...
...Why...
...There's nothing wrong with 'The Hour' that some good, tough, exciting stories won't cure...
...I can't see a thing...
...Crawford: Maybe you would like to answer Mrs...
...The interview had been cut entirely from Mitch's story...
...Manheim Eye Products...
...So, yes, I'm sure everything we sell is as safe as medical science can make it...
...Never assume anything...
...Barrish: I was there, let's see, I was there, I guess, about two weeks...
...Who makes it...
...Instead, dullsville...
...inspects camera team with curiosity): Good morning...
...If our investigation finds Steril-Sof is safe, as you say, well then, you'll be able to start selling it again, and no harm's been done...
...Therefore, the six million or so people who wear soft contact lenses must buy special solutions, to sterilize their lenses, to disinfect them, to kill the bacteria and prevent infections in the eyes...
...Barrish: That's how I feel...
...I can't see anything...
...But when, or if, that judgment comes, it will be much, much too late to repair the shattered lives . . .of Mrs...
...Barrish: Yes...
...So, without, or barely, mentioning Mitch's pioneering investigation, the newspapers, wire services, and other networks set out to find other people who had suffered eye problems after using Steril-Sof...
...I need your input ." "Suspend it...
...You are paid by the taxpayers...
...Videotape reprise...
...What's the answer to that one, Earl...
...Could that have caused her blindness...
...Crawford: The manufacturer says "adverse side effects"—like blindness—are to be expected...
...You're probably right, Denise...
...Barrish: Yes, I was...
...Barrish's answers...
...For one thing, they must be kept completely clean, or else they can cause irritation and infection in the eyes...
...But the Steril-Sof story was too important to ignore...
...If we don't convince them, they may use Taft's charges to get rid of us...
...Sometimes they never do approve it, even though people in other countries are allowed to buy it...
...She was about to stop the machines and rewind the tape when the television set showing the raw footage lit up with a new scene...
...The doctor was a television buff and relished her check-up visits as opportunities to pump her for behind-the-scenes tidbits about the network celebrities...
...She ran away...
...Your piece seemed like it ran two hours, Mitch...
...Crawford: Completely safe...
...That's how she responded when I asked her about the dangers of Steril-Sof, and that's what we put on the air...
...How long did you stay in the hospital...
...On the air, however: Crawford: So you take special care to make only safe products...
...Mitch Crawford (on camera in studio): More than 11 million people in America wear contact lenses like these...
...Barrish...
...Good night ." The following morning, writers, researchers, and associate producers, mostly in their twenties, mostly clad in blue jeans and t-shirts, straggled in for Ire's meeting...
...Crawford (on camera in studio): Did the Manheim Eye Products company act in a willfully negligent way...
...It wasn't directly relevant to Steril-Sof...
...I didn't realize it was going to be a critical story...
...I had nothing to hide...
...Crawford: And what happened...
...Okay...
...So we have removed your Steril-Sof from the stores until such time as we can be certain that no more people will suffer the tragedy that has befallen Francine Barrish...
...Self'serving bullshit...
...It was a nothing," Earl Bok explained...
...This couldn't have come at a worse time...
...It was unusable...
...Why did they let him sell something like this that makes you go blind...
...She was working as a secretary, but had to quit when she went blind...
...What can we do...
...And this woman is one of your world-class weepers...
...Barrish (tight close-up of eyes covered by opaque black glasses, pull back to show full face): About three days after I started wearing my contacts, my eyes got all red and started to itch...
...Mrs...
...Voice off camera: That's it...
...After the twentieth phone call from reporters, Denise McDowell ordered her secretary not to put through any more calls except from her superiors at the agency...
...The last tape was Mitch's conversation with Francine Barrish...
...The Manheim Eye Products Company developed a solution called Steril-Sof...
...Assumed...
...Ir y barked...
...The interview appeared on both screens, a fraction of a second out of synchronization: Manheim: We take very great care here, Mr...
...Crawford (voice over videotape): We tracked down the FDA official responsible for testing Steril-Sof and approving it...
...I'm still completely blind...
...The lawyer reported that one woman had lost her eyesight from using the solution...
...Really...
...I don't think I should be standing in the middle of a parking lot discussing something this complicated for television...
...Starts to cry...
...Mitchell Crawford showed up at the plant one day last week with a camera crew...
...It was, one, a political decision, and, two, a public relations decision ." "What about justice for Manheim...
...The lawyer can't blame us for showing what really happened ." "And the interview in her office...
...Barrish: No, it never did...
...Sure...
...Why did you approve a dangerous product...
...Mrs...
...Crawford: Did.they ever express any regret for what happened to you...
...I called the eye doctor and he told me sometimes it takes awhile to get used to contacts...
...Pam tried to watch simultaneously the original interview and the edited version so she could determine what had been cut...
...I want you to have this one, Mitch...
...I'm sure, Mr...
...Did you get an eye infection from this stuff...
...He just showed up...
...Pseudomonas is a mean bug, and there's a lot of it in that mascara," the technician commented...
...Voice off camera: Two weeks sounds much better...
...Drops head and cries...
...I supervised the tests...
...organizations, it .is fiction that could become reality tomorrow.] Iry Aronstein, producer of "The Hour," was tipped back in his chair, chewing a dead cigar and drinking a can of beer...
...Crawford: What were you told...
...After all, our products are for the eyes, which are extremely sensitive, as you know...
...Starts to cry...
...I'm trying to get enough reasonable answers out of you and Mitch so I can convince the network that our story stands...
...Barrish: About two weeks, yes...
...The announcement shows this woman crying, her children crying, and then the woman says she hopes someone will bring suffering to the company that caused her to go blind...
...That is especially true of soft contact lenses, which are made of a plastic that absorbs water, and are a natural breeding place for bacteria...
...I can't talk about this with the camera on...
...Take a look ." Pam looked where he pointed...
...Wife of a guy who's laid off from his job in a clothing factory...
...Pam turned up the volume in an effort to make out what the off-camera voices were saying...
...Well, you tell our viewers about that now...
...Our consumer affairs office is flooded with calls from users who want to know if Steril-Sof is safe...
...Pam inserted another cassette...
...Well . . . it hasn't worked out that way...
...What's going on...
...But it's not my fault...
...Pam decided Mitch's redo was justified because it cleaned up the sloppy language of his original question and took less air time...
...The best efforts of medical science could not cure it and you are blind...
...Barrish's eye makeup was ready...
...Isn't it to every businessman...
...Crawford, to be sure that all our products are completely safe to use...
...Those people wear contact lenses, instead of eyeglasses, for appearance and convenience, and because contact lenses, in most cases, provide better vision...
...Even part of that limited time was lost to a phone call that, at Follet's end of the line, consisted mostly of raucous laughter...
...But, to her horror...
...She rushed out of Irv's office...
...Six years of testing...
...Periodically Pam heard faint voices in the background...
...Iry asked...
...He says that on the raw tapes of Mitch's interview with Mrs...
...Let's see what else the lawyer complains about ." Iry referred again to Taft's letter...
...Mitchell Crawford is going to do a TV story about SterilSof on 'The Hour' next Sunday...
...Iry prodded...
...Congressman Follet is bent out of shape because the blind woman Crawford interviewed lives in his district...
...A technician explained the findings...
...Now, Francine, I want you to tell us about your family, your wonderful family...
...Mrs...
...that was the purpose of Mr...
...When you decided to go ahead with the show I assumed that meant you all believed Steril-Sof was the cause...
...Denise McDowell was seated behind her desk, facing Mitch and, the camera...
...Widen shot to include daughters crying...
...That's kind of short, you know, just to say "it never did ." Why don't you elaborate some more...
...this horrible tragedy has befallen you...
...It was Earl Bok, the associate producer who'd been assigned to the story...
...Damn it...
...Barrish's blindness and of eye problems among Steril-Sof users...
...Manheim: I don't want anybody to suffer side effects from any of our products...
...Crawford: How long did you stay the hospital...
...Francine Barrish of Providence, Rhode Island, bought one of the Manheim solutions last summer to keep her new soft contact lenses clean and disinfected, free of bacteria...
...I want it tough...
...Pan family) My family has been wonderful-to me...
...It's not just the press," the director replied...
...Mrs...
...Not caused it...
...Barrish...
...Did you talk to the woman who went blind...
...Crawford: Did you use Steril-Sof to disinfect your contact lenses every day...
...Mrs...
...In a way, Manheim is right...
...Mrs...
...The thing is, Manheim is one of the few companies that has approval from the Food and Drug Administration to sell it," said Earl Bok, an eager young producer...
...You can't run away from your obligation to the taxpayers...
...She outlined the story of Mrs...
...Crawford: All right, I'll ask you the question again...
...Uh-huh," he grunted...
...Right...
...We wouldn't sell...
...Sensational...
...Manheim: As safe as any product can be...
...I asked Konrad Manheim, the president of the company, to respond to the charge that Steril-Sof is dangerous...
...But there were so many starts and stops that she gave up, turned off the finished story, and concentrated on the tape recorded in the woman's living room...
...Barrish: It was called Steril-Sof...
...Crawford...
...The meeting had been going on for more than an hour when one of the researchers reported having received a letter from a lawyer for a consumer activist organization offering to supply information about a contact lens solution that was causing eye infections among users...
...But I can't ever see them again...
...Instead, dullsville...
...Mrs...
...That would suggest to me that SterilSof is dangerous...
...They're all I have now...
...It was a cartoon of him, Marjorie, Mitch, and Roy caricatured as gun-toting Mafia hitmen, under the headline ARONSTEIN'S ASSASSINS...
...How would a woman get bacteria in her eyes...
...Apparently, that's the only explanation Mrs...
...Okay, now let's do that just one more time and this time, Phil, I want you to zoom in on her face, tight on her face, when she starts answering...
...McDowell (beside car...
...So the lobby security guard gave Pam Ganderson only a bored glance as she flashed her employee's badge and entered the elevator...
...Farm price supports are the world's most boring subject ." He went on for another 15 minutes, lambasting their stories, their performances, their editing, and the technical foul-ups...
...I went back and looked at the file this morning...
...wouldn't have watched tonight's show if I hadn't had to...
...In a few years, if I don't do anything stupid like criticizing my boss in the newspapers, I'll retire on a nice pension" Taft's next stop was the office of Rep...
...Crawford: Mrs...
...In the two cases I've treated, the makeup applicator itself caused the abrasion on the cornea ." The chemical laboratory phoned Pam Wednesday morning...
...Do you want to be covering the night police beat in Sheep Shit, South Dakota...
...Crawford: Did your vision...
...Crawford (breathless, shouting off camera): Why won't you answer our questions, Miss McDowell...
...Members of "The Hour" staff frequently returned to the office after dinner and worked late into the night...
...Freeze frame on weeping, grieving faces of Mrs...
...But I know it's not a dream...
...Iry thought for a moment...
...Irv's interest revived...
...Dissolves in hysterical crying...
...But this damn television report could scare the bankers away...
...Mrs...
...Taft, I'm sure," Follet interrupted, waving away the papers...
...I thought you were going to nail somebody for giving a payoff to the president...
...Obviously, the question had been taped later, after the interview, and spliced into the finished story in place of Mitch's actual query to Manheim...
...What's the story about...
...Barrish is going to get, at least until the case is decided in court...
...People do that ." "Not me...
...You don't have to convince me," McDowell interrupted...
...I'm totally blind...
...Mrs...
...You remember, you were talking about that before...
...Starts to cry...
...Pam saw that the interview as it appeared on the air was identical to the recording made on the FDA parking lot...
...Did you expect consumers to suffer such side effects when you approved Steril-Sof...
...Barrish's green eye shadow was clean...
...Mrs...
...Well, with no medical records or examination, it's impossible for me to tell you for certain," the doctor said, "but I'd almost bet it was enophthalmia, a very serious infection inside the eye caused by a bacterium called pseudomonas aeruginosa...
...All right...
...I know that...
...Konrad Manheim was ushered into Holton Taft's law office...
...Journalists hate to acknowledge a rival's scoop...
...Blurred form of security guard looms in front of camera, clamps hand over lens...
...Mrs...
...Barrish: Yes, I did...
...I can't see anything...
...Crawford: And with all the treatment you received in the hospital, did your vision ever come back...
...Barrish: It's horrible...
...I feel like I'm in a nightmare, like I'm going to wake up and this never happened to me...
...Barrish (Zoom in tight...
...So when the telephone on her desk buzzed again, she knew it was official business...
...Crawford: What was it called...
...She walks away...
...Taft, in order to be absolutely sure no one else loses their eyesight...
...But the mascara was heavily infested with the bacteria pseudomonas aeruginosa...
...I want somebody from the company on camera giving his excuse...
...The technician drew a magnifying glass from a desk drawer...
...She went blind...
...And I reviewed the results after the TV program...
...Crawford: Do you deny that a woman in Providence, Rhode Island went blind after cleaning her contact lenses with Steril-Sof...
...I can't see at all...
...Mitch and Earl professed to have relied on information provided by their researcher, Sherraline Waddy...
...Crawford: Will you deny she went blind after using Steril-Sof...
...Zoom in tight on tears on cheek...
...Ir y jabbed his cigar in Mitch Crawford's direction...
...After a pause, the director added, "I'm getting a lot of political heat...
...She related the long testing process to which Steril-Sof had been subjected before it was approved...
...That's my only wish right now, that they'll have to pay for what they did...
...Manheim: Of course...
...Mrs...
...It could be a lot of things: a speck of something in the air, or a scratch from a twig or a leaf, a fingernail, or the edge of a piece of paper...
...I'm really blind and I'm never going to be able to see again...
...Mrs...
...Mrs...
...Barrish: Go ahead...
...Manheim: Of course not...
...Barrish: Like what...
...Pam recognized the voice...
...And how much you missed being able to see them...
...Thank God I have my family...
...Mrs...
...Standing before Irv's desk like a pupil called to the principal's office, she was nervous...
...Videotape of interview) Manheim: We take very great care here, Mr...
...Come back and answer our questions...
...Barrish: Yes, I did...
...And the FDA is really tough on us...
...I'm really blind and I'm never going to be able to see again...
...Then one morning I woke up and I couldn't see anything...
...Francine Barrish has suffered an adverse side effect, namely blindness, from using Steril-Sof...
...Understand now...
...I don't have time to check every little detail of every story, Sherraline," Mitch told the anxious young woman...
...Barrish's blindness and the other cases...
...Farm price supports are the world's most boring subject .' Crawford: Did you use it according to the directions...
...I count on you and the other researchers to confirm the basic facts so I can concentrate on how to turn them into television stories...
...Hold tight shot...
...Is there anything on the mascara applicator that could cause an abrasion on the cornea...
...Pull back to show husband, two daughters seated beside her on sofa...
...Francine Barrish and family) Crawford: Mrs...
...They're all I have...
...McDowell: I'm sorry...
...I assumed that...
...Eighteen million...
...You seem to have a lot more information than I do...
...Tears start again...
...As long as we keep your product off the drugstore shelves, no one else is going to be hurt, are they...
...Crawford (on camera in studio): It's not his fault . . .claims the man who makes Steril-Sof...
...Pam turned off the edited version so she could listen to Manheim's remarks that had been left out of the broadcast: Manheim: Besides, Mitch, we're not allowed to sell any products to the public that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as completely safe...
...She was afraid if she tried to speak she'd burst out crying...
...Barrish: I was there, let's see, I was there, I guess, about two weeks...
...Camera follows McDowell into entrance...
...Why not...
...Then why did you withdraw the license...
...Manheim was just rambling about FDA procedures for approving new products, restating what everyone already knew...
...It's safe...
...Did you check with anybody, a doctor or anybody, to nail down that Steril-Sof was the cause of Mrs...
...Crawford: Did you test the Manheim Company's Steril-Sof and approve it for sale...
...It is also a story of corporate and government irresponsibility...
...Mrs...
...Crawford: Are profits important enough to justify selling a product that is not completely safe...
...But, don't forget, she was the one who approved Steril-Sof...
...So when Pam arrived without an appointment, the doctor gladly agreed to see her immediately...
...Voice off camera: Well, wait a minute now, I think you should count the period where you were going back to the hospital for check-ups, Francine...
...Crawford: When you were fitted for your contact lenses were you told how to care for them...
...I didn't," the researcher confessed...
...Its report on Mrs...
...A production assistant for "The Hour," Pam had come to the office, she'd told herself, to clean up a backlog of paperwork on her desk...
...At first she thought she'd forgotten to switch off the other TV set...
...He said I should keep wearing them and I'd get used to them...
...Who is Mrs...
...Crawford: Making profits is important to you...
...Nessen, who has been both a network correspondent and a White House press secretary, has seen the institutional forces he describes from both the media's and the government's point of view...
...Mrs...
...We'll talk about this later...
...As soon as the congressman hung up, Taft rushed into his presentation, calling to Follet's attention the government's test results, which found Steril-Sof safe...
...Still rolling...
...Nothing unfair about that edit, Pam decided...
...If she didn't want the American people to see her dodging my questions, she shouldn't have run away from the camera...
...What's this about...
...Okay, go...
...So about 75 percent of the people who wear soft contact lenses use Steril-Sof...
...Crawford: It must be hard for you...
...I'll check the applicable communications law and regulations," Taft said, making notes on a yellow pad...
...Initially irritation, redness, a puslike discharge, swelling of the upper lid, and blurred vision...
...Unsteady shot, in and out of focus, as camera follows McDowell across parking tot...
...and advocates of causes that Iry considered wrongheaded or dangerous...
...What do you want me to do, Mr...
...The answer is: it's none of the lawyers' damn business how we shoot our stories...
...Crawford: Did he give you or sell you some of the cleaning solution...
...The show dragged," Iry told his correspondents...
...She is Denise McDowell, the assistant director for the Bureau of Medical Devices...
...With all the treatment you received, did your vision ever come back...
...And I couldn't see anything...
...This could be it...
...But I know it's not a dream...
...Zoom in tight...
...Crawford: Mrs...
...McDowell asked...
...After all, our products are for the eyes, which are extremely sensitive, as you know...
...He asked permission to take some film in the plant and to interview me...
...I know it's safe...
...But that wouldn't mean Steril-Sof caused the infection ." "You said the bacteria take root in an abrasion on the cornea...
...Barrish and daughters...
...I can't ever see Tom and I can't ever see my two girls...
...A friend ." She thought of one last point she needed cleared up...
...Iry sent for her...
...Manheim: I can't deny...
...Begins to cry again...
...I can't talk about this...
...A woman in Providence who claims she went blind after using Steril-Sof...
...Holds up lenses...
...She discussed the minimal risks of using the product and explained why a scattered few users might suffer eye irritations, offering scientific evidence and referring often to reports on her desk...
...I want you all back here at ten in the morning to review story ideas and get your next assignments...
...Crawford: How long did you stay in the hospital...
...I probably shouldn't tell you this . . . but . . . the director's decision to ban Steril-Sof was not a scientific one...
...Barrish: No, it never came back...
...The network already has my reply," Manheim said...
...These villains fell into several categories: executives of companies that ripped off the public, polluted the environment, or harmed their customers or workers...
...Then, when the flap dies down, we can say we confirmed Steril-Sof is safe and reinstate the license...
...Crawford: So you take special care to make only safe products...
...Crawford: Did the company ever apologize to you...
...But it wouldn't hurt to suspend the license pending a review...
...I was scared to death...
...On the edited tape, the scene cut to Mitch asking a question, while in the raw footage Manheim continued to speak...
...His feet were planted on a pile of newspapers, scripts, and clippings on his desk...
...Tell our viewers how much you missed being able to see them after you used Steril-Sof contact lens solution .' show the correspondent's face on the screen...
...Manheim: That's not true...
...Show how you feel...
...Barrish's questions...
...Mrs...
...She had her chance to tell her side of the story when I questioned her in the parking lot," Mitch replied...
...He would not have been allowed to sell Steril-Sof unless the Food and Drug Administration approved it as safe...
...I don't know her...
...Hold for ten seconds...
...Crawford: You mean you don't know about Mrs...
...Manheim asked...
...Crawford: You approved it for sale even though it can cause eye infections, even though one person went blind after using it...
...Kroll fitted her with contact lenses...
...But publicizing your case may save other people from suffering this tragedy...
...Why...
...Mrs...
...Someday, the long, slow judicial process will assess the blame and penalties in this tragedy...
...His story is fiction, but because journalists, politicians, and bureaucrats are human beings who respond to the imperatives of their various...
...But my office did...
...McDowell: Steril-Sof...
...Turn the camera off...
...Manheim: I don't know about her...
...Sitting down at a pair of videotape machines, she decided to run Mitch's story and the raw tapes side by side...
...Split screen) Mrs...
...Pam decided Mitch's redo was justified because it cleaned up the sloppy language of his original question and took less air time...
...Crawford...
...He discarded most of the ideas because they didn't seem likely to produce the hard-hitting, investigative dramas he needed to improve the ratings...
...Follet...
...Crawford: Are you Denise McDowell...
...I'm totally blind...
...If some contaminated makeup got on her contacts, and she wasn't using the Steril-Sof properly to sterilize her lenses, then the bacteria might have gotten into her eyes from the contacts...
...The government's Food and Drug Administration approved it for sale...
...The substitution really wasn't unfair to Manheim...
...Crawford: It must be difficult . . Voice off camera: Perfect...
...Pam picked it up during her lunch break...
...government officials who were crooked or inept...
...Barrish to him, then asked him what he thought could have caused her blindness...
...Crawford: Did they ever offer to give you any money to repay you for your suffering...
...Mrs...
...That's about four million people...
...During the actual interview: Crawford: So, between the FDA regulations and your own commitment, uh, you feel like what your customers buy from Manheim is, uh, safe...
...The Manheim Company is being hurt, unjustly," Taft protested...
...Videotape of Mrs...
...The substitution really wasn't unfair to Manheim...
...One last thing," he concluded...
...I believe the network must afford you a fair opportunity to reply to any criticism in a news story...
...I guess I thought your investigation would confirm that it was or wasn't, Mr...
...Two kids...
...Mrs...
...When Pam decided her chance of landing a job in television would be enhanced if she got rid of her eyeglasses, Dr...
...Go ahead, Mitch, ask the question again...
...Not me," Pam mumbled...
...I know that...
...I just hope somebody can make the company that did this to me suffer like they made me suffer...
...Crawford: When you were fitted . . . Voice off camera: Wait a second, Mitch...
...I like the sound of this one...
...Crawford: Did they tell you they were taking this product off the market, or checking it for safety...
...It was all medical mumbo jumbo...
...Manheim: It is completely safe in terms of . . . Look, some people...
...My husband (cutaway shot of husband) called the doctor and he told him to get me to the emergency room right away...
...Contact lens disinfectant...
...McDowell: The testing and approval of new medical products is an extremely complex subject...
...Barrish discovered that the Manheim solution, called Steril-Sof, did not protect her vision...
...Barrish: No, it never came back...
...Let's see...
...But my guess is they won't be any better than they've been for the last six months...
...Manheim: Of course...
...It was the director: "I'm under a lot of pressure to suspend Manheim's license to market SterilSof...
...Barrish, Earl's voice can be heard off camera coaching her to give more dramatic answers...
...Go, Mitch...
...Videotape of woman getting out of car in FDA parking lot...
...But when the safety and health of the people of these United States are at stake, we cannot be too careful, can we...
...The news media are beating our brains out because of that story on 'The Hour...
...Francine, why don't you elaborate on that answer a little bit...
...There are always a certain small number of people who might suffer adverse side effects .. . Crawford: So you're saying it's not completely safe...
...Pam then cued the tapes to Mitch's next question...
...He's demanding we take Steril-Sof off the market pending a congressional investigation...
...Mrs...
...Crawford: Then you believe Steril-Sof is completely safe...
...To be summoned before these three, Sherraline sensed, meant trouble...
...Since when do we make decisions based on what the press says...
...Instead . . . it destroyed her vision...
...Crawford: And with all the treatment you received in the hospital, did your vision ever come back...
...Steril-Sof story...
...Barrish: No, never...
...But now that she was on the darkened twenty-second floor all alone, she knew that her real purpose in coming back was to resolve her doubts about the...
...Two different questions came out of the TV sets...
...Barrish, I hate to ask you questions at a time like this...
...I'm sorry to intrude...
...But the medical fact is...
...When I find out who showed Taft those tapes, I'm going to kill him...
...I'm sorry...
...Mrs...
...The woman gets a minute amount of the contaminated makeup in her eye, and the bacterium takes root in an abrasion of the cornea and turns into what we call a pseudomonas ulcer...
...Did you see the announcements...
...But . . .there are also problems with contact lenses...
...I'm sure the company can afford to lose a little money, Mr...
...Crawford: How many people must suffer "adverse side effects" before you would consider Steril-Sof to be unsafe...
...Phil, when she mentions the family, you pull back and show them...
...Barrish: My eyes kept getting worse and worse, redder and itchier...
...We reshot some of my questions," Mitch conceded, "but only to tighten them up, take out some of the `uhs.' It didn't change the meaning ." "Taft claims you showed the FDA gal running away from the camera but you cut an interview in her office where she explained that Steril-Sof is safe...
...Barrish: No...
...What causes an abrasion...
...Crawford: And yet...
...Without the new loans, we may not be able to survive...
...Iry moved on to Taft's complaints that "The Hour" hadn't made an adequate effort to track down the true cause of Mrs...
...Most stories on "The Hour" had a clearly defined villain who was exposed, pursued, and finally confronted on camera...
...Barrish: I feel like I'm in a nightmare, like I'm going to wake up and this never happened to me...
...McDowell: That's me...
...I've just about convinced the bankers to extend our line of credit...
...The most common cause is eye makeup contaminated with the bacterium...
...Crawford: And with all the treatment you received in the hospital, did your vision ever come back...
...Barrish: What was it, Ernie, five days, six days...
...Millions of people who wear soft contact lenses bought it, and are still buying it, because they were assured that it is safe...
...One bristle of the applicator jutted out from the rest...
...Sound of crying up full...
...Voice off camera: You know, like how you feel about your vision never coming back...
...It is safe," McDowell insisted...
Vol. 16 • October 1984 • No. 9
