Here is a promo from ABC's late night show Nightline, Thursday, March 13:
"Tonight on 'Nightline'
The far-reaching mortgage crisis, estimated to cost 1.2 million families their homes when it's all through, is also taking a toll on the pet population. In Dayton, Ohio, real estate agent Kathy Bayer found so many cats and dogs abandoned by homeowners that she went on a mission to help them, taking them to local animal shelters. But with families unable to afford their homes, let alone pets, the shelters are overflowing. ABC's Barbara Pinto reports."
(My thanks to Phyllis Jacobson for first calling attention to the upcoming coverage.)
Nightline airs on ABC at 11:30pm in many markets but check your local listings. If you miss the story tonight, you will probably be able to watch it tomorrow on the Nightline website, at
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/
It is vital that shows receive positive feedback for covering animal issues, and the Nightline Webcast, which previews the night's shows, aired a clip of what looks like it will be a sensitive and important story, reported by Barbara Pinto. Please thank the show. Nightline takes comments at:
http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3428117
Less sensitive were the comments made by John Donvan, the anchor of the Nightline Webcast, which previews the night's shows on line. As he introduced the clip he said,
"Its a story from Dayton Ohio. It's one of those "Get them in the tent" pieces where you do something cute, quirky, a stunt-like thing to get people interested in a serous subject. Well the quirky part of this story is the story of a real estate agent, a woman, who has found as a result of foreclosures in her community that there are lots of cats and dogs left behind. And she goes around and finds or creates homes, takes in, saves and rescues these abandoned cats and dogs, in the wasteland of what was the US real estate boom. But the real point of the story is what is happening in this community in terms of the market in real estate, so its not just about animals, its about people too.
While I haven't yet seen the story, the short clip shown on the webcast, and the promo sent out by the show, do not seem to have a cute or quirky tone. My suspicion is that Donvan's comment reflects his own attitude to animal issues rather than the tone of Pinto's coverage. While obviously Donvan meant no offense, it might be useful for him to hear that Nightline viewers don't find stories of animal homelessness and animal rescue to be "quirky." If you do choose to make that point, however, please remember that our aim is to befriend and educate the media on behalf of the animals, not to alienate them. So the most important point is gratitude for the story, and any concern about Donvan's take on it should be communicated in the intelligent and polite manner that will most favorably reflect upon the animals and those who care about them. Also, please be sure not to use any comments or phrases from me or from any other alerts in your notes to Nightline. Shows respond best to
personal feedback from their viewers.
Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)
Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com to read advance reviews of Karen Dawn's new book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals” and watch the fun celebrity studded promo video.
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Date: Thu Mar 13 18:08:28 2008
