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The Minneapolis bridge was so heavily covered that only one other completely unrelated story warranted the assignment of correspondents. Both CBS and NBC reported on the recall of almost one million plastic toys by Fisher-Price, a division of Mattel--300,000 of the Elmos, Cookie Monsters, Big Birds and Doras the Explorer have already been sold. The toys were produced in China using paint that contains lead. NBC's Andrea Mitchell noted that a similar recall had previously been announced for a lead-tainted Thomas the Tank Engine--ABC's Dan Harris covered that six weeks ago--and "toy companies say there is no foolproof system to prevent this from happening again." CBS' Sandra Hughes quoted Mattel's excuse that it instructed its supplier in China to use approved paint. Hughes asserted that the effort to make sure that imports are safe "remains a parental responsibility"--a proposition that, if true, will be a great relief to Mattel's lawyers.
A reader observes:
Your claim that Sandra Hughes "asserted" that the lead paint issue remains a parental responsibility is inaccurate. That statement came after she explained the company's reliance on the Chinese factory to monitor their safety and decision to not buy paint from an approved vendor. The implication was that the company was falling short on their responsibilities and therefore making something (in this case lead paint) that should be handled at the corporate level a parental responsibility. She in no way was implying that it naturally is and should be a parental responsibility but instead is so because of the company is failing to do their job properly. I seriously think you misinterpreted what she was saying, although that may be as much her fault as yours.
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