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All three newscasts covered the celebrations that marked the release of Gladys and Jamie Scott from a Mississippi prison after serving 16 years for robbery. They had each been given a life sentence for a petty theft--CBS' Kelly Cobiella said it netted $200; ABC's Steve Osunsami just $11--for which their three accomplices served only three years. Haley Barbour, the Republican governor, paroled them on condition that sister Gladys donate a kidney to sister Jamie, who is currently a dialysis patient.
NBC's Pete Williams had already questioned the medical ethics of Barbour's conditions: offering release from prison in exchange for donating a kidney amounts to coercion. Both Osunsami and Cobiella quoted a tasteless exchange of guffawing on WMPR talkradio in which Barbour explained that his mercy was a moneysaving gimmick: the state has to pay for its prisoners' dialysis so the release saves his coffers $190K annually. CBS' Cobiella reported that the dialysis will now go on the tab of Florida Medicaid: "They still do not know if Gladys is a match to donate a kidney." ABC's Osunsami quoted speculation by the sisters' mother that Barbour reversed the injustice in order to burnish his image, in preparation for running for President.
Amid all these controversies, NBC's Thanh Truong played the story simply for feelgood human interest--no penal injustice, no ethics questions, no callous budgetcutting, no political careerism. "It will be a life outside prison walls and literally on their own terms."
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