[tobe]

Below are 2 items regarding a new reality TV show "Who's Your Daddy ?" The first item is from an adoption website http://www.simpleasthat.com which has links to help your make your voice heard.

December 15, 2004
Reality Show Outrage: Who's Your Daddy
As incredible as it may sound, Fox TV will be airing a "special" reality TV show in January titled "Who's Your Daddy?"

As if the title wasn't bad enough, the show features an adult adoptee "given away" as an infant trying to find her "real" father. If she guesses which of three men are her birthfather she wins $100K. If she is wrong, her birth-father wins the money.

This is offensive on so many levels—from the concept, to the language, to the perpetuation of EVERY negative adoption stereotype—it hardly seems real, but it is.

We must speak out as a community and as advocates for our children and the 40 million people directly affected by adoption. To make it easy, we've put together an "Action Alert" which you can fill out, print, fax, and/or email. CLICK HERE TO TAKE ACTION. Note to members - this link doesn't work use the one above.

Collectively, we are very powerful and can stop this show before it airs.

The second is a press release from the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute:

ADOPTION INSTITUTE ASKS FOX TO ABANDON REALITY SHOW, CALLING IT "DESTRUCTIVE"

NEW YORK, December 15, 2004 - The Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute today
called on Fox Television to scrap its planned new reality program, "Who's Your Daddy," calling it "destructive, insensitive and offensive" to the tens of millions of Americans with adoption in their families.

"No reasonable person would stand for such a show if it treated race, gender, ethnicity or religion in such a crass, intrusive manner," said Adam Pertman, the Institute's Executive Director. "And we shouldn't tolerate it, either, when it deals with such an important, personal component of so many people's lives."

In the Fox program, due to air as a special next month, with additional episodes already filmed, an adult who was adopted years ago interviews eight men to figure out which of them is her biological father. If she guesses right, she wins $100,000; if she fails, the contestant who fooled her gets the money.

Pertman said that even if all of those involved are willing participants, which they presumably are, that doesn't make the show less exploitive of them, less insensitive to others in the adoption community, or less unrealistic. He added that better laws and policies need to be put into place, so that adopted
people will have greater access to their personal histories and programs like this won't have a reason to exist.

The show's producers contend that critics are lambasting "Who's Your Daddy" without having seen it, but Pertman countered: "You don't have to watch something racist, sexist or homophobic to understand that its concept is a problem. In this case, the very idea of taking such a deeply personal, complex situation and turning it into a money-grubbing game show is perverse, destructive, insensitive and offensive."

The Adoption Institute is one of the pre-eminent policy, research and education organizations in its field; because it is independent of any interest group, the Institute has long been a source of accurate, unbiased information for journalists, researchers and policymakers. Its award-winning website contains
extensive information on adoption-related issues, including ones relating to ethics and best practices.

Pertman, a Pulitzer Prize nominee for his writing about adoption in The Boston Globe, is the author of the groundbreaking book "Adoption Nation: How the Adoption Revolution is Transforming America." He lectures throughout the country and abroad, and his commentaries on adoption, foster care and
nontraditional families have appeared in numerous major print and broadcast media.

To arrange an interview, or for more information, please contact Pertman at
617-332-8944 (office), 617-763-0134 (cell) or apertman@adoptioninstitute.org.
The Institute website is www.adoptioninstitute.org.

Adam Pertman, Executive Director
apertman@adoptioninstitute.org
617-332-8944 or 617-763-0134

Hollee McGinnis, Policy Director
hmcginnis@adoptioninstitute.org
212-925-4089 or 646-263-9236