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Kathie Lee Gifford held a weepy press conference after it was revealed that her Kathie Lee clothing line, sold by Wal-Mart, was made by sweatshop workers in Honduras. That was just the beginning; soon it was revealed that some of the clothes were also made in a New York City sweatshop, just blocks from the studio where she appears daily. And although the workers there were earning less than minimum wage, they hadn't been paid in weeks.

With the help of a top-notch PR firm, Kathie Lee began repairing her tarnished image, transforming Gifford into a labor activist, sworn to fight sweatshops everywhere. The campaign was launched with help from an extremely sympathetic report presented by ABC's "PrimeTime Live." Why did the network rush to save Gifford's image? Norman Solomon pointed out in his Media Beat column that both ABC and her talk show are owned by the Walt Disney Company -- a corporation with much to lose should the public become too upset about sweatshops.

(Source: monitor.net)