Applying CSS to createTextField object

programming flash
1

Here we go again - can Flash developers make this any more difficult?

I’m trying to apply some CSS to a textfield with an actionscript assigned variable: “press”. The CSS doesn’t seem to apply when the XML nodes are parsed. When I create a textfield within Flash the CSS works fine, but not if I create the textfield with actionscript. Why???
I hope we can all learn something from this. Files are attached.

//Create textfield
this.createTextField("content_txt", 10, 0, 0, 390, 0);

//Create and load styles
var pressStyle:TextField.StyleSheet = new TextField.StyleSheet();
pressStyle.load("news.css");
content_txt.styleSheet = pressStyle;

//Textfield attributes
content_txt.multiline= true;
content_txt.wordWrap = true;
content_txt.html = true;
content_txt.autoSize = true;
content_txt.variable = "press";

/*
// Code below works but doesn't parse XML nodes
newsXML = new XML();
newsXML.ignoreWhite = true;
newsXML.load("newsPress.xml");
newsXML.onLoad = function () {
content_txt.htmlText = newsXML;
}
*/

newsXML = new XML();
newsXML.onLoad = pressLoad;
newsXML.load("newsPress.xml");
function pressLoad(OK) {
    if (OK == true) {
        Publish(this.firstChild);
        //content_txt.htmlText = newsXML;
    }
}
function Publish(HeadlineXMLNode) {
    if (HeadlineXMLNode.nodeName.toUpperCase() == "BROADCAST") {
        press = ""; // Removes "undefined" instance
        story = HeadlineXMLNode.firstChild;
        while (story != null) {
            if (story.nodeName.toUpperCase() == "STORY") {
                lead = "";
                body = "";
                URL = "";
                element = story.firstChild;
                while (element != null) {
                    if (element.nodeName.toUpperCase() == "LEAD") {
                        lead = element.firstChild.nodeValue;
                    }
                    if (element.nodeName.toUpperCase() == "BODY") {
                        body = element.firstChild.nodeValue;
                    }
                    if (element.nodeName.toUpperCase() == "URL") {
                        URL = element.firstChild.nodeValue;
                    }
                    element = element.nextSibling;
                }
                press += "<font color='#B2B2B2'><a href='"+URL+"' target='_blank'>"+lead+"</a></font><br>";
                // Don't add font size here
                //content_txt.htmlText += "<font color='#B2B2B2'><a href='"+URL+"' target='_blank'>"+lead+"</a></font><br>";
            }
            story = story.nextSibling;
        }
    }
}