Help locating a mc

i have this function.

function CreateNews(news_xml) {
var items = news_xml.firstChild.firstChild.childNodes;

for (var i = 0; i<items.length; i++) {

	var date = items*.firstChild;
	var news = items*.firstChild.firstChild;




	var item_mc = home_mc.content_mc.attachMovie("news_content", "item"+item_count, item_count);
	item_mc._y = item_count*item_spacing;
	item_count++;
	


	item_mc.date_text.text = date.attributes.day;
	item_mc.content_text.text = news.firstChild.nodeValue;
	
	
	



}

}

basically attaches the textfields to item_mc.

I want to .visible false at the beginning. which i can do within the function. however, within home_mc i want to have the .visible true at the end of the animation. The problem is it wont work, i tried _root. but it cant find item_mc.

where is it located? I can only control it from the function itself.