Using _root in external swf

I have an external swf, that is a photo gallery, loading into my main swf. When the external swf loads, everything works fine except when you click on a thumbnail in the external swf, the jpg doesn’t load. I have it set up that an empty movie clip is created first, then the jpg is loaded into that. I have a feeling it is something with the fact that I am using _root, but I don’t have any guesses whats causing the issue and how to fix it…any help would be great, thanks!

        News.onRelease = function(){
                     if( !this.up ){
			TweenMax.to(loading, .5, {autoAlpha:100});
			_root.createEmptyMovieClip("container", 1);
			container.createEmptyMovieClip("mc", 1);