Loaded to main swf communication question

I'm upgrading some elearning code to AS3 and having trouble with a "Jump Menu" that loads at 3 in the main swf. here is the main swf code:

//Main swf shell
var menuLoader:Loader = new Loader();
menuLoader.contentLoaderInfo.addEventListener(Event.INIT, doneLoading3);

var menuMC:MovieClip = new MovieClip();
stage.addChild(menuMC);

function doneLoading3(e:Event):void {
menuMC = MovieClip(menuLoader.content);
stage.addChildAt(menuMC, 3);
menuMC.visible = false;
};

function thirdClip():void{
menuLoader.load(new URLRequest("jump_menu_as3.swf"));
};

thirdClip();

The menu gets it's content from an XML file and builds the links dynamically:

//Loaded swf jump_menu_as3

var textFormat:TextFormat = new TextFormat("Verdana", 12);
var xml:XML;

var xmlLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
var url:URLRequest = new URLRequest("media.xml");
xmlLoader.load(url);
xmlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, onXmlLoad);

function onXmlLoad(e:Event):void { 
xml = new XML(xmlLoader.data); 
var mediaElements2:XMLList = xml.level2.media2;
var len:int = mediaElements2.length();
for (var i:int = 0; i < len; i++) { 
var tf:TextField = new TextField()
tf.defaultTextFormat = textFormat
tf.htmlText = mediaElements2
  tf.x = 10
tf.y = 20*i + 10
tf.width = 300
tf.selectable = false;
  jump_menu.megaMan.addChild(tf)
tf.addEventListener(TextEvent.LINK, linkEvent);
function linkEvent(event:TextEvent):void {
switch (true) {
case (event.text == "myText"):
   MovieClip(this.parent.parent).widget1 = 0;
   MovieClip(this.parent.parent).nextClip();
break;

case (event.text == "myText1"):
   MovieClip(this.parent.parent).widget1 = 1;
   MovieClip(this.parent.parent).nextClip();
break;

case (event.text == "myText2"):
   MovieClip(this.parent.parent).widget1 = 2;
   MovieClip(this.parent.parent).nextClip();
break;
default :
trace("curious");
}
}

I can trace that the XML links are loading and that they trigger a trace, but I can't get them to talk to the main swf. Please help me figure out what I'm missing.

Thanks