That was a great segment. But I felt badly for her that she says her daughter is lost forever. She is pretty sure her ex will get the max for what he's charged with. It's just heartening to at least see Texas standing up for these young girls who can't stand up for themselves.
I watched Dr. Drew -- Flora Jessop was on there, as well as Brent Jeffs.
Dr. Drew skated really, really close to calling out the big hairy purple elephant in the middle of the room that nobody has really called out yet.
He asked the question, of several people but most notably to the Texas Attorney General that was basically, "Why has this been allowed to go on for so long? It almost smacks of a conspiracy that authorities have been turning a blind eye to this for generations. Why haven't the legislators done anything?"
Yes, it does, Dr. Drew. Now call up the Arizona and Utah attorney generals and ask them the same question. Get them to explain to the general public how AZ and UT have some squirrely polygamy laws and how those are generally ignored.
Then go ask Mitt Romney the same damn thing. Because in Utah, and probably to some degree also in Arizona and Idaho, the legislators ARE the mainstream LDS. We all know that Utah is as close to a theocracy as it gets. Could it be the legislators in those two states don't crack down on polygamy because that would be like striking down the very heart of mainstream mormonism? Until they strike D&C 132 from canon, the mainstream LDS church (and by definition, the Utah legislature) will always condone polygamy and will not protect its victims.
Dr. Drew was concerned that everyone needs to know about what the plygs are up to because A) the lost boys go out into the mainstream communities and do not have good social skills, have been abused, and have no coping tools, get no therapy. It's very likely some of them will perpetuate abuses because that's all they know. And B) This is huge. And going on in several communities in this country. It's not just a couple families of a couple dozen people. There's thousands out there flaunting the law in order to abuse women and children.
Dr. Drew has no idea how important this story really is. Because polygamy is the heart of mormonism and Mitt wants to be president. I don't have to connect all the dots for you all, but it warmed my heart to see mainstream media people starting to ask the really good questions that will drill down to the sleazy underbelly of the legacy of Joseph Smith.
I don't believe Dr. Drew really gives a crap. Isn't this the guy that hosted "Love Line?" It's ratings and money. Nothing wrong with that, I guess but I'm betting he doesn't give Jeffs or Jessop a second thought after he walks out of studio. He probably has the same producers psycho Nancy Grace has. That's show biz.
As soon as the story cools the victimization will continue.
I didn't say he did. But I was glad that he brought up some of the issues because, as you astutely pointed out, as soon as the story cools, the victimization will continue. So he was still talking about it and dedicated a good 20 minutes of his show to it.
That's better than ignoring the issue completely because it "doesn't matter" to the rest of us.
And I think Dr. Drew actually does care about women and children being abused. That's what he dealt with a lot on love line. He always made me laugh because whenever he'd hear that weird little girl voice, he'd start asking the caller at what age she'd been sexually abused. Several answered, "never." I always thought those were mormon women who keep that little girl voice in perpetuity. They were abused, but didn't know it because the brainwashing teaches us that we don't deserve to be treated any better.
dogzilla- I didn't mean to bash your post. It sounded like I did. I'm just very cynical about these type of programs. They just keep rotating the same contracted experts through the various shows and they all seem to be FEIGNING concern.
verdacht, thank you, your post did come off a bit adversarial. However, I don't disagree with you at all. Those shows are generally exploitive and sensationalist and offend me to the core as a trained journalist. There is very little actual journalism going on, at least on cable news networks.
That said, once in a while someone covers something and brings in really good experts who actually ARE experts in whatever the topic is. So I try to stay open-minded. Dr. Drew and Nancy Grace are very different to me. Normally, I don't watch Dr. Drew because his show is very superficial. (Nancy Grace I cannot even stomach for a couple minutes because she's shrill, hysterical, and a terrible interviewer.) Last night, I watched it because Flora Jessop was on and she is awesome at cutting through the bullshit to articulate a cogent point of view. Also the AG for Texas really had some interesting things to say as well. Jeffs' defense attorney clearly did not care but he did not pretend to.
Anyway, I tend to stick with Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper because they seem to make some effort to A) dig for facts, B) thoughtfully consider views that do not agree with their own and C) actually contract NEW experts for NEW topics and ask difficult and intelligent questions of them. Maddow is the bomb. You should watch her interview someone sometime. Sometimes I think she's the only person with a brain on TV at all.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/10/2011 03:44PM by dogzilla.
Yes, there are some on there that are.... well not my favorites but they have provided a good platform for Flora and the others. BTW, I have thought all the gals looked lovely and spoke very well.