ABC - PRIMETIME VICTIM SUES ABC

A 20-year-old woman who was seen on ABC's Primetime magazine in 2006 being verbally and physically abused by her father and stepmother when she was 15 has sued the network and the principals connected with the broadcast, including host Diane Sawyer, charging negligence and recklessness. For the broadcast, thousands of hours of video was shot in the Nelson home over a three year period, much of it showing parents Joe and Lynn Nelson, screaming obscenities at their daughter Kyle, who sometimes is seen shouting back in kind. In one scene the father begins pummeling Kyle repeatedly. After it aired, the network reportedly was flooded with calls asking why ABC personnel had not intervened and reported the abuse to authorities. Kyle's attorney, Matthew Norfolk, told the Plattsburgh Press-Republican on Wednesday, "We maintain that a situation of continual, ongoing child abuse could have been stopped by ABC." He charged that by wiring the home for video, ABC "created the atmosphere and environment -- literally set the national stage -- for Kyle to be a victim of emotional and sometimes physical abuse by her father and stepmother, who we believe were dead-set on getting their 15 minutes of fame."

21/02/2008