# I pit ABC Primetime show **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 25, 2006, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-abc-primetime-show/354203 "2006-04-25T21:16:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dbuzman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de0a6/32.png) [@dbuzman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dbuzman)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-abc-primetime-show/354203/1 "2006-04-25T21:16:58Z")
[here](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,192856,00.html): > [@](#): > > The beating was caught on videotape recorders that the family – identified as Lynn and Joe Nelson – had allowed ABC News to install in their home for a program on the difficulties stepfamilies have getting along. > > The family had control of the cameras and could turn them off at any time. Diane Sawyers show was doing a report about dysfunctional stepfamilies and a beating was caught on recorders that the family let abc news put in the house. The article doesn’t say how long the Primetime people knew about it before the broadcast. But, it didn’t occur to any of them to say fuck the show, we need to tell the authorities? Instead they just ignore it and then broadcast it and now they have viewers asking for Sawyer and anyone else involved to resign. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-abc-primetime-show/354203/2 "2006-04-25T21:25:38Z")
Wow, how stupid do you have to be to beat your kid in front of cameras that you can turn off at any time? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-abc-primetime-show/354203/3 "2006-04-25T22:33:06Z")
That trashy family was messed up. I hated both parents and thought that the psychologists coddled them the whole time. ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-abc-primetime-show/354203/4 "2006-04-26T03:17:15Z")
I saw that, and several days later am still seething with hatred at that father and stepmother. Gotta worry about the little kids that are left in the home. The way the stepmother made the gestures with her arm when the dad was meting out the beating made me want to vomit. That woman is a fucking cunt. The only reason I can think of why ABC didn’t bring in child protective services is because the girl moved in with her grandparents shortly after that happened. ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-abc-primetime-show/354203/5 "2006-04-26T04:32:51Z")
I saw it, too. Those people were monsters. It was so sad that after all that, the girl still wanted to live with her dad. The stepmother especially was a horrid shrew. Am I mistaken, but was she actually _grinning_ when the girl was being beaten? Since the beating was caught on tape, can the parents still be charged? Can ABC be fined for not going to the authorities? > [@](#): > > **trublmakr** wrote: > Gotta worry about the little kids that are left in the home. It’s bad enough they had to say Hail Marys and Our Fathers while they were listening to their stepsister being abused. They might not be abused, though, since the stepmother seemed to be the catalyst for the abuse and viewed the twelve-year-old (!) as a threat to her dominance. ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-abc-primetime-show/354203/6 "2006-04-26T04:40:06Z")
> [@](#): > > **KCSuze** wrote: > Since the beating was caught on tape, can the parents still be charged? That’ll teach me to post before reading the news story. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-abc-primetime-show/354203/7 "2006-04-26T04:54:43Z")
> [@KCSuze](#): > > It’s bad enough they had to say Hail Marys and Our Fathers while they were listening to their stepsister being abused. They might not be abused, though, since the stepmother seemed to be the catalyst for the abuse and viewed the twelve-year-old (!) as a threat to her dominance. But they’ll be 12-year-olds someday. That woman is so mentally unbalanced, I have a hard time believing that just because the little ones are biologically hers, she won’t act the same way towards them when they stop being cute. And yes, she was not only grinning, but moving her right arm in accordance with the dad’s slaps, as if she was joining in. Ugh! I wanted to jump into the TV and beat her ass and scream obscenities at her. The dad was abusive also, yes, but you at least caught glimpses of affection for the girl, some kind of bond. The stepmother was nothing but hate and meanness. ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2006, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-abc-primetime-show/354203/8 "2006-04-26T05:08:51Z")
You make a good point, and hopefully she’ll be locked away before she can hurt the little ones. But the feeling I got from her (and it’s admittedly just a feeling) was that she saw the stepdaughter as some sort of competitor for her husband’s affection in some weird Freudian way. The part where she compares her family to a wolfpack and herself as the dominant female was particularly chillng. Of course, that’s not to say this nutbag won’t turn on her own “pups” as well. She needs to be as far away from children as possible. I’m not sure what my point is, other than these two are horrible, horrible people.