This whole Elizabeth Smart thing is getting ridiculous

The BBQ Pit
#1

Okay, I’m getting a little sick of hearing about this story. First of all, was she really kidnapped? Let’s break it down:

  1. In just about every news story I’ve read, they refer to the kidnappers as the “alleged kidnappers”
  2. She was held so close to her home that it seems funny they weren’t found sooner. It seems as though her parents hired some crazy homeless people to go camping with their daughter for awhile, and when the story of her kidnapping finally died down, suddenly, she’s returned home.
  3. She returned calmly and has no fear of the kidnappers or the place they kept her.

Now, she’s been interviewed by Oprah and Katie Couric, has a TV-movie coming out, and a book. People are squabbling over the media coverage. What the fuck is going on here? They won’t let anyone ask Elizabeth about any details of what happened to her while she was gone… to avoid “traumatizing” her… is it a coverup? I feel very sorry for Elizabeth… You’d think her parents would want to get back to normal life… instead, they are pushing her in front of as many cameras as possible.

Oh yeah, the latest:

Elizabeth Smart in TV crossfire

#2

I have nothing to say about Lizzy Smart, but leatherheather is a name that gives me a woody!

The mental picture I have of you would get you arrested in some states! :smiley:

She told me she loved me like a brother. She was from Arkansas, hence the Joy!

#3

That’s for legal reasons, as they have not been found guilty in a court of law, and is done in every similar case where there is a suspect but no completed trial. Are you suggesting that the media is in collaboration with the Smart family, somehow?

#4

Prior to a conviction, it is more or less standard practice to refer to the accused as an “alleged” prepetrator of whatever crime is at issue. This is done in pretty much ever single freaking criminal case there is. The fact that you would offer this for the inference that she was not kidnapped is utterly absurd.

What? Is there even the slightest shred of evidence for this theory?

What is the basis for your belief that she returned calmly and has no fear of her kidnappers?

What?

What?

I can’t even begin to fathom what tortuous chain of reasoning you have used here. A young teenager is taken out of her room at night at gunpoint. She is held for months, sexually abused by her captor. And you question the idea that providing details about her abuse might be traumatizing?

What kind of an idiot are you?

  • Rick
#5

Jeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeezuz, you obviously know little facts behind the story -

They haven’t been tried yet. The term “alleged” is correct until convicted.

I can tip my head up as I type this, look out of my office window and see Elizabeth’s neighborhood on the side of the mountain. She was kept, bound and tied, threatened, beaten, sexually assaulted, in a dense mountainous area. Most of the type they were underground in a hole covered with dead trees and bushes.

I am familiar with the area and have no problem understanding why she was not discovered.

The idiotic “hiring some crazy homeless people to go camping. . . .” doesn’t even deserve a response.

  1. She returned calmly and has no fear of the kidnappers or the place they kept her.

Returned calmly? Has no fear of the kidnappers? First of all, do you understand the dynamics between kidnappers and their victims when they subject them to brainwashing? I would suggest you read the book “Perfect Victim” by Christine McGuire.

I also have it on pretty good authority (a coworker is related to the family) that Elizabeth is undergoing long and extensive therapy.

#6

In short, leatherhealther, this is an idiotic OP and you don’t know what you are talking about.

#7

[nitpick]

Except on Law and Order where

Sorry for the hijack. They are prosecuting the accused !!! I agree with Bricker and that Law and Order bit always sticks in my craw. [/nitpick]

#8

I agree that the OP’s list is well, easily torn about. But I am more than a little amazed that these people (aka the Smart parents) who begged and pleaded for the return of their daughter, who talk of wanting to allow her to heal and get back to being a regular normal teenager - well then what’s up with the book, and multiple TV interviews? Seems to me that ‘normal teenagers’ do not give multiple part multiple high profile TV interviews.

I have all the sympathy in the world for what they went through.

#9

I’m with wring on this one. Why are these people doing TV interviews? I find it more than a little creepy, as if they’re enjoying the celebrity of it all. I think that, under similar circumstances, my primary goal would be to achieve anonymity.

#10

Gotta chime in with wring et al. I’m not trying to be judgmental, but the whole “I don’t want my daughter traumatized anymore and just want her to have a normal life” plea sounds rather strange in the backdrop of high-profile interviews, news articles, and book deals. If I was kidnapped and raped, my parents would get written up on my shit list in permanent ink if they chose to plaster my face and story all over the goddurn media not even a year after I’ve come home. WTF? Nevermind the oddities that characterize the case itself. The behavior of the Smarts right now does not make much sense to me.

But then again, I’m not in their shoes. So maybe my opinion don’t amount to much.

#11

I believe people like the Smart’s are literally beseiged.

Their lives and privacy destroyed, I can imagine them begging for mercy.

Finally, Katie or Oprah,in their weakest moment, convince them that it will all be over if they’d just speak, grant one interview. Blah, blah, blah, etc.

#12

From all reports, that is exactly what has happened elbows. The local news reports that they are getting hundreds of phone calls per week. That it is almost making them crazy. I am guessing that they decided to grant a couple of interviews in hopes that it will finally go away.

#13

This is somewhat of a rarity but I agree with everything you said, *Bricker.

#14

That was the first thing I thought about when I heard about the interviews, books and movies. Why would they put that little girl through that again?

Then I remembered how utterly vicious the media could be. They probably just want to get the story out and pray the harrassment will stop.

I realize the books and movies can and will probably be made without the Smart’s consent, and so it makes sense that they would do a couple of interviews to get the story straight and hopefully be left alone, once and for all.

And leatherheather, your “theory” is nothing short of insane. I can only hope you’re in the extreme minority.

#15

I’m kinda with Wring here as well. I mean if you want the media harassment to stop, you get yourself a lawyer. If you want a “Normal” life for your kid after a thing like this, you move away, and start over. You don’t keep that same daughter in the same house from which she was taken, and get someone to write a book and sell the story rights for a Lifetime movie.

The whole thing just don’t jive. If they want to capitalize on the tragedy, then cool, just say so, but enough with the sniveling about normal lives and all that. I mean, sorry about the tragedy and all, but sell your book, get your 15 minutes, and evaporate already.

#16

These people live in Utah. Need I say any more?

#17

Yes, ccwaterback; you do. If for no other reason than to display how deep your stupid comments can sink.

#18

Oh goodness Monty, what would the church think about a comment like that?

#19

“Coleman said he has no interest in reading the “authorized story” because it is always suspect. What he would relish is a book that explores the ways in which faith forms and deforms our view of the world,”

http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Mar/03292003/utah/43087.asp

#20

Who cares, cc? I care about the stupid comment you made about someone living in a particular state based purely on the fact of them living in that state.