05.04.08

Stepparents added to lawsuit against ABC Primetime for stepfamily story

Posted in News at 10:19 pm by Dawn Miller

America watched in horror in 2006 on ABC Primetime as Kyle Nelson, then a teenager, was beaten by her stepfather and cheered on by her stepmother, in an expose called “Stepfamilies in Crisis.”

The show’s producers did nothing to stop the abuse, and the public outrage about ABC’s failure to protect Kyle, who was a minor at the time, after knowing (and videotaping) the assault on the girl, led to ABC shutting down its user feedback mechanisms for the show on its website and even removing video of the episode. The story even sparked coverage by stately NPR.

In a PR effort to quell the mayhem, ABC had Kyle appear on Good Morning America, to ask the public to not hate her father, say she was alright, and indicate that her family was in counseling.

Last year, we found out Kyle was suing ABC, the Walt Disney Company, and anchor Diane Sawyer for their bungling and failure to protect her from abuse. Now Kyle’s legal guardian, Joseph Nelson, and stepmother, Lynn Nelson, have been added to the lawsuit as well, reports the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. ABC and company have until May 30, 2008 to respond to the lawsuit.

The story raises serious questions about journalist ethics and how minors are treated in an age of reality-TV. Some of Kyle’s relatives have also told journalist blogger Po Bronson about how ABC kept them in the dark about the abuse and what Kyle endured at her stepfather’s home, and said that if they had known about the tape, they would have taken it to the district attorney to try to protect Kyle, then ABC would have lost the ability to air the tape legally - so ABC kept mum. He also wrote earlier about the case and the serious journalist ethics issues it raises.

See TheStepfamilyLife’s previous postings about this story:

• ABC Primetime’s Expose of Stepfamilies: Nets a Lawsuit for Diane Sawyer & Company
• ABC Primetime Exposes Stepfamilies on the Brink

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