Thursday, December 01, 2005
Primetime Broadcast Tonight
Confirmed on ABC's website: the Matthew Mancuso story will air tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern.
"A Russian orphan adopted by an American man speaks out for the first time about being molested by her adoptive father--who posted explicit photographs of the little girl online."
It's hard to get much out of a one-sentence synopsis, but perhaps Masha's story will be presented as one isolated tragic and newsworthy tale, not a hasty generalization showing adoptive parents as abusive human traffickers and those involved in the adoption process as incompetent and greedy.
To ensure ABC is employing fair, unbiased reporting, let's keep our eyes and ears open for:
Statistics. If and when they start throwing out numerators of international adoptions gone bad in the U.S., let's make sure they're put in context by also including the proper demoninator:
"A Russian orphan adopted by an American man speaks out for the first time about being molested by her adoptive father--who posted explicit photographs of the little girl online."
It's hard to get much out of a one-sentence synopsis, but perhaps Masha's story will be presented as one isolated tragic and newsworthy tale, not a hasty generalization showing adoptive parents as abusive human traffickers and those involved in the adoption process as incompetent and greedy.
To ensure ABC is employing fair, unbiased reporting, let's keep our eyes and ears open for:
Statistics. If and when they start throwing out numerators of international adoptions gone bad in the U.S., let's make sure they're put in context by also including the proper demoninator:
- 5,000 adoptions from Russia per year at current levels
- 23,000 total international adoptions per year at current levels
- 49,000 total adoptions from Russia since the program opened in 1992
- 227,000 total international adoptions since 1990
Sexism. See if the report hints that someone should have seen a red flag simply because a single man looked to adopt a child. Would such a flag be raised if a single woman looked to adopt a child?
The little I know about Mancuso's background--and I'm sure we'll all know more after tonight's broadcast--is that he has an adult-aged (biological) daughter with whom he has no relationship. That's what should have been investigated prior to approving his home study, and it wasn't. Otherwise, free of a criminal record, Mancuso was as qualified to adopt as "the next guy."
Post-mortem on the broadcast to follow.
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