Primetime Post-Mortem In spite of (or perhaps because of) the advance buzz, what we saw last night wasn't a condemnation of the international adoption process. What we saw was Masha, an incredibly brave child sexual abuse victim willing to tell her story.

Did authorities place Masha with a father they knew (or should have known) was a pedophile? With a clean criminal record, the only indication rested with Matthew Mancuso's estranged adult biological daughter. Also a victim of Mancuso's abuse, she came out with the revelation for the first time on last night's broadcast. (Even her own mother was unaware of the extent of the abuse.)

The ex-wife and adult daughter were never contacted to address his parenting skills (or more specifically, lack thereof) as part of the investigation in advance of the adoption. But the daughter wasn't ready to talk at that time, either. She learned of the adoption and, while appalled, maintained her silence.

Where "the system" clearly failed was through the complete absence of post-placement home visits, which certainly would have indicated a problem. Masha had no bedroom. The adoption professionals who handled the case understandably weren't willing to comment.

Reporting was fair and balanced. The international adoption folks got plenty of airtime to condemn the Mancuso case along with the handful of other Russian adoptions gone bad (which ABC didn't even bring up) and point out the 49,000 success stories from Russia since the program opened.

It's a story laden with both horror and hope, and one that needed to be told. Given that the "news" of the Mancuso story is so dated and that ABC responsibly presented this as an isolated incident, the effect this much-feared broadcast will have on future international adoptions is negligible.

Blogger's Disclosure: The blogger is still a shareholder of The Walt Disney Company, of which ABC is a subsidiary.  ¶ 7:21 AM