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FLDS: Media portrayals versus truth

2008-06-24 14:12:33

Posted by Naiah on June 21st 2008 to FLDS, Politics

Link to Original Article

The level of misinformation about the FLDS and their ways is astounding. I, myself, began with the same picture of these people as is commonly held–an extremist cult who practices a perverted form of the restorationist doctrine of celestial plural marriage wherein young girls are forced into early marriage and pregnancy, kept in poor conditions, mistreated–all to serve the lusts of the ruling body of old men, who oust young boys to keep them from stealing their would-be brides. Sensationally salacious to say the least, and those who spread such an image, such as Carolyn and Flora Jessop or Elissa Wall, undoubtedly sell many more books painting the FLDS that way than they would if the picture were a little truer to life.
Turning away from sensationalist accounts to the actual news media, though, one finds little more truth. The media seems to be a rumor mill of its own, passing off a few facts while couching them in the baseless accusations of an embittered few and endowing the whole report with a subtext of suspicion.
The raid on the YFZ Ranch in Eldorado Texas, even though it was initially driven by a phone call for help that turned out to be a hoax, was supposedly retroactively justified by evidence of widespread physical, emotional, and even sexual abuse of the children, and time and again, that purported evidence is referenced in the abstract as the reasoning, never mind that such justifying evidence was never found.
Never found? How can you say that? The headlines have been full of the evidence that Texas CPS has uncovered!
  • •How about all those kids with a history of broken bones that were reported? Clearly that indicates a pervasive pattern of abuse! As it turn out, there were no more than the average proportion for a rural, active community.
  • •What about the claim that there were found 31 underage teens who are or have been pregnant? No, that simply was not accurate, and even though CPS has since redacted those numbers, they continue to be reported again and again. As it turns out, most of the 31 turned out to be adults–adults who had all the legal and proper documentation to prove their ages, but were deemed ‘underage’ by nothing more than visual inspection by CPS workers. One was 14, but was not and never had been pregnant. She had been included on the list punitively after refusing to take a pregnancy test. Once on the list, she relented and consented to be tested, and then test, retest, and retest again as they might, she never was found to be pregnant, although they kept her on the list.
  • •What about that one teen girl, the one whose lawyer insisted that she was a victim of sexual abuse and had already had a baby that was secretly being claimed by another woman? Again, simply untrue. That girl’s name is Teresa, and Teresa is not the source of those claims, nor is she the source of the allegations of intimidation by FLDS spokesman Willie Jessop. Those claims come from her ad litem, the lawyer assigned to advocate for her best interests. Only her ad litem, Natalie Malonis, has not served the girl’s interests, and has even gone so far as to be incredibly unkind to Teresa, making untrue and disparaging remarks to her in regard to her faith and her family. Malonis has an agenda, and she is abusing her position as Teresa’s ad litem to pursue it. Teresa has petitioned the court to assign a new ad litem, though it is unlikely that it will be granted, as Malonis’s outrageous claims are exactly what judge Barbara Walther’s court wants to hear in the scramble to retroactively justify one of the worst violations of civil rights in American history–regardless of whether they are true or not. It should also be mentioned that, per Free the FLDS Children, Teresa has been to a gynecologist, to clear her own name from the untruths purported by her ad litem, and not only is she not pregnant, she never has been, as she is a virgin.
I refuse to believe that the media dissemination of such consistent misinformation is part of any kind of an overarching conspiracy. I can only assume that the individual journalists themselves must not be aware of the bias inherent in their reporting.
Up until now, the FLDS have kept to themselves, with little thought for public opinion, leaving their image to be painted by those with a vested interest in defaming them. This has led to the incredible bias prevalent in most reporting on them. The reporters assume that the sensationalist allegations made by the likes of disaffected ex-members who have books to sell and foundations to fund, were the facts, and they have worked from that skewed perspective. Cutting through the myths, though, and getting at the actual facts, one finds a dramatically different perspective.

Through it all, I have found the reporting of Brooke Adams and her associates at the Salt Lake Tribune to have included a more balanced report as events have unfolded. I highly suggest a perusal of their coverage if you want to get through the media rumor relay circus to what really happened, because what really happened was terrifyingly wrong and it poses a sincere threat to the basic, fundamental Constitutionally-granted freedoms and liberties of every American citizen.


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