Seriously, Larry...Enough With The Polygamy Overkill
 Sunday, April 20th, 2008

If you've turned CNN on at all last week than you probably already know more than those in the Texas courtroom this week about the latest news on the FLDS alleged polygamy scandal.  CNN has been providing nearly 24/7 coverage on the removal of 416 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints from the religious sect's compound near Eldorado, Texas.  It's like they live for this stuff:  it's become as big as the first O.J. Simpson trial as far as media coverage, with the potential to become much bigger.

I'm not saying it's a bad thing that this is getting coverage - not at all.  I think it's great that we're raising awareness about the illegal underground practice of marrying off children to husbands with multiple wives, and the child abuse that occurs when young teenagers have multiple children in these societies closed off from the outside world.  But there are other things going on in the world, too.

The FLDS church separated from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the LDS or Mormon Church) in the 1930's when Mormons denounced polygamy as an accepted practice.  Warren Jeffs, the most recent leader of the FLDS church is serving a 10 years- to life sentence in Utah State Prison for being an accomplice to rape.

And because FLDS - which some call a sect, and others profess is a mind-controlling cult - has their women dress in Amish-like attire, when they do emerge from the prisonlike ranch they inhabit, they are still ignored (if not ridiculed) by the general population.

CNN had some very brave women on this week - Carolyn Jessop and Kathy Jo Nicholson - who have escaped from polygamy and encourage the sheltered women and children on the inside to flee from these men and seek help on the outside.

I guess my issue is, with the amount of coverage that has been given on Anderson Cooper, Larry King Live, and the general news broadcasts:  that amount of reporting inevitably invites speculation, ambiguous and overly general open-ended questions from CNN anchors, to which no one really has the answers because it has yet to be determined in Texas court.

Not to mention, if criminal charges are to be brought against any of the men behind this, how will the state find neutral jury members when there's nonstop nationwide television coverage on every aspect of their case?

But, of course, we love to try people in the media, and so Larry King brought seven of these women from the FLDS ranch on CNN in a "special" Wednesday, where they of course denied knowing of any underage children being married.  My jaw nearly dropped to the floor when Larry King asked these prudent women - in the most modest of Little House On The Prairie attire - if they ever saw anyone having sex with an underage girl after they already denied underage marriages even taking place at all in their "pure life."  What was he trying to do, make them crack under pressure in Larry King's Kangaroo Court?

Here's one of those ridiculous questions I mentioned:

And then on Friday night's broadcast, Larry King discusses the possible hoax caller - who may have been a Colorado City woman posing as an FLDS child to Child Protective Services - and asks if that makes TX's whole investigation fabricated on a misconception.

The next hour on Anderson Cooper they posed the same exact questions about the "hoax" caller and how it might ruin Texas' case, despite the fact that insiders had just told Larry probable cause is probable cause and the origin of the report is pretty irrelevant.  And, you know, common sense.  It isn't like the state of Texas asked a Colorado City woman to make a prank call to report child abuse.

America is interested what will become of this case...but can't we wait until there's more to actually report on?  All I can say is God bless the state of Texas, and they were very smart to keep their actions under wraps before the ranch raid - what a media circus this has become.  Maybe CNN's anchors annoy me more than anything else - they should have just had Carol Jessup, Kathy Jo Nichols, and Mike Watkiss from KTVK interview the witnesses and legal experts.  What place does Larry King - or Anderson Cooper - even have, besides asking asinine questions?

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