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In Reply to: Anderson Cooper 360 posted by Acheick on January 18, 2005 at 20:59:54:
I just finished watching the CNN report on TF. I’m writing this from memory so I may have a few details incorrect, but here’s a summary of the 20 minute report. The points I recount here should not be taken as fact because I am merely paraphrasing as best I can remember for the benefit of those who won’t get to see it.
It started with a clip from Ricky's video, which showed him loading bullets into a gun, and then there was a backgrounder on TF and the murder-suicide. Next, James Penn was interviewed, using that name with his face hidden in shadow. He did a great job. A short excerpt from his apology to the SG's was shown on screen as he explained that systemic abuse authorized from the top was wide-spread, and that TF still has not accepted responsibility for that. The interview must have been difficult for him, but he was very credible as a former member of the cult's leadership inner circle.
Then came Daniel Roselle. It must have taken incredible courage for him to do that. He was very powerful and articulate. He described how TF covers for and hides the perpetrators of abuse, has never turned any abuser over to the authorities, and has never apologized or made restitution to its victims. He also challenged TF to produce evidence and details of the procedures they claim to have in place to prevent abuse.
TF spokesperson, Claire Borowik, was interviewed last, and the interviewer pushed her on Daniel’s challenge. He asked her what procedures they have in place and she avoided answering. He also really pushed her on why it was necessary for TF to publish directives in 1986 forbidding adult-child sex. Her answer was very weak, and she stammered slightly as she tried the deception that TF was in transition from its younger, wilder days when there were no guidelines in place, and that from 1986 on they were developing the necessary rules. She actually bragged that TF came out with sex abuse prevention guidelines a decade or more before other churches did.
She did everything she could to avoid admitting that adult-child sex and other abuses were wide-spread or even occurred at all. He asked her the same question about the necessity for guidelines in 1986 a couple more times, saying that he was confused about why they would need rules to prohibit adult-child sex if it wasn’t occurring prior to that. She just kept to TF’s official position that if any incidents did occur, they were isolated.
The other point the interviewer really hammered on was whether or not TF had ever turned any abusers over to the authorities. Again, she did everything to avoid answering the question. He kept pushing her, saying that other organizations like the Catholic church have done that so why not TF. The only explanation she gave was that each incidence of abuse was isolated and local and that it was up to the abused to lodge a complaint. She said something about how that was for courts to decide, or something like that. She then started attacking Daniel, denying that he had ever been abused and that he had made the claim only after he left, not while he was still in TF.
Of course I’m biased, but of the three persons interviewed, Claire definitely came off looking the worst. She hesitated in her answers, avoided questions, and generally appeared shifty and uneasy.
Also interesting was the reactions of the interviewer. He was obviously struggling with the weirdness of it all, trying to comprehend this bizzare world we all know so well.
