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Show News program fell short of enlightenment! the editor's column By MARC HADDOCK Last Friday night Channel 4 attempted at-tempted a most difficult task - to present a balanced picture of one of the most complex and perplexing situations ever experienced in north Utah County. The case deals with child sexual abuse, and up to 40 adult residents of Lehi have been implicated at some point in an, investigation by the Utah County Attorney and. later, by the Utah Attorney General. The accused are stalwart members mem-bers of the Lehi community. They have held responsible positions in the LDS Church. Included are parents and grandparents of the children who claim they have been abused. These individuals are accused, in part, of operating a child pornography por-nography ring - and more. On their face, the charges appear ridiculous, unbelievable, laughable. Hut they are terribly serious. One man. Alan Hadfield, has been charged with five counts of child sexual abuse and is scheduled to go to trial on Oct. 13. If he is found guilty, he will go to prison. And although the Attorney General's office has not charged any of the other adults, representatives for the office say they might -leaving the accused individuals in a state of uncertainty and emotional turmoil. They fear they will never have an opportunity to face their accusers. Their accusers are just kids --from --from R to 11 years old. And that's why Channel 4 couldn't tell both sides of this particular story. Tackling the Lehi child sex abuse story head on is a task many reporters might consider impossible, im-possible, especially a month before the case comes to trial. That's because only one side of the story -- story will come from children who can't be interviewed on television, and from the Utah Attorney General's office who won't, and shouldn't, discuss specifics of the case or the evidence on television. There is simply no way to tell that side of the story except in court, where the children will be witnesses, where the evidence will be presented, and where the therapist's techniques can be scrutinized and evaluated. Telling both sides of this story before the first trial is a task many reporters might consider impossible. im-possible. And Channel 4's presentation presen-tation showed why. In the first place, Channel 4 didn't present any of the evidence or testimony that will be used in court, mainly because they couldn't (the trial hasn't taken place yet) and also because their program focused on the people who feel they have been implicated but not charged in the case. And while the television station claimed in its advertising to have uncovered this "startling and complex" story, in fact the station's coverage has been very after-the-fact. No reporter from Channel 4 attended at-tended Alan Hadfield's preliminary hearing, and neither Phil Riesen or Sheila Hamilton has heard, first hand, the testimony of the children involved - the real other side of the story. They did read the transcripts of the proceedings. But all of that information in-formation was wisely kept out of Friday's program. Channel 4 did the story at the request of the people who appear on camera as members of the accused, according to Hamilton, and it is their side of the controversy that gets the most attention in the storv The fact that those 'm. tacted the station should!-t'oned should!-t'oned in such a program l( . viewers evaluate the so, .. information. It was not Finally, in identifying the people who consider them to be among the accused m, have helped their cause. Although those people fe! everyone in town knew involved, in fact everyone di-know. di-know. But they do now. fm, unidentified suspects can w. easily recognized. And many of their neighb-.--Lehi probably do not care. U tired of the entire subject and u prefer to dwell on other f Those things don't nm include crop prices and tt gossip. Sure, Lehi is a small. v but it is also located between:; 1 the most populated areas il P state. Rather than !, d geographically isolated, Le pretty well plugged into i-happening i-happening in the world. b Channel 4, however, fell 31 comfortable portraying the :;; M Lehi resident as a hayseed - a stereotype, but not an accura'.er- tli "In Lehi, they don't kno it telling the truth," read . t promotional ad for Chan. program. p - In Lehi; they still toU'; LG have a better idea of whit is V. Pk said. 4- Channel 4 may have !e coi confirm and clarify local r.- Re but the program certain!):: 'or answer the basic question of ' A lying and who is not. mi That will still havetobedet:: you court, where both sides cat'- Mih tell their story, and a judgear.- 0 can determine which is true. an i sairi the accused adults' version - is accessible. Those individuals want to be heard, to the point that they asked Channel 4 to do the story that aired last Friday. And that's not hard to understand. After all, they have been accused of carrying out some of the most insidious acts imaginable, and have had no chance to state their case. But in the Channel 4 program, the other side of the story came from the wrong source. Because it is not a therapist who is making the accusations, ac-cusations, but children who say they have been abused. ! .Nevertheless, the adults who appeared on the television program have accused therapist Barbara Snow of coaching the children in the terminology of child sexual abuse so they can make credible witnesses in court. That approach pits adults against adults, and makes good television news, I guess. But it misses a crucial point in this particular legal battle. In this case, the other side of the |