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CBS had Hari Sreenivasan file for a third straight day on the mass commitment of children and teenagers from the Yearning for Zion ranch in Texas. He reported that the case has gone beyond child welfare to a criminal investigation, with prosecutors alleging "physical and sexual abuse." He quoted from an unsealed affidavit alleging that the fundamentalist Mormons' temple included bed used for statutory rape. ABC assigned Dan Harris (embargoed link) to an explainer on the legal and moral questions the case raises: "Do two phone calls from a 16-year-old girl alleging abuse really constitute enough evidence to justify taking custody of 416 children?" "What about the religious freedoms of this polygamist church?" "Whether eventually to take these children away from their mothers, mothers who could, technically, be considered guilty of not protecting their children?" "How could authorities in Texas have allowed this to take place under their noses?"
ABC's Harris seemed in no doubt that the fundamentalist Mormons were guilty, even before they are charged: "Sometimes what it takes to stop abuse, even when the suspicion is strong, is a scared brave 16-year-old on a cell phone"--although that weasel word "sometimes" may turn out to be enough of a fig leaf to preserve the proper presumption of innocence.
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