:31:00
was so incredibly way out,
:31:04
it was hard for me to
believe that it was true.
:31:07
We now welcome, also in
Los Angeles, Debbie Nathan.
:31:10
Debbie is an investigative
freelance journalist,
:31:12
who has been covering
the McMartin and other
:31:14
abuse trials around the country.
:31:16
All these parents
are bizarro, huh?
:31:18
They're all whacked?
:31:19
Well, it's not really fair,
I don't think
:31:22
to deal simply with
these parents
:31:23
or with this particular case.
:31:25
You have to understand that
all over the country
:31:27
there is a hysteria.
:31:28
And I don't think that
it's a question
:31:30
with most of these
kids of lying.
:31:31
I think that they have been
brainwashed, if you will.
:31:36
I was one of the first writers
for the mass media
:31:38
to look at those cases
critically and question them.
:31:41
So as a result of that, having
done a lot of that work,
:31:44
I got a lot of letters
from people.
:31:46
And my father wrote to Debbie
and said, I don't know,
:31:50
said, "Help me. "
:31:51
And she has been the only
person outside the family
:31:53
that said, "I believe you. "
:31:58
In the Friedman case,
:31:59
the basic charges were
completely implausible.
:32:02
First of all, you'd have
to believe that blood
:32:04
is coming out of these
children's orifices,
:32:06
that they're screaming,
:32:08
that they're crying,
:32:09
that their clothes are soiled
from semen and from blood.
:32:14
And yet their parents show up.
:32:16
Sometimes they show up
unannounced.
:32:18
Everything looks fine.
:32:19
Was there any physical evidence
in the case that was relevant?
:32:23
Or it was the case
really strictly based on
:32:26
the statements of the kids?
:32:27
It was more testimony.
:32:28
There was a dearth
of physical evidence.
:32:30
I don't even recall
whether there was
:32:33
any physical evidence that
would have indicated
:32:34
one way or another that
these events took place.
:32:37
I don't think that they're
sitting around with any kind
:32:41
of diabolical or
conspiratorial agenda
:32:44
to go out and falsely
accuse Arnold Friedman
:32:47
or railroad Jesse Friedman.
:32:48
But nobody's critiquing them.
:32:51
Nobody's telling them that
there's a right way
:32:53
and a wrong way to do this.
:32:54
Nobody's saying that we've got
a problem in this culture
:32:57
with hysteria around this issue.
:32:59
And so they're really free
to let their fantasies fly.