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Interviews like this aren’t so Wanted

TEN's Wanted helps solve a disappearance case, but the resolution interview with a teenager left me squirming.

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2013-07-31_1223Last week’s episode of TEN’s Wanted detailed the good news of the first solving of a case it profiled, the disappearance of Bethany, a 13 year old girl who left her home in Kiama, NSW in March.

She was reunited safe and well with family nearly two weeks ago -a great outcome for all.

I think it’s worthwhile that Wanted is giving a voice to victims of crime, especially when there is an outcome like this.

But I was very uncomfortable with the show’s resolution of the story in which Sandra Sully interviewed the girl, now 14, and asked her questions about her absence.

Sully spoke to Bethany in the presence of her father -it’s clear from the story there are some issues between mother and daughter. The former expressed her concerns about a 21 year old male friend with whom the latter stayed during her absence. Police have already ruled no crimes have been committed.

Some of Sully’s questions bordered on a pious inquisition of an obviously-fragile girl, and there were times Bethany seemed reluctant to answer:

“Gosh Bethany. 3 to 4 months is a long time for a 13 just turned 14 year old to be away. How did you survive?”

“Was there any time in that 4 months where you thought you should ring your parents?”

“Did you ever think something terrible could happen?”

“Did your parents know about him before you left?”

“Some people would think people 14 is a bit young to be in a relationship. What would you say to them?”

You can see that video here (Ep 4 first story).

On Twitter, there were opinions for and against the interview.

I’m sure Bethany’s happy to come home to a camera crew and Sandra’s patronising face. #wantedtv

@WantedTVHQ You’ve got to be kidding #WantedTV. This is straight up exploitation. Poor kid.

I don’t care where Bethany was. Just for the record #WantedTV

I am glad for #bethany She’s safe. Just hope she doesn’t run. Again…. Stay safe. #wantedTV

So happy you guys found Bethany good job! #WantedTV

@Sandra_Sully Congrats to you and the @WantedTVHQ Team Sandra, for your part in bringing Bethany home.. Brilliant stuff !!! #WantedTV

I appreciate the show wanted to put some resolution on the story, especially it’s first solved case. But was it really necessary to put the girl through a television interview? Could the same resolution have been communicated with vision of child and parent, with the father left to explain the missing chapters (much of which struck me as deeply personal)?

A TEN spokesperson told TV Tonight producers CJZ proposed the interview.

“CJZ made the request to Bethany’s father with the full support of Network TEN,” they said.

Producer Michael Cordell from CJZ says the questions asked of Bethany were completely legitimate.

“If we hadn’t asked them I think the audience would have felt we hadn’t done our job,” he said.

“I think the issues brought up in the Bethany story are of overwhelming interest and importance to both parents and teens. The story speaks volumes about how parents and teenagers communicate, touches on the impact of bullying and what happens when communication goes wrong. As such it’s an important story to tell.”

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11 Responses

  2. there is one thing I don’t like about this show, and its the previews where they give you a sound bite about a missing person and tell you to tune in Monday night for more… what happens if someone sees that ad and can help, there is no info on who to contact… they need there preview to more like a crime stoppers ad.

  3. Kyle Sandilands would have been proud of the questions.

    Oh, and Mr Cordell, the resolution to this story was the fact the young lady got home, nothing more. To follow this up with a pointed interview is little more than crass journalism.

  4. Ooh this was bad. It reminded me of something from Frontline, very Mike/Brooke.
    I think the show is in poor taste, particularly the opening credits which start with a big drop of blood falling into a bigger pool of blood. From memory this scene was shown straight after images of a distressed victim of crime giving an interview about their missing loved one. Um…

  5. I watched the show for the first time last week, couldn’t believe people think this show is some kind of quality use of airwaves. It’s just today tonight: crime edition with the cheap and tasteless reinactments and “Australia you can’t afford to miss this”. If it was on 7 or 9 it would get slammed.

    If ten persist with this they need to distance it from the ten news brand, and let Sandra and Matt fade into the background.

  8. I actually cringed when i heard Sandra was interviewing Bethany. Prior to watching the interview I had serious concerns about it, namely that the girl was enjoying a bit of celebrity or that the show was using her for their own gain. One minute in it was apparent this is a young girl who is extremely shy, confused and has grown up way too fast since her disappearance. Interviewing her mother separately was wise as it was obvious there are still an enormous number of issues to deal with.

    Was it appropriate to interview the child hours after her return? In my opinion definitely not. I do feel that Sandra handled the interview well.

  9. I wish Ten News in Melbourne would stop interviewing the male host every monday night making it seem like a story when all it is is a plug for the show on a few hours later.

    Come on Mal,you’ve got upset over Ten doing these puff piece stories before.

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