by valkyrie 50 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse
Has anyone rated the news item at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21917798/ (star rating system: 1 - 5 stars) after reading it? Currently, the story has only been rated "2.5 stars by 116 users." The report will acquire greater longevity on the website if it manages to be ranked among the "Most Viewed," "Top Rated" or "Most E-mailed" on the news site.
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Current rating: 2.5 by 116 users • View Top Rated stories
btt
Thanks. I overlooked that when i was reading the first time.
Thanks, Merry! I think it is good to show appreciation for attention given to news items that affect or interest us. A high enough rating may even provide the impetus for further reporting on that and related news items.
-V
Thanks....I went and did this.....
Annie
I rated it too. Thanks for the heads up.
Richard Greenberg, the NBC producer who put together yesterday's NBC Nightly News segment, is responsible for the wonderful MSNBC lengthy news report on the same subject. He was determined to provide more details than Nightly News could provide time for. For me, the MSNBC article is the icing on the cake. Especially to see the out-of-court settlement figures in that article.
However, NBC News has obtained a copy of one of the settlements from the McLean lawsuit, and it may offer an indication of the potential magnitude of the payouts. According to the court record, the church agreed to pay $781,250 to the accuser, who claimed McLean abused her from age 3 to age 9. (After legal fees and other costs, the accuser was set to receive approximately $530,000.)
I received the settlement paperwork by mistake from one of the courts. When the court realized its error, I was notified and asked not to publish the papers. However, there was no court injunction upon me to refrain from sharing the settlement figure. Anyway, I had already shared the information with a number of people before the court contacted me. I've abided by the court request and have not published the documents but told them I couldn't guarantee that no one else would.
It is my guess, based on multiplying $781,250 by 16, which totals to $12,500,000, that the Watchtower offered that total settlement amount and it was equally split among the plaintiffs. I suppose we will never know for sure the total amount but I believe it was near $13 million. Interestingly, $750,000 is the average amount the Catholic Church paid victims of Catholic priests in the last few years.
Among other details, it was good to see in this MSNBC article details about the Watchtower's "Child Abuse Telememo" forms. I am very pleased about the contents of this news report and hope that many people rate it excellent as it deserves.
Barbara
Well done Barb.
It was, indeed, a well-paced and intensely informative report. A substantial amount of referenced information was coolly presented in concise form. I rated it at "5 stars."
-V
Barb: Thanks for being so proactive, first of all, and also for doing the math for us. $13 mil had to hurt, even with the WTBTS's deep pockets.
The $750k average payout being the same as the Catholic church coughed up in similar cases is an eye opener as well. It means the courts are viewing the dub cases in the same light as those involving "mainstream" relgions. If the courts see it that way, the media cannot be far behind!
p.s. Valyrie, I went on line and rated the story five stars; I note the average rating is up to a "3" now.
