{"id":333,"date":"2012-01-13T13:28:59","date_gmt":"2012-01-13T13:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=333"},"modified":"2015-12-29T13:31:30","modified_gmt":"2015-12-29T13:31:30","slug":"i-am-now-convinced-i-was-terribly-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/?p=333","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I am now convinced I was terribly wrong&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"style187\" style=\"text-align: right;\">Jan. 13, 2012<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">For months I have been fruitlessly searching the record for a public apology from even one prominent perpetrator of the ritual-abuse day-care hoax. At last I have happened upon such a statement:<\/p>\n<p class=\"style195\"><em>\u201cI want to announce publicly that as a firm believer of the &#8216;Believe The Children&#8217; movement of the 1980s, that started with the McMartin trials in California&#8230;. I am now convinced that I was terribly wrong&#8230; and many innocent people were convicted and went to prison as a result&#8230;.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">So who was this lone heroic figure who stepped forward, confessed his mistake and acknowledged the pain it had caused? Was it a repentant prosecutor or judge? A psychologist, perhaps?<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-334\" src=\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/120113Rivera.jpg\" alt=\"120113Rivera\" width=\"120\" height=\"180\" \/>Well, no. It was Geraldo Rivera.<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">Of all the talk-show hosts who grabbed giddily, repeatedly and unquestioningly onto the latest claim of ritual abuse, it was Geraldo, starting in 1987, who went furthest over the top.<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">\u201cEstimates are that there are over 1 million Satanists in this country&#8230;\u201d he told viewers. \u201cThe majority of them are linked in a highly organized, very secretive network. From small towns to large cities, they have attracted police and FBI attention to their Satanic ritual child abuse, child pornography and grisly Satanic murders. The odds are that this is happening in your town.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">By Dec. 12, 1995, however, Geraldo had experienced a change of heart. That\u2019s the night he hosted the CNBC special \u201cWrongly Accused and Convicted of Child Molestation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">\u201cHe is to be commended for stating his new belief in public,\u201d observed the invaluable\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.religioustolerance.org\/geraldo.htm\" target=\"_blank\">religioustolerance.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"style184\">\u201cUnfortunately, a one-minute apology and recantation is hardly sufficient to reverse the damage done by many hours of sensational programming, grounded on misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jan. 13, 2012 For months I have been fruitlessly searching the record for a public apology from even one prominent perpetrator of the ritual-abuse day-care hoax. At last I have happened upon such a statement: \u201cI want to announce publicly that as a firm believer of the &#8216;Believe The Children&#8217; movement of the 1980s, that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":335,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions\/335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}