My Point: 'Muh Feels' diffuse the situation. Believe it or not, the horror isn't these two people being wronged.
-it's a system that ALLOWED and SUPPORTED a pedo, a pedo with money.
-it's a system that easily bent for some names and a little bit of dosh
Systemic abuse is far for damaging than the odd occurrence. The fact he had a racket that involved THOUSANDS of victims is the issue.
Focusing on 2, and then seasoning everything with tears makes the entire situation look cheap and petty.
It's really not about these 2.
That's not what your first comment said but I'll take this at face value...
Not many victims have come forward. They were in hiding at the time of the Florida conviction and were in fear enough that they didn't really want to testify. I do think they have
some accountability, however, they were groomed and male or female, I have sympathy for that, it effects the course you chart in life.
From a journalistic standpoint, if you have two warm bodies you can show as the "face" to the abuse, you use them.
One or two faces are more powerful than none. The audience - who already doesn't care, let's be frank, it's been a barely luke-warm situation prior to this -
need to see someone.
It was the same in Australia with the Catholic Church sex abuse case with Cardinal Pell. There was one man who honestly, drove the case. He was a victim as a child (and a teen) and his testimony and visibility put a real face to it.
Without him, I don't actually think the public would have pushed as hard for Pell to be put in jail. He was one of many victims, but honestly, because of him, the pain he carried and the ability of the public to relate to him, he elevated the issue beyond being just some "thing" that was talked about.
For example ; "5000 children have been sexually abused by ___" has no weight compared to "This living, breathing person right here suffered this, along with 5000 other children".
Same can be said of the Hey Dad! Actor case.
The REAL issue of course was the same - the systemic abuse of children, but when you're putting together a piece for camera, or even an article in the paper, you need a visual component. Maybe I just see this through journalist-eyes, but focusing on 2 really isn't an issue when it comes to media play.