The facts: their son is the Missouri boy who was abducted at the tender age of 11 and for the last four years has apparently endured God-knows-what kind of psychological torture—and possibly physical and sexual torture as well—allegedly at the hands of a pizza-delivery guy named Michael Devlin. Now, less than a week after Hornbeck is delivered by the authorities back to the bosom of his tearful family, he appears on my television screen. His parents put him on national television show to tell their story.
I only imagine how traumatized—and simultaneously euphoric—all the members of the family must be. The crime that was committed against their son—and their entire family—is almost unfathomable. They are obviously very vulnerable. What they have been through would be enough to erode anyone’s judgment. Add to it the pressure the family must feel to open up their lives to the media. As a long-time newswoman, I’ve covered my share of heinous crime. I’ve been part of the massive media scrums and seen the cajoling and sweet-talking that goes on. I’ve seen how intense and overbearing we can be—the lights, the phone calls, the flowers, the lawyers, the sudden brush with on-screen news celebrities. Overwhelming is too small a word to describe it. As a professional, I don’t love being part of it, and I don’t hate it either. I always figured that’s part of what you do if you work in news. If Pam and Craig Akers phoned me up right now to give me their insights, I would write it all down and put it on this Web site for you to read. It is my job is to tell the story—whether it is horrible or uplifting or any combination—and I’m honored to have it.
But it is Pam and Craig Akers’ job to protect their son. And it seems to me they may have lost their way. It’s one thing for them to consent to talk to the media themselves. But why on earth put that poor child on TV? We in the media protect the identities of underage victims because most of us accept that children are vulnerable and exposure of almost any kind can make an already bad situation much worse. Could it be that the Akers haven’t figured that out? Do they think it’s going to be OK because he’s a boy and they figure—wrongly, in my view—that he can take it? Would they have hugged Oprah if Shawn was Sally? Would they expose a young female to the prying eyes of the world?
Here’s an alternative they might have considered: have one adult make a statement thanking the country for their interest and demanding privacy. Then call up the local police and a posse of distant relatives and get them to kick the network television trucks off the front yard.
I’d like to believe that the Akers are good people who simply lost their equilibrium in an emotional whirlwind. And that they will now throw a cordon around their kid, sign him up for daily appointments with a good therapist and begin to do the very thing they prayed to be able do: love him every day for the rest of their natural lives. The real work of parenting Shawn Hornbeck will be formidable. I wish them well.
Peg Tyre is a senior writer for Newsweek and author of the forthcoming book “The Trouble With Boys” (Crown)
