did daddy do it?
a monster
lessons from the 80s
interviewing children
the miami method
press reaction


"Tonight's Frontline episode on the Country Walk child-molestation case couldn't be more timely. With abuse accusations against Catholic priests multiplying seemingly by the hour, 'Did Daddy Do It?' is a valuable reminder of how quickly a molestation investigation can devolve into a witch hunt. ..."

[The Country Walk] case was just one of a long string of similar cases around the United States where young children told astounding, lurid stories of mass sexual abuse and torture at day-care centers.....

Many were overturned later when appellate courts threw out the children's testimony. The Country Walk case is one of the few where a defendant is still in jail....

Along with its revelations, 'Did Daddy to It?' includes a tough critique of the way children were nagged into testifying against the Fusters, by now familiar but still compelling.

...at the very least 'Did Daddy Do It?' should prompt some tough questions to Reno from the reporters covering her gubernatorial campaign. She appears briefly on camera, airily announcing she has no time for a 17-year-old case. Florida voters may think otherwise. "


"... if you're attentive to the usually lauded Frontline on its episode tomorrow night...you'll notice yawning gaps in its journalism. It's a reinspection of a massive child sexual abuse case with the tasty title 'Did Daddy Do It?' ...

In this chronicle from one of our few solid public-affairs series, Frontline casts severe aspersions on the prosecutors in the high-profile Country Walk case, named for the upscale Miami neighborhood where it all happened or maybe nothing at all happened in the early 1980s.

Accuracy and reporting aside, this is wonderful TV. It's an intriguing watch, beautifully edited, expertly unfolding, gripping, emotional, tears-in-the-eyes, lumps-in-the-throat drama, replete with curious characters.

...Dade County State Attorney Janet Reno ... is portrayed as a fierce, menacing, child-crusader....

The producer also visited Reno in 1995 with "Waco: The Inside Story." Correspondent Boyer also wrote at least two articles on the Waco calamity for the New Yorker magazine, both unfriendly portraits of Reno. Fuster's lead appeal attorney, Robert Rosenthal, did a critical article on Reno in Penthouse magazine in 1996.

This suggests an agenda. ...."


"... unlike other Frontline exposes of innocent people sent to jail, there are too many gray areas to make a definitive judgment one way or the other. While 'Did Daddy Do It?' seems to tilt toward exonerating Fuster, Frontline lays out its findings in an even-handed manner and lets the audience make its own call. ..."

press : credits : privacy : FRONTLINE : wgbh : pbsi

web site copyright 1995-2014 WGBH educational foundation