ABC News has hired Elizabeth Smart, formerly in the news as a Utah kidnap victim when she was a child, as a correspondent assigned to kidnapping and high profile missing person cases, according to The Hollywood Reporter and reported in People Magazine.
Is this a strategic move or one aimed at creating and fostering special appreciation among victim’s families?
Is she a bona fide journalist or a talented ‘talking horse’?
The issue is simple – what’s her training, journalistic experience or story telling? Obviously she will work alongside talented producers; obviously she will be guided and hand-held… but is she being sent out as a lure to sway the sympathy of victims?
It is worth asking is this good journalism or smarmy public relations and booking?
petershaplenproductions.com 
I don’t think the issue of journalism was ever factored into this decision. It’s a revenue decision on both sides. I can hear the talking head conversation now, “Well, Diane, when I was in captivity…blah, blah, blah.” I think this goes more to the fact this is a generation and culture of young people who desperately want to be on TV and will leverage any situation to get there. Personally, I feel this is a symptom of the trend toward extreme narcissism that hasn’t served this country well in the last two decades. After WWI and II, people who suffered terribly returned and put the extreme horrors behind them and focused on building a nation and you see how much better the country was served. If there’s anything to “proof in the pudding”, this latest trend has not served the country well. But some people are personally making shed loads of money off it. And in the end, today, “it’s all about me,”