Reunion Caught on Tape

Picture of Julia Rakoczy distributed with Amber Alert of her alleged abduction

Julia Rakoczy is back at home with her father. That we should celebrate.

We saw her reunion on television. That we should not celebrate, but instead ought to shudder.

Not because I don’t like happy endings, because I do. It’s the way we saw it that gravely concerns me.

First, the recap for a little historical perspective:

The ex-husband of a Philadephia woman who faked her abduction and fled to Disney World with their daughter had a tearful reunion today with the little girl who was upset that her mom had to stay in jail.

Anthony Rakoczy arrived in Florida to take custody of 9-year-old Julia Rakoczy one day after she and her mother, Bonnie Sweeten, were stopped by police at their Disney World hotel.

At an emotional family reunion in a police office at the Orlando International Airport, Julia broke into tears as her sister Paige ran to hug her, followed by their father.

“I feel great that I have my daughter back, but I feel bad for her mother,” Anthony Rakoczy told “Good Morning America” shortly after talking to his daughter on the phone before he arrived at the Orange County Detention Center to pick her up.

(for those of you finding those post weeks or months later, since Julia’s 15 minutes will likely have expired.)

Here’s the story as it appeared on Good Morning America, Friday May 29. After the 30 second commercial, about 20 seconds in you see the happy reunion. 34 seconds in, you hear the following sentence:

“ABC News flew Julia’s worried father, Anthony Rakoczy, to Florida to pick her up.”

How nice of them to pick up the tab. It’s also a great way to snag the “exclusive,” because your camera crew and producer who accompanied Anthony Racoczy on the plane would have access to the touching moment that other media outlets would not.

I did a quick search, and same-day round-trip tickets from Philadelphia to Orlando run around $300, so this wasn’t a huge expense. Not a bad price to pay for an exclusive interview, right ABC? If you keep watching the video, about a minute in, you’ll see an example of the exclusive facts the network was able to bring to light:

(reporter) “When reunited, all Julia wanted to talk about was her favorite Phillies baseball player.”

(Julia) “His birthday is Decemeber 23rd and last year he had 48 saves out of 48 save opportunities and his number is 54 and his name is Brad Lidge… and he’s an ending pitcher.”

Knowing Philadelphia sports fans like I do, the city is very lucky that Lidge didn’t blow a save last year, because there’s no telling what Julia might have said.

(For the record, Lidge converted 41 out of 41 opportunities in 2008. As of the beginning of Julia’s unplanned Florida vacation, Lidge was 8 out of 12 in 2009. That bum.)