Diane Sawyer Tweets Live During Gripping Jaycee Dugard Interview
Famed reporter Diane Sawyer made up for lost time as she opened her first Twitter account on Friday, July 8, 2011. Jumping into the wide and sometimes wild world of Twitter full blast, Sawyer sent out 44 tweets over the weekend.
Her initial tweet concerned her upcoming interview with kidnap victim Jaycee Lee Dugard on ABC TV. Sawyer announced her intention to tweet live during the two hour special program with this message:
“Diane Sawyer Firing up my thumbs… Thanks all for the welcome. Looking forward to live tweeting w you during #JayceeABC special. Sun 9-11p/E.”
Sawyer then followed up her first tweet with this as the interview began on ABC:
“Big TV night @ABC : almost time for #JayceeABC special. Big night for me: first time live tweeting. Here goes!”
Another tweet, sent out during the interview on ABC went as follows:
“This is tough. Book detailed. Important for me that J be comfortable with what she says out loud #JayceeABC”
Sawyer then went on to send forty more tweets during the course of her interview with Ms. Dugard. Sawyer sent mostly original tweets but she also interacted with users by answering several of their tweets during the interview.
Jaycee Dugard is the 31 year old woman who was kidnapped from her home in South Lake Tahoe, California in 1991 as an 11 year old child. Ms. Dugard was held captive by convicted rapist Phillip Garrido and his wife Nancy until she was finally discovered in August, 2009. After managing to avoid detection despite several visits from authorities over the years, the Garridos were finally arrested on August 26, 2009. Garrido and his wife were taken into custody by the FBI and Jaycee was reunited with her family after 18 long years. On April 28, 2011, the Garridos pled guilty to kidnapping and rape and on June 2, 2011, Philip Garrido was sentenced to 431 years. Nancy Garrido received 36 years to life.
Jaycee Dugard gave birth two two daughters as the result of the repeated rapes by Garrido. According to Jaycee Dugard’s aunt, Tina Dugard, “They are clever, articulate, curious girls who have a bright future ahead of them.” Jaycee and her daughters are now living in a secret location in California after receiving a $20 million dollar settlement to compensate her for “various lapses by the Corrections Department [which contributed to] Dugard’s continued captivity, ongoing sexual assault and mental and/or physical abuse.” According to Judge Daniel Weinstein, who negotiated for the State of California, the settlement was reached to avoid a lawsuit which would be a “greater invasion of privacy and greater publicity for the state.”
Since her rescue from Gerrido. Ms Dugard has begun to rebuild her life and has written a best selling book about her ordeal, “A Stolen Life.” Released on Tuesday June, 11, 2011, the book hit #1 on Amazon shortly after the Diane Sawyer Interview. Much of discussion between Ms. Sawyer and Jaycee Dugard was centered around the content of her gripping memoir.
Ms. Sawyer has received an enthusiastic response to her joining the Twitter universe and as a result, she has already managed to amass 11,000 followers of her twitter account.
Guest post by Wolff Bachner
