Elizabeth Smart To Work As ABC Commentator

SALT LAKE CITY — Elizabeth Smart is taking a job with ABC News as a commentator focusing on missing persons and child abduction cases.

The Utah woman who was kidnapped from her bedroom at knifepoint, raped and held captive at age 14 by a Salt Lake City street preacher can provide viewers with a unique perspective, network spokeswoman Julie Townsend told The Associated Press on Thursday.

A deal with the now 23-year-old has been the works for several months and she could be on the air within the next few weeks, Townsend said.

"We think she'll help our viewers better understand missing persons stories," Townsend said in a telephone call from New York City. "This is someone with the perspective to know what a family experiences when a loved one goes missing."

Smart was kidnapped from her family home in the dead of night on June 5, 2002, by Brian David Mitchell, an itinerant street preacher whose writings have revealed he took the blond-haired, blue-eyed girl so he could practice polygamy.

Mitchell, 56, was convicted in December on federal charges of kidnapping and unlawful transportation of a minor across state lines for sex. He was sentenced in May to life in federal prison without parole.

An appeal of Mitchell's conviction has not yet been filed.

At a news conference after the sentencing, Smart said she was looking forward to a new and "beautiful" next chapter of her life, including working on behalf of missing children.

"I am looking at all the different options and trying to decide where I can make the biggest difference, where I can have the biggest effect for good," Smart said May 25 outside Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court.

She and her father, Ed Smart, also used the news conference to highlight several missing persons cases and talked about the creation of the Elizabeth Smart Foundation, which will focus on protecting children from falling victim to kidnapping and sexual crimes.

In an email early Thursday, Smart's spokesman Chris Thomas said the Brigham Young University music student wants to use the media position to further her goals.

"Elizabeth is committed to giving back and getting involved where she can make the greatest difference through child advocacy work," Thomas wrote. "Partnering with ABC provides a powerful tool to help her accomplish this."

The scope of Smart's assignment has yet to be fully defined, but ABC expects she will contribute across the spectrum of the network's programs and formats, including appearances on Good Morning America, Nightline, ABC News and radio, Townsend said.

Financial details of Smart's contract with the network were not disclosed.

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Jennifer Dobner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/JenniferDobner

Comments

[vidaliaonion1]

09:26 PM on 07/10/2011

I am so happy for her and proud of her. I thank the Lord that she was able to rise above all the abuse and realize that she is a very good person and to not let anything knock her down. YOU GO GIRLFRIEND !! God bless you and God speed as you go forward in life. Now, you can do anything !! :)

[mystshy]

03:04 PM on 07/09/2011

this is the future, i hope,, tough, women,,,,,,,,,maybe she can be pres someday....if she isnt
too gop.......................

[makingfunofthesouth]

05:14 AM on 07/09/2011

Damn women you are looking good.

[32 hollow point]

04:36 AM on 07/09/2011

I welcome any change at ABC. Good for her.

[emperance]

03:38 AM on 07/09/2011

I think she get a pass based on the HORROR she suffered.
The fact that she can even function is amazing.

While I normally cry foul when non-journalist get prized positions like this, just don't feel the same about this poor, little (beautiful) lamb.

And who really wants to be a FIRST-HAND EXPERT in this area?

[Dr Jimmy and Mr Jim]

11:32 PM on 07/08/2011

Thanks, but NO Thanks. I'll take a pass on meeting anyone from ABC.

I'll take a pass from meeting anyone from CBS or NBC or MSNBC or CNN as well. (Fox goes without saying)

Shame on the media in this country. Shame on the misinformation given out daily. Shame on letting the Bush Administration scare you and threaten you. Shame on how you hurt Al Gore in 2000 and made it possible for the most colossal 1d10t Bush to become president. Shame on what you did to Howard Dean. Shame on how you played into the hands of Lee Atwater.

Shame on you. Shame on you. Shame on you. I avoid network news as much as I can.

Shame. Shame. Shame.

In a country where whistle-blowers were once considered heroes, (Woodward & Bernstein breaking the Watergate story), the media is now corrupt.

[layman]

10:53 PM on 07/08/2011

After a while on the job, under ABC's corporate re- victimizadtion, she might need to be re-admitted into a mental facility for therapeutic treatments.

[PoundOFun]

10:53 PM on 07/08/2011

.....only in america folks, only in america!!

[Independent66]

10:52 PM on 07/08/2011

She needs this chance to build her life. I hope she is successful and that her children lead a long and happy life.

[layman]

10:43 PM on 07/08/2011

Having been used by the kidnapper/ rapist, now It's the corporatist, ABC's turn to use her for few more points of rating and a few dollars more.

Is it a healthy existence, psychologically and otherwise, to be reminded of your past haunting experience on a regular basis on the job ?

Shouldn't she be doing something that doesn't require her to carry that haunting membory ?

[Erin Wooldridge Turner]

02:33 AM on 07/19/2011

Do you listen to anything she actually says? It's not haunting- she has moved forward and is using her experiences to make a positive difference in the world.

[lasjazzman]

07:27 PM on 07/08/2011

Shame on ABC for using Elizabeth to boost profits/ratings. Even if Elizabeth truly wants to do this, ABC's motive remains!!!

[Red Russet]

07:04 PM on 07/08/2011

How does this work? Do the Mormons own ABC now? What, aside from being held captive as a prisoner and sex slave of a crazed evangelical freak and his diseased wife, qualifications does she have for this? How will she weave her unique POV from her time as a captive into other tragic stories of young girls abducted by sickos? Based on this, Jaycee Dugart should be made Governor of CA!

[PoundOFun]

10:56 PM on 07/08/2011

Here, here....we got kids all around the country going to journalism colleges to find jobs such as this and just because you were a slave victim, you somehow get a boost to the front of the class? This country is unique in a sense that it values things that simply don't make sense?? I mean, I'm not hating on the girl, I thought she was a bit nieve in not asking for help when she ample occasions to do so, but who am I to judge? I just think its kinda whack

[bobrav]

05:17 PM on 07/08/2011

Oh please...

[SCboy]

05:06 PM on 07/08/2011

The only thing to say is "Good luck, Elizabeth. I wish you well in this or any other endeavor you choose".

[Atilla the Hun]

04:51 PM on 07/08/2011

It will be interesting to listen carefully if she speaks of her personal experience because much of her "abduction" raised a lot of questions. Many inconsistencies in Ed Smart's account of what happened that night. His strange 911 call that was never released to the public. His most bizarre appearance on Good Morning America with an anonymous letter he alledgedly received regarding Elizabeth's whereabouts, but had failed to notify the police!!!! When asked if it wouldn't be a good idea to let the police examine it for forensics he stated he would fax them a copy later?????? My suspicion is she won't disuss her "abduction".

[maliksmama]

05:13 PM on 07/08/2011

I agree. There's too much going on here to be believable. Dave Chappelle did a skit about this; it was funny and thought provoking.

[Red Russet]

07:11 PM on 07/08/2011

Well, everyone is aware of course, of how Mr. Nutbag met Elizabeth in the first place. Her MOTHER would go down to the supermarket or wherever where they were a lot of down and out hobo types begging for change, and she would ask one of them TO COME HOME WITH HER WHERE HER CHILDREN WERE AT HOME to do handy man chores around the house. This was some kind of Mormon good deed or something, Can you believe this - so he got to looking around and saw Elizabeth and her sister, and from there his imagination went to town and he figured he would come back when it was dark and cut the screen and well, we know the rest.