YFZ Revisited – April 7, 2008 – The Big Press Conference

Originally published on November 24, 2008. Today’s press conference was the big one. Tons of media crammed into a into little house at Fort Concho. I showed up early and snagged a front row seat. Above, a sound guy at work setting up. Marleigh Meisner announced that the number of FLDS children removed from the YFZ Ranch now stood at 401. It was a huge increase in the number of children involved and it shocked everyone. I need to listen to the audio of this announcement to be sure, but in my memory there were gasps as she said 401. As memory serves, Tela Mange, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety (law enforcement) never was able to say much because the investigation was ongoing. That’s how it works. But even if she couldn’t say a lot, the painting on the wall behind her brought a little Disney into the shot. That’s my empty front row seat with the camera on it. To my good friend Mike: I do have a shot where you’re actually working, but it got cut in the edit.