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tv   Nightline  ABC  November 9, 2011 11:35pm-12:00am PST

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tonight on "nightline," stolen innocence. a 14-year-old takes seminude photos and stores them online for her boyfriend, but hackers crack the account and the images go viral, to thousands of porn sites. now she and her parents are speaking out for the first time on tv. standing up for heroes. bruce springsteen, jon stewart, ricky gervais are among the stars who get together tonight in a tribute to wounded warriors. we follow one face of courage on his path to face a new reality. and debate blooper. a cringe-worthy moment for presidential hopeful rick perry. >> i would do away with the education, the -- >> we'll show it to you in tonight's "unspun."
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>> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," november 9th, 2011. >> good evening to all in the west. there is breaking news tonight. penn state university has announced that their legendary football coach of 46 years, joe paterno, is done. >> joe paterno is no longer the head football coach, effective immediately. >> this comes after grand jury allegations that one of paterno's top assistants raped young boys on campus and paterno didn't do enough to stop him. earlier tonight the 84-year-old football legend released a statement saying "i am disappointed with the board of trustees decision but i have to accept it." and he urged students to remain calm. but tonight a spontaneous rally in support of paterno turned violent but reports of an overturned satellite truck and
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sporadic violence. you can follow developments on abcnews.com and gma will be live from state college in the morning. we turn now to a story of youthful indiscretion involving the modern phenomenon known as sectioning. 1 in every 5 teenage girls has sent nude or seminude images of herself or posted them online. in the case of a 14-year-old you're about to meet, those images spread far beyond their intended audience. here's my "nightline" co-anchor terry moran in miami. >> reporter: when you meet angie varona, you can't help but notice her smile wherever she goes. she's one of those kids who always seems to be smiling, even as we ask her about the pictures that changed her life. you're famous. >> i wouldn't say famous. i'd say more like infamous. like -- okay, wait. i need to get rid of the smile. hold on. >> reporter: a good kid.
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a great future, you'd hope. but what happened to this miami teen four years ago nearly destroyed her. >> the girls were really cruel, like, everyone was saying how i'm going to become a porn star and how, like, i'm such a slut for doing that, like, i don't want this to ever happen to anyone else. >> reporter: what happened to angie varona is every parent's nightmare in the digital age. a cautionary tale for our time. angie was 14. she had a boyfriend. her first. and like so many teens and young people today she took some racy pictures of herself. so, here they are, a few photographs of a 14-year-old girl in bra and panties, taken for her first boyfriend. >> no one ever thinks that, yeah, i'm going to take the pictures and it's going to end up all over the internet. you just do it for yourself. >> reporter: yes, angie's pictures ended up all over the internet. all over, including some of the scuzziest pedophile corners of the web. >> it was depressing. like at first i was like, i
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can't believe this is happening. and i cried. a lot. >> reporter: google search her and you get more than 600,000 results. more than 55,000 images. all there against her will. all of it beyond her or anyone's power to stop. you see, angie stored her pictures online on a website called photobucket. she used a password to protect them to make sure no one but her boyfriend could see them. but like a lot of other girls who do the same thing, she got hacked. do you regret taking the pictures? >> hell yeah. i mean -- yes. >> reporter: you do? >> if i could go back in time, i would have listened to my parents, stayed off the internet, stayed off my phone and only use it for emergencies. >> reporter: angie is not alone. a recent survey suggests 1 in 5 seen girls has electronically sent or posted online nude or semi-nude images of themselves. >> i know people who still send out pictures and after knowing everything that's happened to me
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they still say, it can't happen to me, it's not going to happen to me. >> reporter: angie's pictures went viral. is she's been stalked. her home and daily whereabouts discussed and posted about on porn websites and pedophile chat rooms. and those discussions include rape fantasies. and other sick scenarios. angie's father juan has lived this nightmare too. how did it feel that your daughter was essentially being traded, these porn sites for pedophiles? >> it's frightening. we're wary, you know? we're vigilant. we have the police working with us. >> reporter: have you been worried about her physical safety? >> i'd go crazy if i concentrated on it. you're always -- you always have that worry. >> reporter: it was all too much. the family called the police, even the fbi but there was little they could do. the pictures were not technically obscene because angie was not naked in them. angie tried to fight her tormenters online, which only made things worse. the kids at school, as you might expect, were merciless.
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>> it's just sad that people don't know the story yet they are so quick to judge and call me names. so mostly -- i guess the name-calling is the hardest to get over. and there were these mean girls that would send the pictures, they showed it to my teachers. at that point, my parents moved me from that school. >> reporter: angie moved schools twice and she has now chosen to homeschool her final months of high school. she tried to run away. she started using drugs. she thought about killing herself. >> i went through a lot of issues. i put my parents through a lot. at points, i'd go crazy on them when it wasn't their fault and i would run away. and i made them find me and whatnot. because i wanted to feel loved, because i wasn't getting loved by anyone. it was always criticism. and i kind of took it out on them and that's what hurts me the most, that i had to take everything out on them, just to
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feel good about myself. >> reporter: were you ever afraid you might lose her? >> yes. >> yeah. it was a bad time. >> as parents, i think, you never give up. you should never give up on your children. because you don't know what tortures they're going through internally. >> reporter: so, maybe you're thinking, didn't angie bring this on herself? some of her critics online say it's all a publicity stunt. >> they think i did it on purpose to get the fame. and the popularity. but in fact, the truth is i don't want to do anything having to be famous. >> reporter: what do you say to people who say that you are partly to blame, angie? >> i am. i took the pictures, i mean -- in a way, i hold myself responsible. which kind of hurts me, too, because it could have all been prevented. but when they say i'm part to blame, i agree. >> reporter: and she's had a chance to think about why she and so many other girls in our
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society feel pressured to do this. >> it's hard for teenage girls now. so much pressure on us to feel beautiful, to be accepted. girls send it out just to feel loved. >> reporter: today, angie is living at home with juan and maria and she's still with that first boyfriend she sent her pictures to four years ago. though they broke up during all the craziness. she, they, all somehow seem stronger. and angie's got something to say to all the creeps out there who exploited and tormented her for years. some of them are probably watching this. what would you say to them? >> they need to get their lives off the internet and into, like, reality. girls are more than just their looks. it's the personality, as well. yeah. >> reporter: one girl's journey, through the digital hell, and now smiling. angie varona is taking her life back. >> terry moran reports from miami tonight. and just ahead, big talent put to work for a vital cause.
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n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n
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n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n >> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with bill weir. >> since his head was nearly blown off by a roadside bomb in iraq, our abc news colleague bob woodruff has a special understanding of the obvious and hidden wounds of war. tonight, his foundation kicked off the new york comedy festival with another star-studded stand-up for here ropes. and we thought we'd foul local one wounded warrior to the event to better understand life after deployment and how much one night of laughter can mean.
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funny where life leads. how one moment changes all the rest that follow. tonts, he's on a red carpet. but almost exactly five years ago, marine lieutenant andrew kinard was on patrol. the naval academy grad was only six weeks into his first deployment when he took one fateful step and woke up a month later in a maryland hospital. his first thoughts, where's my rifle? and why is my dad in iraq? then he realized half of him was gone. >> as my point man turned around to sort of direct us to say, we need to go over this way, that's when the bomb exploded. it threw me through the air, i've been told 30 feet or so up to the sky and i just felt into a crumple. >> reporter: we've seen it in iraq and afghanistan, how battlefield medicine is saving troops that would have died in any prior war. >>
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today's soldiers actually put on turn kits before the battle. the kind of grim self-awareness that makes them harder to kill than any warriors in history. so instead of families learning to live without a son, we have unprecedented numbers of men learning to live without arms or legs. >> day-to-day life people discount me so much for being in a wheelchair. i get talked down to and patronized on a regular basis. i get helped all the time when i don't need the help. i'm a marine officer. i help other people. i don't need help. >> reporter: the 75 surgeries changed his body but didn't remove his pride or his drive. andrew has hand pedaled a couple of boston marathons and is now working on a law degree at harvard. he took the night off, threw to new york city for a little comedic therapy. something he leaves in since that moment in the hospital when a fellow amputee made him laugh for the first time. >> when he came into my room and
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spoke with me told a joke and laughed at himself and i laughed with him. i knew that i was going to be fine. >> reporter: some of his fellow heroes are getting the kind of pampering they never imagined back at home. especially back at boot camp. air force captain therese won a purple heart. >> this ear was torn off but they were able to get back on and i can't hear well out of it. >> reporter: and there are makeovers for the care givers as well. a vital need realized by lee woodruff, in the days nursing bob back to health. >> it was a woman that said to me at an event, the guys get to go on vacation here but we don't. we're still pushing the wheelchairs. and i realized you know we have the opportunity to make part of this weekend to make them feel like queens for a day. >> reporter: as the crush of the
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red carpet intense if ied, the friends arrive looking radiant. and there's andrew. >> i'm looking forward to hearing from the boss. >> reporter: springsteen fan? >> yeah. >> reporter: it's one of the nights that hits the extreme emotional pulls. there's joy. >> what's up? good to see you. >> reporter: ree leaf that they all made it home. >> you know i'm happy to be here tonight for a number of reasons. one is that i'm alive. >> reporter: but then lumps in throats, as andrew remembers a marine in his unit who just last month took his own life. >> you know, for some of us the deployment never really ends. when we come back home we suffer not just from injuries of our bones, our muscle we suffer injuries of the mind. >> reporter: it's not a call for pity, but a reminder that support the troops is not a slogan. it's an action. and in the first four years, these nights have raised $11 million to help these warriors
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get their lives back. ♪ going out tonight ♪ ♪ gonna rock this joint ♪ >> reporter: and for the grand finale the boss. as a regular at this event, it's customary for bruce to auction off his guitar. >> $125,000. say $130,000. >> reporter: and tonight it brought $160,000 to bob and leap's foundation. and the bidder? well, he gave that guitar to andrew kinard. >> right here. >> thank you so much. thank you very much. great. >> thanks to the new york comedy festival for paying that off. and thanks to our troops and their families. coming up next an excruciating political blooper gets unspun.
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a lot of what comes out of politicians mouths can seem
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canned. but campaigning is still a living art as texas governor rick perry reminded everyone in tonight's presidential debate. it happened when he wound up to deliver the list of three federal departments he would obliterate. >> it's three agencyies of government when i get there when i'm gone. commerce education, and what's the third one there. let's see. >> you need five. >> oh commerce education and the -- ah -- >> epa. >> epa. there you go. >> let's talk -- >> seriously? is epa the one you were talking about? >> no, sir. we were talking about the -- agencies of government -- epa needs to be rebuilt. >> but you can't name the third one? >> the third agency of government i would do away with education, the -- >> commerce. >> commerce and -- let's see --
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i can't. the third one i can't. sorry. oops. >> oops. can't help but picture all the federal employees wondering if their agency was the one he was trying to remember. amy water is with us from washington. what happened there? how was he doing before that? >> you know before this he was actually having a relatively decent debate. in fact, seconds before that happened, i was actually sending an e-mail to someone saying rick perry's looking strong in all of this. and then that happened and i tweeted out at that moment dear "saturday night live," you're welcome. sincerely, rick perry. >> right. and herman cain as well. >> that's right. this was supposed to be a debate where herman cain was under fire where he was going to have to answer a lot of questions about all the allegations that have come up this week. instead, he got a pass, not only are we not only talking about perry right now, but during the debate, when the question was asked about the accusations, the
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audience booed, a lot. and they booed down the questioners. cain, though, never showed up in the spin room at least rick perry did and tried to defend himself. >> he did. let's roll that moment as he sort of owned his gaffe. >> i'm glad i had my boots on tonight because i sure stepped in it. that was embarrassing. of course it was. >> is this a campaign ender for him or is this survivable? >> well, cats get nine lives, i don't know candidates get that many. maybe they get three. there are a lot of people out there right now on the internet on the twitter, a lot of political analysts out there saying this may be the end of the perry campaign right now. >> and mitt romney stands to gain the most from this his folks are pretty quiet tonight, enjoying this maybe. >> they absolutely are. and he hasn't had to lift a finger. every single one of his opponents has self-imploded. >> a amy water, appreciate it. >> and there but for the grace of the tell prom

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