ABC viewers urge: Fire Diane Sawyer

Network anchor accused of exploiting beaten teen girl in quest for TV ratings

Outraged ABC viewers are calling for the arrest or firing of Diane Sawyer after the anchor broadcast a TV segment that included the beating of a teenage girl by her father – without first going to authorities about what was captured on tape.

During Friday's "Primetime" news magazine show, Sawyer presented a segment about dysfunctional stepfamilies, which featured a profile of a family in Lake Placid, N.Y.

According to a report in the New York Post, state police officials in Lake Placid say they are going over the tape to determine if charges can be brought against the natural father, a Iraq war military reservist, and the teen's stepmother.

By yesterday, over 1,400 messages had been posted on ABC News' website message board, many calling for Sawyer and the show's producers to be fired for failing to take the tape to law enforcement when they first saw it.

"At the very least, the parents should be arrested and Diane Sawyer needs to resign from her post at ABC News," stated one poster. "ABC News' lack of action and complicity were harmful and destructive to a young girl – ALL FOR RATINGS. The therapists did nothing to intervene either and should be arrested. The site keeps taking their names off the board, but they are easy to locate. They should be charged with … child endangerment."

The family, identified as Lynn and Joe Nelson and their daughter, Kyle, gave ABC permission to place the cameras in their home and had the ability to turn them off at any time, the Post reported.