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Round
3 of the
Campaign--Going to the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting
We
are now launching Round 3
of the campaign by taking
our case to the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting. To
date, we have generated over
6,000 calls and letters to
PBS protesting Breaking
the Silence--I want it
to be 10,000 by next week.
I want all of you to join
our campaign by clicking
here.
If
you've participated in Rounds
1 and/or 2, we still want
you to participate in Round
3--remember, CPB has not
heard from you yet.
There
have been many indications
of progress, some of which
I cannot publicly disclose
at the present time. Breaking
the Silence, which aired
on some PBS affiliates on
October 20 and will air on
many others in the coming
weeks, is a direct assault
on fatherhood. The film portrays
fathers as batterers and child
molesters who steal children
from their mothers. We want
PBS to allow both sides of
this issue to be heard by
giving fatherhood advocates
a meaningful chance to respond
on the air.
Houston PBS did this last
week.
Again,
I want all of you to join
our campaign by clicking
here.
FOX
News Picks up PBS/Loeliger
Story
Fox
News columnist Wendy McElroy
just wrote a column on our
PBS campaign and the Loeliger
revelations--see
PBS Film Ignites Fathers'
Rights Debate
(Fox News, 11/7/05).
McElroy noted "a spokeswoman
for PBS, Director of Corporate
Communications Jan McNamara,
says the accuracy of Breaking
the Silence is under 'official
review.'" McNamara first
contacted us about this two
weeks ago. After I released
the Loeliger revelations last
week I called her back and
suggested that the PBS review
team might want to consider
them in their review also.
We'll see what happens.
PBS Pennsylvania Affiliate
to Air Fathers' Views
To
its credit, WVIA, the PBS
affiliate in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton
Pennsylvania region, will
be airing opposing views of
Breaking the Silence:
Children's Stories on
its show State of Pennsylvania
on Thursday, November 10,
at 7 PM EST. Guests will include
members of Fathers' and Children's
Equality of Pennsylvania,
myself, and others.
WVIA
TV covers 22 counties in Northeastern
Pennsylvania, including the
Pocono region. Like most PBS
affiliates, WVIA aired Breaking
the Silence: Children's Stories
on Thursday, October 20.
PBS Takes a Small Step Back
From
our campaign website:
"To
its credit, PBS took a small
step back from its film
Breaking the Silence: Children's
Stories on Wednesday,
November 2. As Round 2 of
the campaign began, PBS changed
its response letter. The new
letter now reads 'The stories
profiled in Breaking the
Silence: Children's Stories
document a statistically small
but serious problem in our
family court system.'
"Yes,
very statistically small,
and we're glad PBS noticed.
As we noted at the beginning
of this campaign, the producers
of Breaking the Silence:
Children's Stories 'cherry-picked
a few highly unusual cases
and pretended that they represent
a widespread problem.' And
even among the few cases of
alleged injustices that the
producers highlighted, at
least one is a lie. A Tulare
County Juvenile Court concluded
that Sadia Loeliger, portrayed
as a heroic mom in the documentary,
had
committed eight counts of
child abuse, and adjudged
both her daughters as dependents
of the Juvenile Court in August
of 1998.
"The
PBS admission follows on the
heels of the column
'Critics of Child Abuse Film
Miss the Point in Rush to
Defend Fathers' (Los
Angeles Daily Journal,
San Francisco Daily Journal,
11/1/05), co-authored by Sol
Gothard, a retired judge featured
in the film, and two others.
Most of the 1,500 word piece
is devoted to attacking columnist
Glenn Sacks and the campaign
against the film. However,
the column inadvertently contained
an interesting admission.
The authors wrote:
"'Over
the last two decades, it has
been reported that hundreds
of children across the country
have been placed in the custody
of the parent they disclosed
had sexually and/or physically
abused them.'
"Sacks
replied:
"'Hundreds?
Over two decades? In a country
of 300 million people? Sounds
like a woman has a greater
chance of being struck by
lightning than she does of
losing custody of her children
to an abuser.'"
ACFC Sends Detailed Letter
to PBS Regarding Breaking
the Silence
Stephen
Baskerville, president of
the American Coalition for
Fathers and Children, has
penned a detailed letter signed
by 20 individuals and organizations
concerning Breaking the
Silence: Children's Stories.
The letter is a useful,
detailed analysis of the issues
raised in the film. The ACFC
has worked with us and supported
our campaign. Read the ACFC
letter
here.
Glenn Discusses PBS's Breaking
the Silence on the Dennis
Prager Show
I
discussed our campaign against
PBS's Breaking the Silence
on the
Dennis Prager Show on
Monday, November 7 at 11 AM
PST.
Syndicated Columnist Condemns
Breaking the Silence
Conservative commentator Phyllis
Schlafly, whose syndicated
column appears in more than
100 newspapers, criticizes
PBS's Breaking the Silence:
Children's Stories in
her newest column. Schlafly
writes:
"The
recent PBS program called
Breaking the Silence
is an example of feminist
propaganda that men are batterers
and women are victims. Among
the falsehoods in the film
was the assertion that 'one-third
of mothers lose custody [of
their children] to abusive
husbands' and that if a divorcing
father seeks any form of child
custody, he's most likely
a wife-beater.
"In
fact, divorced fathers win
child custody of their children
only 15 percent of the time,
and U.S. government figures
show that the majority of
perpetrators of child abuse
and neglect are female. Yet
the Mary Kay Ash Foundation
paid a half million dollars
to film and publicize PBS's
war on dads."
PAS and the American Psychological
Association
There
has been considerable controversy
over the American Psychological
Association's position on
Parental Alienation Syndrome.
Both in Breaking the Silence:
Children's Stories and
in the press releases surrounding
it, the film's supporters
contended that the APA had
condemned and criticized Parental
Alienation Syndrome.
An
APA spokeswoman said this
is a misstatement of the APA's
position--see
American Psychological Association
Says Breaking the Silence
Misrepresents Its Position
on PAS.
A
few days later the APA made
another brief official pronouncement
on PAS. Fatherhood advocate
Les Veskrna, MD has written
a column explaining the APA's
history with PAS. To read
the APA's statement and Veskrna's
column, see
PAS and the APA.
Richard L. Davis on Breaking
the Silence
As
we mentioned before, Sol Gothard,
a retired judge who was featured
in PBS's Breaking the Silence:
Children's Stories, devoted
a top of the page, 1,500 word
piece to attacking me and
the campaign against the film
in two California newspapers
last week--"Critics of
Child Abuse Film Miss the
Point in Rush to Defend Fathers"
(Los Angeles Daily Journal,
San Francisco Daily Journal,
11/1/05)(subscription only).
Domestic
violence expert Richard L.
Davis wrote an interesting
reply to the charges made
by the judge and his co-authors.
The column is
Dear PBS: To Break the Silence,
You Must Tell the Whole Truth
(MensNewsDaily.com, 11/6/05).
Two New Columns: 'Alito
and the Rights of Men'
Column
#1: Alito and the Rights of
Men
My
new column, "Alito
and the Rights of Men"
appeared in the Los Angeles
Times (11/1/05), the
San Francisco Chronicle, Newsday,
the Houston Chronicle,
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
and a couple dozen other
papers last week.
The
National Organization for
Women and Planned Parenthood
have blasted Samuel Alito's
nomination to the US Supreme
Court, saying that Alito has
shown "callous disregard
of battered women" because
he voted to uphold a section
of a Pennsylvania law which |
