PBS "Breaking the Silence" Not Ready For Prime Time

PBS "Breaking the Silence" Not Ready For Prime Time

October 17, 2005
by Carey Roberts
http://www.mensnewsdaily.com/archive...erts101705.htm

Propaganda pieces normally contain an indisputable kernel of truth, which is
then artfully embellished with innuendo, distortions, and half-truths. By
that standard, the upcoming PBS program, Breaking the Silence: Children's
Stories, doesn't even qualify as good fiction.

The program is so larded with Leftist fantasies and sweeping stereotypes you
begin to wonder if producers Dominique Lasseur and Catherine Tatge thought
they were doing a special for Sesame Street. A nice bedtime story wouldn't
be so bad, except this tale targets fathers and families.

Breaking the Silence leads off with this whopper: "One-third of mothers lose
custody to abusive husbands." That outrageous statement contains two
falsehoods.

First, divorced fathers win custody of their children only 15% of the time,
so the one-third figure is obviously suspect.

Second, women are known to be just as abusive as men. As a recent report
from the Independent Women's Forum notes, "approximately half of all couple
violence is mutual.when only one partner is abusive, it is as likely to be
the woman as the man."
[http://www.iwf.org/articles/article_...ArticleID=815]

Continuing its mean-spirited dissing of dads, Breaking the Silence goes on
to claim that children are "most often in danger from the father."
Apparently the producers never bothered to read the recent report from the
US Department of Health and Human Services which reveals that the majority
of perpetrators of child abuse and neglect are female.
[http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/cb/...cmreports.htm]

But the real objective of the PBS fusillade is to whitewash the problem of
Parental Alienation Syndrome. Divorcing parents - usually mothers -
sometimes try to turn the children against the other parent. If the mother
can claim that the kids are refusing to talk to dad, she is almost certain
to win child custody.

John Gray, PhD, author of the best-selling book, Men are from Mars, Women
are from Venus, describes women he has seen who "will do all sorts of things
to prevent the father from taking charge of the children, then they'll turn
around and say the father doesn't participate."

The problem of brainwashing moms is well-known to lawyers, attorneys, and
psychologists. I've seen this problem myself, and the long-term effects on
children can be so profound that I consider it one of the most pernicious
forms of child abuse.

But the rad-fems want to keep the lid tightly sealed on PAS, since it is one
of their most effective ploys for excluding fathers. And gaining child
custody is a mother's meal ticket to many years of tax-free child support.
So Breaking the Silence does everything to discredit PAS, calling it "junk
science" and a psychological "invention."

To lend the veneer of scientific respectability, the producers brought in
Joan Meier, a law professor at George Washington University. But Meier
brings her own set of credibility problems. In a recent interview, she made
this claim from left field: "batterers are twice as likely to contest as
non-batterers. And they often win sole or joint custody." [
http://www.washingtontimes.com/famil...258-3244r.htm]

Maybe Meier was suffering from a brain cramp that day. Or perhaps she was
thinking of Clara Harris, the Texas woman who fatally battered her husband
by driving over him with her car. Just seven months after her murder
conviction, Harris was granted custody of her two five-year-old boys.

So why would PBS engage in this wanton abuse of truth? The answer lies in
the broader feminist crusade to overturn the Patriarchy. Get dad out of the
picture, they say, and the children will grow up to be more enlightened
human beings.

But research proves the opposite is true. Countless studies show that kids
with absent dads do far worse on a broad range of academic, social, and
psychological indicators. [www.fatherhood.org/fatherfacts.asp]

Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, is credited with the concept
of the Big Lie. Repeat a falsehood a thousand times, and it becomes the
truth.

In 1935, the Big Lie claimed that Jewish bankers and businessmen were
wrecking the German economy, which necessitated their forced removal from
society. Seventy years later, the Big Lie would have you believe fathers
constitute a menace to women and children, so their exclusion is necessary
as well.

This coming Thursday at 10pm, the Public Broadcasting Corporation is
planning to air the latest incarnation of the Big Lie -- unless they hear
from viewers like you. Contact your local PBS station at
www.pbs.org/stationfinder/index.html .

Because even Big Bird needs a daddy's hug.


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Liberalism: that haunting fear that someone,
somewhere, can help themselves without
Government intervention.