PBS's negative picture of fathers

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Akil Todd Harvey
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Post by Akil Todd Harvey »

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting released a report yesterday which endorsed the central charges made by fatherhood advocates protesting PBS's film Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories. CPB Ombudsman Ken A. Bode declared that there is "no hint of balance in Breaking the Silence." Bode noted:

"The father's point of view is ignored as are new strategies for lessening the damage to children in custody battles. There is no mention of the collaborative law movement in which parents and lawyers come to terms without involving the court, nor of the new joint custody living arrangements.

"The producers apparently do not subscribe to the idea that an argument can be made more convincing by giving the other side a fair presentation. To be sure, one comes away from viewing the program with the feeling that custody fights are a special hell, legally, emotionally, psychologically. But this broadcast is so slanted as to raise suspicions that either the family courts of America have gone crazy or there must be another side to the story."

CPB's report praised PBS's decision to put the program under official review, noting that the film "needs to be reviewed for accuracy, fairness and balance."

The report also criticized the Mary Kay Ash Foundation, which gave $500,000 towards the production of the film and is reportedly "providing a stipend so that every battered women's organization in the country can put on private screenings of this film for their local judges and legislators." Bode noted:

"If so, PBS may find it has been the launching pad for a very partisan effort to drive public policy and law."

Bode's decision was praised by two of the protest campaign's leaders, newspaper columnist Glenn Sacks and Ned Holstein, president of Fathers and Families. Sacks noted:

"Breaking the Silence is so flawed and extreme that any fair reviewer will see the merits of our claims. Bode looked at the information objectively, instead of ideologically, and got it right."

CPB's full report can be read here. For more information on the campaign against Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories, click here.

http://www.cpb.org/ombudsmen/051129bode.html
Those writing to us at CPB or to our web site challenged that premise of "no preconceived notions," essentially raising two questions: First, did Lasseur and Tatge get their facts right? Then,did they present a balanced treatment of the issue, or, as some charged, did they cherry-pick their evidence to support only one point of view?


Citing statistics from the Department of Justice web site, David Purcell of California wrote to CPB, saying the documentary ignores the fact that of those who perpetrate domestic violence on children 60 percent are women. A number of other PBS viewers also cited evidence contradicting the main thrust of the broadcast.

"A few groups are concerned about the accelerating trend toward joint custody of children and are striking back by accusing most fathers who seek custody of being batterers and child abusers. It's a shame PBS has dispensed with objective reporting and chosen to air an extremist point of view without looking at the political motives of the advocates it features."

"Despite the film's claims, research shows that parental alienation is a common facet of divorce or separation. For example, a longitudinal study published by the American Bar Association in 2003 followed 700 "high conflict" divorce cases over a 12-year period and found that elements of PAS were present in the vast majority of them."

"As such, the program directly violates the legal mandate of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to ensure 'strict adherence to objectivity in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature.' Even though CPB did not create this program, CPB is nonetheless obligated by law to assure that all public broadcasting programs conform to journalistic standards of objectivity and balance."
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Post by Bill Glasheen »

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1, 2, 3, straight people aren’t the enemy........

Post by Akil Todd Harvey »

Hey Bill

play nice, be nice, take your lashes like a nice guy..........being nice is not the answer to these problems, that is how we got here.

if these issues have merit, they will last and flourish, not because I said them in a nice way that offends no one, it will be because they are unbearable to men......

Intolerable.......

I have dealt with feminist claptrap, lies and deception for over thirty years, Bill, and I have had enough........

I have been a supporter of feminism for over thirty years, Bill, and I have just woken up (in the last few years) to the fact that these folks don’t want equality, never did and never will.........

They want woman on top, not side by side.........they want woman to rule, not share power......

They talk about how the feminist movement supports men's issues, but as long as the men don’t have a say in what those issue are......

And i know that my insults give folks a convenient way to avoid the important issues, but that is because they are busy trying to avoid the important issues, I just made it easy for them to do so......if feminists wanted to raise the issues of fairness with men that I have been raising they could have done so long ago, but they don’t want to, that is why they will raise every issue to discuss but the ones we want to discuss.......

Your not being nice, you aren’t playing fair.......forget that noise.......

I don’t wage war in the manner that the enemy has decided I should…..Imagine if the American revolution was fought as the British said we should…..we would still be speaking English…..lol

......That would be somewhat foolish, wouldn’t it?????????

And is this war? Damn skinny it is........I am sick and tired and will take no more..........

No more bullshit and no more false accusations......as soon as I hear the false accusations coming, I attack, I attack lest these false accusation be taken seriously.........

Let these false accusation fester and everyone thinks men are bad and they are the ones who do all the bad things (or in large part, not in equal part).....

If feminists thought that men and women were equal, they would want men and women to be locked in prison in equal numbers, but they aren’t. Feminists are convinced that men are more bad than women and that is why there are more men in prison and the feminist think that is the way it should be.....In fact, the feminists (men and women included) are so convinced of the inequality of men, that they are constantly trying to get more and more men locked up in jail for longer and longer periods of time..........

Mushin, no mind.......that is my attitude.....this is beyond ego, bill, well beyond ego, something must be done and the time to be nice isn’t now, but when the feminazis start to be willing to reason with us men, that will be the day that we can start to be nice again.

I don’t care about being nice at this point cuz I don’t feel safe from the false accusations of women (and men) and the men who are quick to believe lies over truth.......

Every day or every few days I walk to my garage to do an hour or two of furniture making while I recuperate from a workplace injury, this time alone gives me great comfort and freedom.....so every time I go to the garage, I walk past this dog who on most days lungs and barks, barks like you have committed some horrible fictitious crime and need punishment.....most days of the week, I just walk by as quietly as possible, trying NOT to disturb the doggie in his habitat, but every once ins a while, I get tired of it, I get tired of being barked at with such ferocity, knowing how hard most of the time, I work to make sure that I bother no one.....so every once in a while, on days that I feel like crap (or just feel that I don’t feel like taking crap that day), I lung at the dog, and I bark at him to "shut up", scaring him as he has startled me on so many occasions......what is good for the goose is good for the gander.........so, i am walking along 50 yards later and out pops a woman, saying, "Did you just yell?", to which i say next to nothing, (I don’t know her, she has not addressed me with any pleasantries or "excuse me's", to which she repeats in a more threatening manner, "Did you just yell?", "Did you just yell?", to which I respond, "excuse me, did that dog just bark at me?.....she starts to tell me how she heard someone be "Angry" and that she was about to call the cops, to which I respond, "Call the police!", and she says, well, I work with the district attorney's office, you should go away now...." so, i went straight to the police myself and the woman at the counter responds that this other woman is probable a wack secretary.....notice, this woman did not identify her name, her jurisdiction, etc....she thinks the whole world is her jurisdiction....lol.......dogs have right's that people don’t......and that is what she was trying to enforce, the dog's right to bark at people with absolute abandon and people's absolute right not to act in their own self defense........my neighbor’s dog has the right to bark at you and you can do nothing about......hahahahhahahahhahahahhahahah........i may have no rights, but until you lock my arse in jail permanently, I will continue to assert what rights I have left as a man, if there be any.......in the middle of broad freaking daylight.........the big alpha female, i met her again, out there enforcing laws that don’t even exist.....telling men what to do, how to do it, when to do it.......go away doggie...........she ran out to protect some woman, for sure, .....she ran out to protect some guy from marauding on some defenseless female..........

Anybody want to tell me the following::::::::

When did it become illegal to become angry in this country?

Oh yeah, it is only illegal for a men to get angry in this country.....

Women should feel free to get as angry as they want, that is not an illegal activity, but being male and being angry is illegal in your state, right?

Dudes, think i am wrong, next time you get angry, stop being afraid of letting it show and the anger police will come to our rescue.........

The alpha female anger police will come out of the woods whenever they hear an angry male.......They will immediately come out and shame and threaten you, they will pretend that merely being angry (as a male) is illegal or immoral........

The alpha female (and males) has been so taught that male anger always leads directly to BAD things that as soon as they see any form of anger, they immediately pounce on it, trying to stomp it out for the illegal activity that it is.......lol

I had a problem with some family members, my bad, I decided to do some business service work for family....well, i felt taken advantage of after years and no one in my family was even willing to discuss my feelings of having been taken advantage of by my sisters husband......i asked my father to intercede on my behalf (to encourage some sort of discussion), but since my mother had deliberately alienated my father for over a decade, he had little chance to act.....my mother, similarly, refused to lift a finger to help resolve the family conflict, so i decided after waiting six months (note how much of a hurry i was in, I waited six months for my parents to act).......since no one was gonna try to help and being nice didn’t work, i decided it was time to NOT be nice.....i called my bro in law and told him where to go (and he has disowned me), and i would get all upset about, except for the fact that in the last five years, those folks never call me anyway.....if i want to hear their voices, i call them, waiting for any of them to call me is a waste of time (what did you do? There was nothing that I had done previously that justified not calling their own brother......whatever, dudettes, that is on you......so, after i called my bro in law and told em where to go, i called my mother to let her know that i took care of the situation myself (after she refused to lift a finger to help resolve a family dispute-some matriarch-yeah right).....so i call ma and i leave a message saying, "i came to you for help and you refused to lift a finger, now i am gonna do it my way, cuz I am a man, not a woman........next day, I get these messages from mom about threats to hurt myself or others..........and i am like, ok, ma, go with the false accusations....i deliberately used language that would inflate her expectation of danger, but that had no one in their right mind would ever consider a threat……the police never showed up at my door and I was never prosecuted….the threats were only threats in her own mind…..

i call ma back the next day and i tell her to get over herself........get over her false accusations cuz i refuse to cower before women any more just to make them feel safe.

you can use my issues against me if you like, good luck, my family has done the same, many times.....that is why i dont care, anymore, cuz they use my caring against me..........i dare to confront my issues and i am supposed to feel bad about it....most folks don’t have the courage that God gave a mouse to discuss their real issues on these forums and I am supposed to feel bad cuz i am in touch with my issues????? lol.......

Like Janis Joplin said, freedom is nothing left to lose.

Men have been targeted for far too long and I for one am sick and tired of it…..I don’t feel safe and I haven’t felt safe from feminists for quite a long time…….if they don’t feel safe, I am at the point of not giving a #####……I spent more than a decade learning how to do karate so I could not only protect women, but also so I could teach women how to protect themselves……let me tell ya boys, women would much rather have men protect them than to have to learn how to protect themselves (same goes with most men)…….

Bill, I have nothing left to lose.......my mother spent most of my childhood telling me how horrible my father was (ask my father today about my mothers foibles and he doesn’t tell me all horrible things that my mother did wrong-although if pushed he will admit individual mistakes on her part, but he doesn’t go out of his way to remember or highlight her faults, but merely acknowledges whatever she says he did wrong is true-thus, no denial)......my mother spent most of my childhood making sure that I wouldn’t get a chance to bond with my grandfather, or if i did, to belittle him........my mother, so eager, to make sure that I didn’t turn out like my father, ensured that i would NOT value my father......

Llet me tell ya about my grandfather.....first off, i know almost nothing and that is not by accident......my grandpa worked some non-descript factory job for most of his life and my mother seemed to hate and despise him.......one day I went to his funeral and i happened to read his obituary.....by the way my mother talked about my grandpa, you would think that his obit would read about how many years he spent behind bars, but instead I read about how he was a pioneer in a new form of retirement living, in which retirees live active lives rather than just rotting away in some nursing home doing next to nothing, valuing themselves not at all, etc......Now, I know that my grandfather was worth knowing and that my mother worked hard to make sure that I never got much of a chance to get to know him……

And then there was the vitriol reserved for my dad (and just about anyone with gonads)..........why was my dad the big boogeyman?????? he did not pay child support.....despite the fact that my mother had remarried......and then divorced and had a live in boyfriend (actually she moved into his house with the kids-thus this new guy was providing support)....my ma didn’t marry her next two boyfriends the way she did my father and stepfather, that would have supported the patriarchal system (and lost her right to claim that my dad was a beat dead dad if she admitted that new men were supporting her and her family)......the fourth full time man in my ma's life bought her a house that she got to keep, the 2nd husband gave her a volvo, her 3rd boyfriend gave her shelter, support, etc.......my ma is getting remarried and divorced like its changing your clothes......my dad, having quit the job that supported the family the entire time my parents were together, quit his job as soon as he could to become a practitioner of eastern medicine, has never amounted to much of anything financially, although he has helped many many people to find healthier and happier lives..........my mother, on the other hand, is the quintessential alpha female, she has let no one get in her way.....she gotten everything she wanted out of life......and guess what, she is not happy (by her own admission)........my ma is a full professor at the university of Michigan in Anna arbor (She is working in the ivory tower, that which she so despised for so long) and she has been depressed for the last ten years. the first five years of depression I chock up to menopause.....and the rest is hers........be careful of what you wish for baby, you just might get it....my mother has never let any man or women get in her way of her goals and now that she has reached them, we are all supposed to feel bad that she is unhappy??????? lol....life is funny that way.....that was one of my favorite sayings in youth, be careful of what you wish for...........YOU MIGHT GET IT!

so, yeah, I have issues and i may even wear them on my sleeve, but that is mostly cuz i am trying to get over them, not have them hide in my subconscious for the rest of my life.......Oh, I know that most of you don’t want to hear my observations, but then again, you can go to whatever thread you like......if there is any such thing as freedom of speech, then why are so many people (me included) saying "watch what you say"........

war aint pretty......but let me tell you something i did not start it.........i have been attacked by women verbally and otherwise more times than I can count.........

I used to just cower (as taught diligently by mom) whenever I was accused falsely of anything and i now I rise up and shout down any and all false accusers.......men, be warned, false, misleading, and blatantly false sexual and abuse accusations abound in this society......if you want to be safe, learn how to spot them and shoot down the false accusations long before anybody begins to believe it..........

More than decade ago, I went to visit my sis.....she had two daughters....I was studying karate (my bro in law-kungfu).....so i was doing a little karate in their back yard in the hopes that I would interest the young girl in an art form that would help protect her throughout life......but, like most women, she seemed more than a little content to just let the men do the job........later I was sitting on the couch and the little girl is playing games that were not welcome at the time, my hands were busy, so I used my feet to defend my space (trust me, boys, you don’t want little girls too close to you, defend your space from false accusations), so the little girl keeps invading my space and i try to keep her out of my space with my foot......if i had kicked this little girl, my niece, for real, she might never get up, but that distinction never got understood, she runs to mommy, yelling, He kicked me".....to which I say crap, that is crap.....false accusation, if i wanted to kick her, she wouldn’t get up so quickly to make these false allegations...........

Dogs and kids have more rights than men in society and that is what bothers me........

While some of you think i am just acting on negatively on my issues. i tell you, you don’t know the half of it.....an in you don’t know half as much as i hold back and you don’t know half the crap that I have put up with......and just cuz i have been a nice guy up will now, does not mean that I will conveniently continue to be some nice guy in the future......"I am mad as hell and I am not gonna take it anymore" ……You can feel free (as the native Americans say) to walk in my shoes for a mile before you judge me and until you have done so, I wont let you judge me……..

we guys have been nice to women for far too long to prove that we are not the big bad meanies that the feminaizs claim we are......people like ian will come out to shame me (oh, ian the taliban are so baaaaaaaad, and i don’t rule them, i don’t justify their behavior nor do i agree with it, but i refuse to be cowered into silence because of their actions that I am not responsible for and have never ever supported)....things is ian, there is an underlying shame assumption that your statement has contained in it.......which is that Islam is the most sexist religion...some feminist I met more than a decade ago at UMass hit me with that false assumption years ago........Forget the fact that Islam allowed women to divorce more than a thousand years before Christianity or Judaism did.........don’t worry Ian, i am not so ignorant that you can just make me cower with one massive false allegation against my professed religion.......I am aware of most of the faults of those who profess my religion, but the religion, like all religions, is itself far more egalitarian than people give it credit......i know it is popular to bash religion today ian, so feel free.....and keep trying to shame me into silence if you can, but don’t be surprised is i throw a little back your way......and take the time to address the issue at hand from time to time if you dare.......i know you had a little fun yourself for a while where you sent these gay porn pictures to folks whose opinions you didn’t like.....in your face was ok then right ian???????? Gay people can say that they are gay beyond their control (don’t try to change me, accept me as I am , right?), but there is no concomitant willingness to accept anyone who does not agree with your lifestyle? any straight person who has a natural aversion to homosexuality that is biologically driven (cannot be ignored just like your sex drive) is a homophobe, utterly fearful of your lifestyle, which most gay men will claim is beyond their control, but the same right is not conferred on straight people..........I have known and lived with gay people for nearly thirty years and I find them not nearly as accepting of straight people as they want straight people to be accepting of them......we all have issues and some of us deal with them better than others.....you want me to deal with mine and i want you to deal with yours........come on ian, sing along

1, 2, 3, straight people aren’t the enemy........
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Bill Glasheen
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Post by Bill Glasheen »

Excitable boy, they all said
Well, he's just an excitable boy
- Warren Zevon


Bad day, Akil?

You can be angry, and you can have causes. And you often enlighten with what you find on your causes.

But when you generalize groups the way you do, are you doing your cause justice? Or are you just like those whom you criticize?

Image

Chill, dude. We still love you.

- Bill
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Akil Todd Harvey
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Post by Akil Todd Harvey »

PBS's new ombudsman Michael Getler has joined Corporation for Public Broadcasting Ombudsman Ken A. Bode in criticizing Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories, noting the film's "complete absence of some of the fundamental journalistic conventions" that give a film credibility. Getler noted:

"My assessment, as a viewer and as a journalist, is that this was a flawed presentation by PBS... PBS and CPTV were their own worst enemy and diminished the impact and usefulness of the examination of a real issue by what did, indeed, come across as a one-sided, advocacy program...there was no recognition of opposing views on this program...

"This presentation made no concession to the viewer and to the legitimate questions one would have or expect. Not only were no fathers heard from to state their side of the individual stories presented, there was no explanation [with one exception] as to whether the producers even tried to get their views...

"The studies that one presumes back up the statistics stated on the program are not cited. Research that Lasseur uses to back up the program in his response to critics is not cited in the film; nor are the statistics cited by critics...this particular program had almost no balance, and went too far, turning it, at least in my mind, into more of an advocacy, or point-of-view, presentation...

"PBS, to its credit, is taking these challenges seriously and is reviewing the research that went in to the program and the conclusions drawn, and has promised a response to these challenges early in December."

Corporation for Public Broadcasting Ombudsman Ken A. Bode issued a report last week in which he criticized Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories, saying that there is "no hint of balance in Breaking the Silence." Bode also noted the need for PBS to examine the program, noting that the film "needs to be reviewed for accuracy, fairness and balance."

Getler can be reached at ombudsman@pbs.org.
...complete absence of some of the fundamental journalistic conventions"...

as long as they dont fabricate information, that is fine.....oooops, they are fabricating lies about men to promote the taking away of children dfrom their fathers.

"PBS, to its credit, is taking these challenges seriously and is reviewing the research that went in to the program and the conclusions drawn, and has promised a response to these challenges early in December."

Yeah, after thousands of angry men and dads (and how many women?) call to complain, all of a sudden, after much foot draggging, has decided that the program was unfair, after denying this same claim most of the way......
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Post by IJ »

I will try something new for ya, ATH... (I am NOT calling you a racist in the slightest nor implying you are violent with this story).

Ever see, "american history X"? There's this scene where this very angry young man whose rage turned into racist skinhead violence has just been assaulted in jail, and this african american (principle? counselor?) from high school visits him in the medical clinic, and rather than challenging his belief system he asks...

"Has anything you've done... made your life better?"

Do you feel calmer or worse after a stream of consciousness post? Has this helped you get along better or worse with others, especially women? Will this approach turn people off or convince them to correct the wrongs you see?

If things are working for you, then good luck... surely your opinions about current gender relations appear to be hard wired into your genes... and those of the amygdala, I'd wager. Peace bro!
--Ian
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Post by AAAhmed46 »

That....is a damn good movie.
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Wow, a lot of anger being waged!

Post by chef »

Akil, your Mom, for whatever reason, was wrong in skewing your view of your Dad that way, granted.....of treating you that way. Any woman that did that would be acting in a cruel and unsavory manner.....that doesn't mean all women are that way. All woman are not like that, thank God.

Mary and Bill are both good people, not perfect people. I am not perfect. You are not perfect. Nature or nurture can influence us initially to behave in a certain way. If it is an unhealthy pattern though, we can only blame the world or others for so long. It comes to the point of 'how do we constructively change how we are'?

There is an awful lot of anger in you, even if justified. It is good to blow off steam but not to make anyone who disagrees with you the 'bad guy', or scape goats.

There has to be a constructive means for you to wage your war to correct the unjustices you see. Just because others don't agree with you doesn't necessarily mean they don't accept your opinions or care what you think.

I believe you can change and affect others through your actions without such hostility.....honey isn't always necessary, but neither is vinegar.

Good luck in your journey. May you find peace.

Regards,
Vicki
"Cry in the dojo, laugh in the battlefield"
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Akil Todd Harvey
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Post by Akil Todd Harvey »

"It was precisely the lack of balance and fairness that caused so many viewers to contact PBS and CPB. That was also the main thrust of my report. Lasseur now says that was intentional. Simply put, that amounts to a plea of guilty to violating the fairness and balance standards of PBS."
Tatge/Lasseur See No Credible Advocates for Fathers

Tatge/Lasseur's slap at fatherhood advocates is priceless:

"We spoke with members of fathers' rights organizations and did extensive research on their views. We made the decision not to interview them on camera because they would not have provided any balance or fairness to the piece."

In reality, there are countless fine advocates for fathers who would have provided desperately needed "balance" and "fairness" to the piece. For example, Mike McCormick, Executive Director of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, was in contact with Lasseur during the production of Breaking the Silence, and would have been a valuable part of the film. Ned Holstein and Dan Hogan of Fathers & Families of Massachusetts, who have helped lead this campaign, would also have been excellent choices.
Has the Film's Backer Backed Down?

In mid-October, Massachusetts domestic violence advocates prescreened Breaking the Silence at the Massachusetts State House in Boston. At the screening it was announced that this presentation and others planned across the country had been financed by a stipend from the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, which had previously given $500,000 towards the production of the film.

Bode's report indicates that the leaders of Mary Kay may have changed their minds.

According to Bode, Michael Lunceford, president of the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation, wrote to him and distanced his organization from the film. Lunceford says:

"The Foundation has no plan to distribute this documentary the way it did the 2001 program Breaking the Silence: Journeys of Hope, which was sold through the foundation with an accompanying program guide."

Lunceford also appeared anxious to disassociate himself from the film, telling Bode that after making the grant for the production, the Mary Kay Ash Charitable Foundation had no further involvement with the project. Lunceford wrote:

"Our agreement with CPTV was for a program regarding the effects of domestic violence on children. The co-producers CPTV and Tatge/Lasseur had full independence within that topic in researching and producing the program. As you are aware, under PBS National Program Funding Standards and Practices, the co-producers are fully responsible for the program research and content."

CPB Condemns Tatge/Lasseur's Defamation of Dr. Scott Loeliger

As many of you know, after Breaking the Silence was shown nationally on PBS on October 20, I was contacted by Dr. Scott Loeliger, a father who was defamed in the film. Together Scott and I worked to prepare and release his side of the story, and it has subsequently been discussed and reported on by Fox News, the Boston Globe, Reason magazine, and several radio networks.

Scott and I released extensive documentation that shows that his ex-wife Sadia Loeliger--portrayed as a heroic mom in the film--was found by a California Juvenile Court to have abused children under her care, and that both of her daughters were adjudged to be dependents of the Juvenile Court. Bode wrote:

"We heard from Dr. Scott Loeliger whose daughter and former wife were featured in the documentary. Loeliger says the producers knew that he possesses documents from a juvenile court proving his wife was the abuser. He asked that his daughter be removed from the program and says that failure by the producers to do so was 'a poison pill that destroyed the entire premise of the documentary.'

"Producers Lasseur and Tatge replied in a letter to CPB that Dr. Loeliger declined their offer to interview him so that his views could be aired. Had he agreed to be interviewed Loeliger would have been the only father represented.

"They also say that after speaking to Dr. Loeliger they changed the names of the mother and daughter. What difference does that make? Their faces were still on public television screens all over the country. Did they think that Dr. Loeliger, to whom they caused pain, would mistake them for strangers?

"Loeliger says he has received no satisfaction from PBS, CPTV or the producers and still threatens to release the juvenile files and sue."

Loeliger declined to be interviewed on the show because he did not want his daughter to be caught between warring parents on national television. Scott shied away from publicity on the issue, and requested of the filmmakers only that they leave his daughter out of the film--click here to read Scott's letters to the producers. These requests were ignored. Finally, after being defamed on national television, Scott figured there was little left to lose and contacted me so he could tell his story for the first time.
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