RADAR ALERT:
NYT Brands “Every Man and in Every Class of Society” a Domestic Abuser
The recent NYT
handbook
“Ethical
Journalism”
states, “The
goal of the
New York Times
is to cover the
news as
impartially as
possible…and to
treat readers,
news sources,
advertisers, and
other fairly and
openly…The Times
strives to
maintain the
highest
standards of
journalistic
ethics.” [
http://www.nytco.com/pdf/NYT_Ethical_Journalism_0904.pdf
]
With that
ethical standard
in mind, RADAR
recently
released a
Special Report
on domestic
violence around
the world. The
Report quoted
psychologist
John Archer, who
concluded:
“Women were
slightly more
likely than men
to use one or
more acts of
physical
aggression and
to use such acts
more
frequently.”
[
http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/UN-Hides_Truth-of-DV.pdf
]
On April 6 the
New York
Times
published the
article, “Letter
from Europe.”
That article
contains many
serious
journalistic
flaws:
-- The article
does not admit
to the
possibility of
female-on-male
violence or
consider the
hundreds of
research studies
on the topic.
-- The piece
quotes a
politician who
is admittedly
“radical,” and
then
uncritically
accepts her
slanderous quote
at face value.
-- The article
is a good
example of
advocacy
reporting, in
which the
reporter selects
sources and
quotes to reach
a pre-determined
conclusion.
What is most
shocking is the
obviously false
and hateful
statement in the
article from
Swedish
politician
Gudrun Schyman:
“It’s not a
question of a
group of
criminals…it’s
not alcoholics
and drug
abusers, and
it’s not people
that are put out
from the
society. It’s
every man and in
every class of
society.”
Contact the
New York Times
and tell them
the following:
-
Community
surveys on
domestic
violence,
both in the
United
States and
internationally,
consistently
find that
women are
just as
likely to
commit DV as
men.
[
http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/UN-Hides_Truth-of-DV.pdf
]
-
Lizette
Alvarez’s
article is
slanderous
and hateful
in tone.
-
The article
does not
meet even
the minimum
journalistic
standards of
balance,
fairness,
and
objectivity.
The article
does not
meet the
NYT
ethical
standards of
impartiality
and
fairness.
-
To protect
its good
name, the
New York
Times
should
retract this
hate piece,
and place
Ms. Alvarez
on leave for
journalistic
incompetence
and
violating
the
Times
’
own
standards
for ethical
journalism.
Here’s the
contact
information:
1. Daniel Okrent,
Public Editor,
E-mail:
public@nytimes.com
Telephone:
212-556-7652
2. Letters to
the Editor
New York Times
229 West 43rd
Street
New York, NY
10036
E-mail:
letters@nytimes.com
[letters@nytimes.com]
Fax:
212-556-3622
Folks,
this article is
probably the
most biased
article on DV
that the NYT has
ever published.
Apparently the
editors at the
Times have
forgotten about
their own
ethical
standards. Let’s
do it!
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/06/international/europe/06letter.html?pagewanted=2&8hpib
LETTER FROM
EUROPE
Sweden Boldly
Exposes a Secret
Side of Women's
Lives
By Lizette
Alvarez
April 6, 2005
Stockholm -
Full-throated
feminism and its
offspring,
gender equality,
have never gone
out of vogue in
Sweden.
Feminists here
are seldom
hectored about
quashing family
values or
derided, at
least publicly,
as a gang of
castration-happy
women.
Relentlessly,
they have pushed
for women's
rights, and
their triumphs
are well known.
Sweden ranks at
the top (or near
it) in the
number of women
who hold public
office, serve as
cabinet
ministers,
graduate from
college and hold
jobs. Mothers
are granted long
maternity leaves
and send their
children to
excellent day
care centers.
If anything, the
movement is
gaining
strength: Sweden
is expected
later this year
to create its
first feminist
political party,
which could
court as many as
1 in 5 voters, a
recent opinion
poll indicated.
But there is one
significant blot
on the record of
women's
empowerment
here: domestic
violence, a
crime that until
recently
remained muffled
in shame.
Swedish men are
not any more
violent toward
women than the
men of most
other Western
European
countries. It
has simply been
easier for them
to get away with
violence against
wives and
girlfriends,
experts and
politicians
said, and harder
for women to get
the help they
need.
In an unforeseen
twist, Sweden's
well-guarded
sense of privacy
and its
leadership on
women's rights
served for many
years to mute
the issue.
Rather than
boldly tackle
the pattern of
violence, many
in Sweden
reflexively
dismissed it as
the sort of
thing that
happens
somewhere else.
"The equality
thing put a wet
blanket over the
issue," said Eva
Hassel Calais,
assistant to the
chairwoman of
the National
Organization for
Women's Shelters
in Sweden.
But this is
changing.
It took a
stinging Amnesty
International
report and
startling
admissions by
well-known
victims to set
off a national
reckoning that
began last year.
That has been
followed by
calls for
action, not for
new laws -
Sweden has
passed a series
of tough,
progressive laws
in recent years
- but for new
attitudes.
A period of
self-reflection
was inevitable.
"We've had to
change our
picture of
ourselves in
Sweden," said
Maria Carlshamre,
a former
television
journalist who
acknowledged
last summer to
viewers, against
the station's
wishes, that her
husband had
abused her for a
decade. "We are
not the gender
equality
champions of the
world."
The turmoil
began a year ago
with the Amnesty
International
report, which
took Sweden to
task for failing
to adequately
curb violence
against women
and help victims
cope with their
situations. The
organization
also cited
spotty
prosecutions,
vague
statistics,
old-fashioned
judges and
unresponsive
local
governments.
The report
praised Sweden's
laws as
"unambiguous,"
but warned that
"strongly worded
legislation is
not in itself a
sufficient
instrument to
ensure women's
right to a life
without
violence."
The group
concluded that
acts of violence
against women
had spiraled
upward in Sweden
in the last 15
years, a jump
that could not
be explained
away as merely a
greater
willingness by
women to report
the incidents.
The number of
police reports
filed for
assault against
women increased
40 percent in
the 1990's,
according to the
Swedish National
Council for
Crime
Prevention.
By 2003 the
number of
reported
assaults had
swelled to
22,400, from
14,000 in 1990.
An estimated 16
women are killed
by a husband or
partner each
year, the report
said. And only a
fraction of the
cases involving
assaults, rape,
breaches of
restraining
orders or
continuing abuse
lead to
prosecution, the
report stated.
The report also
underscored that
most incidents
of violence
against women
continue to go
unreported.
In addition, the
network of
shelters for
battered women
is deeply
frayed, the
reports says,
with only about
150 of the 289
municipalities
in Sweden
operating
shelters. Those
open for
business rely
almost entirely
on volunteer
workers.
Like a
picture-perfect
family forced to
come clean,
Sweden found
itself baring
its own foibles,
women and
experts said.
"There has been
a turning
point," said
Liza Marklund, a
journalist and
best-selling
novelist whose
books have
explored themes
of violence
against women.
"Now people are
beginning to
take it
seriously."
In October,
Gudrun Schyman,
one of Sweden's
most colorful
and radical
feminist
politicians,
proposed a "man
tax" in
Parliament,
where she is a
member of the
Left Party. The
idea was to
force men to pay
for the
consequences of
their violence
against women.
The proposal
stalled, but
seized the
public's
attention.
Not long after,
the justice
minister, Thomas
Bodstroem,
declared his own
outrage during a
November
demonstration to
protest men's
violence against
women.
"Let this become
an election
issue in 2006,"
he announced.
"Silence is a
betrayal to all
abused women,
and a help to
all violent
men."
In March, the
prosecutor
general proposed
building a team
of 35 special
prosecutors
devoted to the
issue of
violence against
women. There
have also been
proposals to
electronically
tag men who
break the law.
The pervading
sense that
domestic
violence is a
crime affecting
"others" is
dissipating.
"It's not a
question of a
group of
criminals," said
Ms. Schyman, who
is leading the
campaign for the
feminist party.
"It's not
alcoholics and
drug users, and
it's not people
that are put out
from the
society. It's
every man and in
every class of
society."
The same is true
of the victims.
Ms. Carlshamre,
48, helped crack
the code of
silence last
summer with her
surprising
on-air admission
that she had
been beaten and
psychologically
abused for 10
years.
"I said, 'Do you
want to know
what a battered
woman looks
like? Here she
is,' " she
recalled.
Ms. Carlshamre
said she was
fired because
her bosses,
fearing slander
charges, had
warned that the
topic was off
limits. She then
ran for a seat
in the European
Parliament on an
anti-violence
platform, and
won. "Now you
can't talk about
battered women
like 'them'
anymore," she
said. "It's no
longer about
poor women on
the fringe of
society."
Still, many
women are
skeptical that
things will
change all that
much, or that
fast, and they
point to the
stubborn gender
imbalance in the
country's power
and pay
structure as the
major reason
why. This is
precisely the
reason why
feminists are
trying to form a
political party.
"We have made
much progress in
the discussion
of gender
equality; it is
a more advanced
political
debate," Ms.
Schyman said.
"This is one
thing, and
reality is
another."
Date of RADAR Release: April 10, 2005
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R.A.D.A.R. – Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting – is a non-profit, non-partisan organization of men and women working to improve the effectiveness of our nation's approach to solving domestic violence. http://www.mediaradar.org
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