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PRESS RELEASE

December 6, 2007
Contact: Mark Rosenthal, <>

Media Matters Suppresses the Truth on Partner Abuse

WASHINGTON, December 6, 2007 – Media Matters for America systematically suppressed information designed to assure a factual depiction of partner violence, according to RADAR (Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting). Two hundred scholarly studies now show men and women are equally likely to engage in domestic violence.[i]

On Tuesday November 20, Media Matters posted an article on its website titled, "On Your World, Mark Rudov Falsely Claimed 'Women are Equal-Opportunity Domestic Abusers.'"[ii] In support of its claim, Media Matters cited a 10-year-old survey that scientists say contains slanted questions, thus biasing the results.

Over the next four days Media Matters readers submitted 63 comments, 32 in support and 31 disagreeing with the original article. Many of the 31 posts cited specific research findings and provided links to the studies.

But Media Matters did not post any of the comments that provided a contrasting view of domestic violence, not even comments that highlighted research findings.

In response, RADAR issued an Alert on Monday, November 26 notifying people that Media Matters had prevented their readers from reading both sides of the discussion. Within hours of the Alert, Media Matters posted the 31 opposing comments. These developments were documented in detail in a subsequent RADAR Alert: http://www.mediaradar.org/alert20071127.php.

"It is outrageous that Media Matters, which presents itself as an objective media watchdog organization, covered-up key information in the critical area of domestic violence," comments Elizabeth Crawford, director of the Domestic Violence Counseling Center in Charleston, W. Va. "As a result, abusive women are being denied the help they need and victimized men are ignored."

The May 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health featured a report from the Centers for Disease Control that reports women are the sole perpetrator in 70% of cases where the other partner was non-violent.[iii]

And the recent November issue of the Illinois Bar Journal included a report that reveals false allegations of domestic violence are often used as a legal tactic in divorce actions.[iv] Each year more than one million restraining orders are issued that do not involve any allegation of physical violence.[v]


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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