"Bowl day's link to battering is doubted"

by Ken Ringle - syndicated Washington Post story - San Jose Mercury News,
Jan. 31, 1993           

Some quotes:

     ...a network of feminist activists has orchestrated a national
     campaign to ask men to stop beating their wives and girlfriends
     after the Super Bowl.

       In an effort to combat what the Associated Press and CBS have
     labelled a "day of dread" for women, the organizers have prevailed
     on NBC, the broadcaster of Super Bowl XXVII, to air a public-service
     announcement against wife-beating before today's game.

     ... despite their dramatic claims, none of the activists appears to
     have any evidence that a link actually exists between football and
     wife-beating. Yet the concept has gained such credence that their
     campaign has rolled on anyway, unabated....

       Some experts on domestic violence, however, are dubious.

       "You're dealing in an area where there's a lot more folklore than
     fact," said Daivd Silber, chairman of the department of psychology
     at George Washington University and a longtime scholar of domestic
     violence. "I know of no study documenting any such link" between
     football or Super Bowls and domestic violence, Silber said. "And I
     know the literature very well."

        Charles Patrick Ewing, a forensic psychologist and author of
     "Battered Women who Kill," said, "I don't think anybody has any
     systematic  data on any of this."

        Yet Ewing is quoted in the release from Dobisky Associates
     declaring "Super Bowl Sunday is one day in the year when hot lines,
     shelters and other agencies that work with battered women get the
     most reports and complints of domestic violence."

        "I never said that," Ewing said. "I don't know that to be true."

     ... the news conference in Pasadena on Thursday cited a study
     purporting to document a link between domestic violence in Northern
     Virginia and games played by the Washington Redskins in 1988-89....
     but when asked about that assertion, Janet Katz, a professor of
     sociology and criminal justice at Old Dominion and one of the
     authors of that study, said, "That's not what we found at all."

     ... Linda Mitchell of FAIR, who appeared at the news conference
     with Kuehl and made similar links between domestic violence and
     Super Bowl Sunday, said she recognized at the time that Kuehl
     was misrepresenting the Old Dominion study.

        Did she, as a representative of Fairness and Accuracy in 
     Reporting, challence her colleague?

        "I wouldn't do that in front of the media," Mitchell said. "She
     has a right to report it as she wants." ....


RS Editorial:

    Once again, the fundamental mendacity underlying Politically Correct
    feminism lies exposed. They care nothing about truth, only about
    promoting the "party line" that men are all beasts, and women their
    innocent victims. In this the heritage of their Marxist parent is
    clearly visible: any lie which might be believed is useful for promoting
    the agenda. And FAIR, which pretends to expose falsehood in the media, 
    in fact has no interest in exposing the falsehoods its friends wish
    to promote. These feminists, by masquerading as sincere and honest
    supporters of the downtrodden, have been able to get vast amounts of
    free publicity from the various media outlets. However, once their
    fundamental mendacity is widely recognized, they won't be able to play 
    that game any more.

    So, enjoy the Big Game! And make sure you have enough beer for everyone!



-- 
  
        Robert Sheaffer - Scepticus Maximus - sheaffer@netcom.com
  
 Past Chairman, The Bay Area Skeptics - for whom I speak only when authorized!


     "Mystical explanations are considered deep. The truth is that
      they are not even superficial."

                   - Friedrich Nietzsche    (The Gay Science: 126)