RADAR ALERT: Why Is It So Hard For The Rocky Mountain News To Talk About Male Victims?

The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colorado just ran a column by Dora-Lee Larson titled, “Why is it so Hard to Call it Like it Is? Domestic Violence is a Crime.” Larson is the executive director of the Denver Domestic Violence Coordinating Council. Larson’s column was printed in response to a series of articles on "Battered Justice" that ran in the Rocky Mountain News February 5-9.

Click "Read more..." for moreThree times in her article, Ms. Larson uses the phrase, “battered women.” But she finds it very hard to talk about “battered men.” She repeatedly equates men as abusers and women with victims. Only once does she give the slightest hint that women also may be batterers: “How many women and children’s lives have been spared if half of the (mostly) men who receive treatment stop battering?”

There is an entire web site devoted to documenting men in Colorado who were abused or killed by their girlfriends and wives -- apparently Ms. Larson finds it hard to talk about that.

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Contact the Rocky Mountain News and tell them the following:

1. Dora-Lee Larson’s article glosses over the well-documented finding that women are just as likely as men to commit domestic violence.
2. Readers of the Rocky Mountain News should be asking Ms. Larson, “Why does she find it so hard to talk about male victims?,” especially when their plight has been repeatedly documented.
3. The Rocky Mountain News series on Battered Justice did mention male victims, but the overall series left the misleading impression that female batterers are infrequent and even treated unfairly by the criminal law system.

Here’s the contact information for Letters to the Editor:

E-mail: letters-at-RockyMountainNews.com


Snail mail: 100 Gene Amole Way, Denver, CO 80204

Here’s the contact information for Sarah Huntley, the reporter who wrote most of the articles for the "Battered Justice" series:

E-mail: huntleys-at-RockyMountainNews.com

Phone: 303-892-5212

Please cc your e-mail to info-at-mediaradar.org, so RADAR can keep track of the level of response.

For this week’s Alert, we are looking for objective, thoughtful, persuasive letters to the editor to be sent.

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Date of Release: February 20, 2005

Respecting Accuracy in Domestic Abuse Reporting (RADAR) is a coalition of men and women working to assure media balance and accuracy in coverage of the domestic violence issue. More information can be found at: http://www.mediaradar.org/

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http://news.mensactivism.org/articles/05/02/21/0315224.shtml