PBS Ignores Balance, Airs One-Sided Attack on Fathers - Fathers & Families Requests Air Time to Rebut Charges

BOSTON, Oct. 19 -- The PBS television network is airing a one-sided look at child custody disputes just when it is trying to overcome its reputation for politically unbalanced reporting. "Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories," slated to run nationwide on Oct. 20, makes the sensational claim that 75% of fathers seeking shared or sole custody of their children are secret wife beaters and/or child abusers. Moreover, the show alleges that family courts are so gullible they award custody to such men in most cases. No opposing views are represented in the hour-long documentary.

The program starts by claiming that "one third of mothers lose custody to abusive husbands," when only 15% of all fathers win physical custody at all. It then relies heavily on "experts" with a history of extremism, according to critics. The narrator, Lundy Bancroft, has himself stated he was fired from his job educating Massachusetts court personnel about domestic violence for excessive zeal. Bancroft is also an anti-Israel extremist, and has compared domestic violence to what he views as Israel's imperialistic domination of the Palestinians, creating "starvation." Law professor Joan Meier cites the work of sociologist Amy Neustein, but Neustein's grown daughter has ... // 62% Remaining