The stranglehold on the media that political correctness
enjoys by virtue of intimidation must end.
The
New Thought Police: Inside the Left's Assault on Free Speech and
Free Minds by Tammy Bruce — former president of the Los
Angeles chapter of NOW — documents the strong-arm tactics PC
organizations use in lieu of reason, arguments and evidence.
My last Fox column,
"NOW's
Court Report Lacks Facts" criticized California NOW's
recent report on anti-woman bias in the family court system for
methodological flaws and for including no quantitative
data.
E-mails filled with potentially libelous accusations and talk
of lawyers have buzzed ever since.
The PC onslaught on the critique began reasonably enough.
Rachel Allen, director of public relations for CA NOW and a
co-author of the report,
wrote
to challenge me to participate in a discussion with women who
had been mistreated by the family court system. I accepted. In a
subsequent e-mail, also sent to press@now.org, Ms. Allen stated
that the report was being modified, adding, "We ... do not
disagree with all your suggestions."
Other PC feminist voices, including a chapter of CA NOW,
apparently do disagree.
Cindy Ross
wrote to me in
her capacity as a California director for the National Alliance
for Family Court Justice. According to Ms. Ross,
NAFCJ is an international
organization that has "worked closely with CA NOW, providing
them [and others] with documented evidence."
The alleged evidence purportedly documents:
— "FR [father's rights] groups are affiliated with
pedophiles and others who advocate incest and deviant sex
...
— "FR groups are connected to a court kickback/financial
corruption scheme ...
— "FR groups are comprised of misogynists, batterers, child
molesters, sociopaths and criminals ...
— "FR groups and their allied court 'professionals' are
connected to hundreds of cases across the country ... where
'custody' has gone to child molesters ..."
The NAFCJ e-mail accused specific individuals by name but
offered no evidence. Ms. Ross demanded a reply from me
"A.S.A.P.," which she could circulate "to all of the
journalists" and others interested in the family court
issue.
In reply, I requested documentation before commenting on
criminal charges that could result in prison time for those
accused. No documentation was provided. (Since NAFJC has
circulated an e-mail to at least one leader in the Men's
Movement that describes me as a "propaganda ho," I must assume
my request was declined because I am not viewed as a legitimate
journalist.)
Meanwhile, an e-mail from radical feminist
Liz Kates was
jointly addressed to me and to father's rights advocate
Trudy Schuett.
"I am a feminist lawyer," Ms. Kates wrote. She took both of
us to task for perceived errors in an e-mail written by Schuett
and posted online at Men's News Daily. When I asked Kates "why
me?" given I had never mentioned her in print, the feminist
lawyer advised me, "See that you don't [mention her in
print]."
Meanwhile, Schuett received an unpleasant e-mail from Vicki
Pierce, writing in her capacity as the president of
Cobb County
NOW. (I was copied on the e-mail, perhaps for intimidation
value, as a warning.) Schuett was told to consult a lawyer for
allegedly misstating someone else's name. The NOW e-mail ended
by blaming Schuett for the fact that: "children will continue to
be abused only to grow up [and] wreak havoc as Hitler
did in Europe. Thanks for contributing to the misery of women
and children."
But what of NOW's culpability in the misery of women and
children? If NAFJC has passed on solid evidence of convicted
child molesters who receive child custody, of father's rights
leaders who are child molesters, of kickback collusion between
judges and fathers, then NAFJC and NOW must provide it to the
authorities, to the press, to the public. If not, both
organizations are willfully protecting child molesters at the
expense of women and children. Speaking truth to protect the
innocent is also a moral responsibility and children are the
innocents in family court.
The accusations leveled at father's rights activists by PC
feminists are damning — so damning that at least one of the
leaders of the father's movement named by NAFJC is currently
seeking legal advice on libel.
Ms. Ross chose to share accusations that "named names" with
me, and therefore, with a major news organization — Fox News. If
she cannot document those charges, she has a moral
responsibility to retract them in an equally public manner.
Indeed, she may have a legal obligation to do so as
well.
In her e-mail, Ms. Ross stated her concern "with protecting
women and children from [those] who view women and
children as chattel and/or are talking about resorting to
'bloodshed' to eliminate women altogether."
In another e-mail — Ms. Pierce also makes serious accusations
against an individual by name. It is time for PC feminists to
prove their concern by going public with solid proof of criminal
activity against children and women — not merely
allegations.
If NAFJC and NOW care about abused women and children, they
will publicize whatever hard evidence they hold in their hands.
Let the "facts" be aired and not just alleged in what appears to
be a cowardly attempt to destroy the reputations and lives of
people who disagree.