News Item: : Protest Lifetime's New Reality Show Deadbeat Dads!
(Category: Wendy)
Posted by Wendy McElroy
Thursday 30 April 2009 - 01:29:43
Fathers & Families -- an organization I recommend -- has launched a new campaign to protest a dad-bashing reality show. F&F reports...
Lifetime TV announced the launch of its new, father-bashing reality show Deadbeat Dads last week. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Deadbeat Dads, originally developed at Fox, follows National Child Support founder Jim Durham as he tracks down and confronts dads who don't pay child support.†According to Reuters, Durham "functions as a sort of 'Dog the Bounty Hunter' for tracking deadbeats…It's ambush reality TV." Durham will target fathers who are behind on their child support by "making their lives miserable -- foreclosing on their house, repossessing their car. He will squeeze them."
Last April, Fathers & Families led a highly-publicized campaign against the show (originally called “Bad Dadsâ€) and got Fox to drop it. Now Lifetime TV, which reaches nearly 100 million households, has picked up Deadbeat Dads, which unfairly depicts divorced fathers as uncaring and selfish. Research clearly shows that most divorced dads pay their child support and remain a part of their children's lives, often under difficult circumstances. In fact, federal government data shows that the overwhelming majority of "deadbeat dads" earn poverty level wages--only 4% earn even $40,000 a year.
Deadbeat Dads kicks fathers while they’re down. Media reports show the majority of those losing their jobs in this recession are men, and child support orders are notoriously difficult to modify downward. As the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and other papers have documented, these hard luck dads sometimes end up in jail.
The worst part about Deadbeat Dads is the way it publicly humiliates children in single parent families by depicting their fathers as not loving or caring for them. How is a child to feel when he or she sees their dad being vilified on TV because he allegedly doesn't love or provide for them? How is the child to feel when he or she is reminded of this by friends or teased about it on the schoolyard?
According to US Census data, noncustodial mothers are 20% more likely to default on their child support obligations than noncustodial fathers. It is misleading and unfair to name the show Deadbeat Dads when the average noncustodial father is more likely to pay his child support than the average noncustodial mother.
Another problem with Deadbeat Dads is that studies show that the arrearages for which "deadbeat dads" are pursued are often erroneous. For example, a recent Massachusetts audit found that the arrearages were incorrect in 92% of that state's cases.
The California Department of Child Support Services itself admitted last year that the overwhelming majority of "deadbeat dads" are the product of problems and abuses within the child support system. Missouri Child Support Auditor Susan Montee recently called the way Missouri calculates child support arrearages “extremely sloppy…a total inattention to making sure these numbers are right."
Moreover, Deadbeat Dads glorifies the role of private child support collection agencies, even though these agencies often manhandle fathers and deceive custodial mothers. In fact, women's advocates, including the National Organization for Women, have repeatedly condemned these agencies for mistreating women. Durham, the central figure in Deadbeat Dads, has often been singled out by women's groups as a perpetrator of these abusive tactics.
Television is already rife with negative, misleading and unfair depictions of fathers--Deadbeat Dads promises to be one of the worst examples. Many successful, highly-visible commentators have recently gone on record as opposing the negative way the media portrays men and fathers. These include syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, whose weekly columns appear in 300 newspapers; TV host Bill Maher; CBS News anchor Charles Osgood; nationally syndicated radio-talk-show host Laura Schlessinger; and many others. How fathers are portrayed matters.
To email and fax a letter to Lifetime Executives protesting this show, click here. Also, please call Lifetime TV's main switchboard at 310 556-7500.
This news item is from WendyMcElroy.com
( http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.2433 )
(Category: Wendy)
Posted by Wendy McElroy
Thursday 30 April 2009 - 01:29:43
Fathers & Families -- an organization I recommend -- has launched a new campaign to protest a dad-bashing reality show. F&F reports...
Lifetime TV announced the launch of its new, father-bashing reality show Deadbeat Dads last week. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Deadbeat Dads, originally developed at Fox, follows National Child Support founder Jim Durham as he tracks down and confronts dads who don't pay child support.†According to Reuters, Durham "functions as a sort of 'Dog the Bounty Hunter' for tracking deadbeats…It's ambush reality TV." Durham will target fathers who are behind on their child support by "making their lives miserable -- foreclosing on their house, repossessing their car. He will squeeze them."
Last April, Fathers & Families led a highly-publicized campaign against the show (originally called “Bad Dadsâ€) and got Fox to drop it. Now Lifetime TV, which reaches nearly 100 million households, has picked up Deadbeat Dads, which unfairly depicts divorced fathers as uncaring and selfish. Research clearly shows that most divorced dads pay their child support and remain a part of their children's lives, often under difficult circumstances. In fact, federal government data shows that the overwhelming majority of "deadbeat dads" earn poverty level wages--only 4% earn even $40,000 a year.
Deadbeat Dads kicks fathers while they’re down. Media reports show the majority of those losing their jobs in this recession are men, and child support orders are notoriously difficult to modify downward. As the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and other papers have documented, these hard luck dads sometimes end up in jail.
The worst part about Deadbeat Dads is the way it publicly humiliates children in single parent families by depicting their fathers as not loving or caring for them. How is a child to feel when he or she sees their dad being vilified on TV because he allegedly doesn't love or provide for them? How is the child to feel when he or she is reminded of this by friends or teased about it on the schoolyard?
According to US Census data, noncustodial mothers are 20% more likely to default on their child support obligations than noncustodial fathers. It is misleading and unfair to name the show Deadbeat Dads when the average noncustodial father is more likely to pay his child support than the average noncustodial mother.
Another problem with Deadbeat Dads is that studies show that the arrearages for which "deadbeat dads" are pursued are often erroneous. For example, a recent Massachusetts audit found that the arrearages were incorrect in 92% of that state's cases.
The California Department of Child Support Services itself admitted last year that the overwhelming majority of "deadbeat dads" are the product of problems and abuses within the child support system. Missouri Child Support Auditor Susan Montee recently called the way Missouri calculates child support arrearages “extremely sloppy…a total inattention to making sure these numbers are right."
Moreover, Deadbeat Dads glorifies the role of private child support collection agencies, even though these agencies often manhandle fathers and deceive custodial mothers. In fact, women's advocates, including the National Organization for Women, have repeatedly condemned these agencies for mistreating women. Durham, the central figure in Deadbeat Dads, has often been singled out by women's groups as a perpetrator of these abusive tactics.
Television is already rife with negative, misleading and unfair depictions of fathers--Deadbeat Dads promises to be one of the worst examples. Many successful, highly-visible commentators have recently gone on record as opposing the negative way the media portrays men and fathers. These include syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker, whose weekly columns appear in 300 newspapers; TV host Bill Maher; CBS News anchor Charles Osgood; nationally syndicated radio-talk-show host Laura Schlessinger; and many others. How fathers are portrayed matters.
To email and fax a letter to Lifetime Executives protesting this show, click here. Also, please call Lifetime TV's main switchboard at 310 556-7500.
This news item is from WendyMcElroy.com
( http://www.wendymcelroy.com/news.php?extend.2433 )