Figuring out feminism - cont'd - Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting executive director Jeff Cohen's excerpted letter about misleading facts in Christina Hoff Sommers' book 'Who Stole Feminism?'; includes her response to his criticisms

Bloody Sunday

We want to bring to your attention many errors of fact contained in Who Stole Feminism?, by Christina Hoff Sommers, that concern our organization, FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting). Her description of our educational campaign against domestic violence, which was launched in association with the 1993 Super Bowl, is riddled with mistakes....

In essence, FAIR and its leaders and named individuals stand accused of being liars.... Our integrity is attacked--yet, as we demonstrate in the following points, the details of Sommers's accusation that we intentionally disseminated falsehoods are inaccurate. As you know, falsely accusing people of being liars is defamation per se.

Here are some of the outright errors in Sommers's account of the Super Bowl campaign.

1. Sommers writes that there wasn't "any basis for saying that there was a significant rise in domestic violence on Super Bowl Sunday." This is a false and defamatory statement, implying that FAIR and other groups maliciously invented a connection between domestic violence and the Super Bowl. In fact, FAIR's January 18, 1993, news release spelled out the grounds for making this assertion: "Women's shelters report that Super Bowl Sunday is also one of the worst days of the year for violence against women in the home." FAIR has released a list of names and phone numbers of shelters and battered women's advocates that we contacted to confirm this statement. We also cited press reports from the New York Times and Chicago Tribune on the Super Bowl/domestic violence connection. To say that we had "no basis" for making our assertion is a reckless attack on our integrity.

2. Sommers writes: "At about this time a very large media mailing was sent by Dobisky Associates, FAIR's publicists, warning at-risk women: 'Don't remain at home with him during the game.'" In fact, Dobisky Associates has never done any publicity for FAIR, and we had never heard of the firm until it was attacked in press reports at the time of the Super Bowl. The false statement inaccurately links FAIR with errors Sommers attributes to Dobisky Associates. Sommers's false accusation would not have occurred if she had bothered to contact FAIR.

3. Sommers turns around the relationship between the press and FAIR's educational campaign. She has journalist Robert Lipsyte being "persuaded" by our claims of a Super Bowl/domestic violence link, saying he "joined in" with reports of a connection. Since Lipsyte first reported on such a link in January 1987 (NBC News), and then again in January 1992 (New York Times), a year before our campaign, he could hardly have been "persuaded" by us to "join in." Sommers's wording inaccurately implies that reporters like Lipsyte were duped by FAIR.

4. Sommers misrepresents what was said at a January 28, 1993, news conference about domestic violence in Pasadena, California, which was organized by FAIR's Los Angeles affiliate and featured feminist leaders and L.A. County District Attorney Gil Garcetti. (Sommers places this news conference on the wrong date, "January 27"; the three dates in her "chronology" are all matched with the wrong days of the week.) Sommers writes that reporters were informed that Super Bowl Sunday is "the biggest day of the year for violence against women." This quote irresponsibly distorts what was said. Speakers at the event emphasized that "anecdotal evidence" showed an increase in domestic violence on that day. The Associated Press quoted activist Sheila Kuehl as saying: "There is significant anecdotal evidence that Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest day of the year for domestic violence against women." A complete quote would have debunked Sommers's contention that a statistically documented rise was being asserted.

5. Sommers also misrepresents Kuehl by saying she "cited a study done at Virginia's Old Dominion University three years before" in support of a prediction that "40 per cent more women would be battered on [Super Bowl Sunday]." In fact, as AP reported, "Kuehl said a study by sociologists at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, found that men are more likely to batter their partners after their favorite team wins. The study found that police reports of beatings and hospital admissions in northern Virginia rose 40 per cent after games won by the Washington Redskins during the 1988-89 season, she said." Sommers is inaccurate in writing that Kuehl used the Old Dominion study to make a prediction about Super Bowl Sunday.

These and other errors could have been avoided if Sommers had taken the elementary reporting step of interviewing the group she was preparing to criticize. The failure to take this step suggests malice and recklessness on her part....

Because of your irresponsible actions, our organization, its leaders and the specific FAIR associates named in the book suffer ongoing harm.

Jeff Cohen Executive Director FAIR New York, N.Y.

FAIR Is FAIR

FAIR is apparently still smarting from the Super Bowl gaffe. There they were, an organization dedicated to "Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting," and they not only failed to quash the baseless, malebashing canard that battery rises 40 per cent on Super Bowl Sunday but were found complicit in helping to promote it. FAIR sent a similar rant to the Washington Post soon after reporter Ken Ringle ran the original story exposing the Super Bowl hoax. The Post's ombudsman, Joann Byrd, then did a careful and polite evaluation of the complaints, which failed to mollify FAIR. Whereupon FAIR said that Ms. Byrd had "engaged in a semicoverup."