A Tale of Two Bike Rides: A Prime Example of Media Bias Against Father’s Rights Activists

Sunday, July 01, 2007

A TALE OF TWO BIKE RIDES: A PRIME EXAMPLE OF MEDIA BIAS

Tip O’Neil once famously said, “All politics is local.” News stories on the local level, collectively, can form an often-greater impact on an issue than a few national stories. Never underestimate the effect you can have by a letter to the editor, or even an article in a small newspaper. What has happened to our movement in Berkshire County of Massachusetts is on the one hand a local story. But the news pattern is not.

There are innumerable media events “staged” by those that involved in the father’s rights movement which are considered “hokey,” whereas nearly identical situations involving causes in which the media is sympathetic is treated as a quaint human interest story. The Berkshire Eagle—a local daily paper out of Pittsfield, Massachusetts (my hometown)—did a big story today on a guy that was riding a bicycle from the New York Border the state house to promote HIV prevention. The story made the paper (it was what the Eagle considered politically correct), and its link is below.

http://www.berkshireeagle.com/localnews/ci_6267641

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the bike ride or the Eagle covering the story. It is the rank anti-father bias that I mind. When I first started in the father’s rights movement in 2001, there was a kid by the name of Clayton Giles (probably about 20 now). In fact, one of his link is still up, although legalkids.com appears to be down.

http://www.fathers.bc.ca/clayton_giles.htm

It was the year 2001, and Clayton was traveling not across the state, but half across the continent from Canada to the White House. (Clayton was Canadian.) His father had a big Trailer, and the team included Clayton, his father, and his sister. He entered Pittsfield, escorted by local police starting at Hancock Shaker Village. Jim Lenski—then active in our group—had his son ride in to town with Clayton. The city opened his arms to him. We the family up in the Crowne Plaza generously donated by hotel itself. Jimmy’s on West Street provided a free dinner. Plaine’s Bike shop provided a free bike tune-up.

It was a real upbeat, community event. Clayton, as the bike rider in the present Eagle story, greeted the mayor–it was Gerry Doyle, who signed a petition supporting shared parenting. Then mayoral candidate Sara Hathaway signed the petition. In every sense, it was a great local human-interest story. Boy deprived of dad rides bike across county. City opens its arms. Mayor signs proclamation. Touches upon an important issue.

The Eagle refused to run the story. We were told it was a “hokey publicity stunt,” and the Eagle refused to cover Clayton Giles passages into Pittsfield and greeting by the mayor. Of course, almost everything in politics that is done in public and is not a vote on the floor, speeches, conventions, protest, etc., is a publicity stunt—they are mechanisms to shed light on a perspective on a political issue. But this was the beginning of an even more darker side of the Eagle—they would almost never run a positive, upbeat story on us. We did make the paper, but only when they wanted to portray us in an unfavorable light. In fairness to the press, but not the Eagle, Clayton was a story all through New York State, and also in the Eastern part of the state, making the Worchester Telegraph and Gazette (a paper much bigger than the Eagle). In other words, other newspapers and radio stations thought this was a story, but the Berkshire Eagle did not. This was shortly after the famous editorial calling the then “Fatherhood Coalition” an “oxymoron.” So now, why are we in the Pittsfield 4th of July Parade for the 5^th year in a row. Why? To let people know we are there, and present a good image of our organization. The Berkshire Eagle wants to ignore us. Many, if not most, local papers want to ignore father’s rights groups, and will not cover us, even though other groups get the coverage with similar, if not even less momentous, events.

This past year, there were dozens of stories that naturally had a father’s rights angle, including numerous stories on the high dropout and teen pregnancy rate in the city of Pittsfield. We also had an initiative to raise the minimum age of compulsory education that was largely ignored. For the first time, here in the City of Pittsfield, a Massachusetts Governor publicly stated that he supported shared parenting. I myself probably put our present Governor’s Councilor in office with my endorsement. The Eagle did not show up for any of these stories or care to write about them. But don’t worry—they were there for all the negative stories.

The Eagle, and the rest of the media in this country, can’t say enough about the subject of gay marriage, but can’t seem to find our phone number when it concerns a far more serious issue affecting far more people. (The Berkshire Fatherhood Coalition is neutral on the issue of gay marriage, but steadfastly maintains that this is an issue of FAR less importance than what is happening to fathers). At the national level, I don’t think there has been a story about father’s rights done by a major television network, and stories by major newspapers are highly rare. It cannot be seriously maintained that gay marriage is the number one family law issue confronting American society and that making children fatherless through our court system is an uninteresting footnote.

The fight must be won at the local level. So we come back to the issue of why are in the 4^th of July Parade this time for the 5^th year in a row. We need to let the public know why we are here and our part of this community. There are forces out there, like the Berkshire Eagle, that want us to go away. In 2001, a 14 year-old boy riding across the country to protest not being allowed to be with his father was not news to the Berkshire Eagle. If anything, the Eagle’s behavior is only worse. If you run a father’s rights group consider:

1. Being in a parade.
2. Running a booth with a fun came at a fair, whether it be a county fair or state fair.
3. Setting up a booth on a busy city sidewalk.
4. Doing a public access television show.

In short, don’t rely solely on the media to get your word out.

Rinaldo Del Gallo, III, Esq.

Spokesperson of the Berkshire Fatherhood Coalition

413-445-6789

Click
HERE to contact Attorney Del Gallo.

Click
HERE to go to the home page of the Berkshire Fatherhood Coalition.