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kentuckyfriedwren
Reviews
Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories (2005)
Propaganda that Fritz Hippler and Leni Riefenstahl would be proud to call their own
The bias in this film is so blatant that PBS took the unprecedented step of agreeing to produce another film to provide balance. The analytic article "A Critique of the Scientific Basis for Key Assertions in 'Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories'" (I'd provide the URL, but IMDb doesn't allow URLs). concluded: 1) Many articles cited in support of the film contain assertions unsupported by any data, 2) In those articles that do contain research data, the data "fail to support the film's contentions, and strongly suggest contrary conclusions," 3) Two key figures in the film have made statements that raise serious questions about their ability to be objective: GWU Law Prof. Joan Meier is reported to have described herself in writing as among those "who start with an advocate's perspective," as opposed to a "neutral" perspective, and Lundy Bancroft is reported to have boasted that he was fired by the Massachusetts family courts as a domestic violence educator because of his extreme views.
Both the PBS and CPB ombudsmen panned it for it bias, with the latter writing, "It might be difficult to find a clearer breach of PBS editorial standards unless one concludes there is only one side to child and spousal abuse issues in the country's custody cases." Furthermore, the viewer's guide being distributed with the film misrepresents the research so egregiously that Murray Straus, one of the world's foremost researchers into family violence, issued a statement taking exception to the misrepresentation of his work. (Again, I'd provide the URL, but IMDb doesn't allow URLs).