Dear Editor

I attach at the bottom of this document my letter to the Herald “Letters to the Editor”. Please consider it part of my formal complaint to the Herald.

Re: Article 09/10/2007 titled “Women Suffer Rugby Backlash”

1. The article stated as fact that “many women” had suffered domestic violence due to the World Cup loss, but no evidence to support this reported fact appeared to exist.

2. The article stated as fact that this alleged increase in violence involved partners taking out their frustrations on those “many women”. Even if there had been any increase in domestic violence after the match, your paper will not be able to show as fact that it was due in any measure to partners’ frustrations about the loss rather than, for example, excessive alcohol use or sleep deprivation.

3. The article published a claim clearly based on the most casual evidence (the Women’s Refuge person said “We’ve heard from police…”), made by someone whose industry will directly benefit from such propoganda, and that can be expected to cause serious damage to the reputation of men as a group. Yet no effort appeared to be made by your paper to make even the most basic enquiries to check the veracity or accuracy of this propaganda. For example, it would have been very easy to ask who in the police provided Women’s Refuge with this information and to contact that person for verification.

In my opinion the article was highly irresponsible and in publishing it your paper knowingly pretended that propaganda on behalf of an interest group was factual news.

My Letter to the Editor:

“Your article on 9 Oct stated that “Many women became targets of violence as their partners took out their frustrations following the All Blacks’ rugby World Cup loss.” This was stated as definite fact, then the next paragraph reported a claim by a Women’s Refuge spokeswoman that “she had heard from police” that there had been an increase in domestic violence. However, I understand that official figures show no such increase at all.
Where did your journalist obtain the facts (s)he reported? Is it not a tad irresponsible to publish slanderous claims that damage the status of men as a group without any effort to check those claims? Surely, when such damning claims come from a person with pecuniary interest in the domestic violence industry, those claims should be checked out? Are men now considered fair game for publication of any unfounded allegation against them?”

Remember the idea of making a lisy of advertisers? It hasn’t yet matured in a fashion that can be seen yet it lingers to memory. Optimally we could separate journalists or organisations that are damaging sons and daughters by exploiting markets to maintain the illusion that all men are made to be bastards. I’m busy getting ready for Court and tribunals of all sorts yet everything I am doing relates back to this site and it being a base unique to this country where we are proactive.

I’m not asking you directly to do anything different to what you do, as nor am I knocking you for any energy you exercise, yet agree with Julie’s tone, that each and every one of us - (myself included) will have to pick up our efforts if we are going to beat the things that we complain are set to hurt our sons and daughters and: to a lesser degree ourselves

Rob, I am not dogging you as a person. I am wanting for you to be a voice. You may think I am just noise but truth is I am nagging at you. lol

I can’t go around saying women are false unless I start an anti feminists group for women.

You are a man. You have to have representation in this country. Else everything any of the men say is just a moan.

You seem eager to talk around the comment I raised Julie. Namely, who specifically are these people who start false stories.

The notion that DV goes up after a big game has been proven to be a falsehood already in the US - a ploy to keep only a certain view of DV uppermost in the mind of a public that doesn’t have the time or inclination to examine the matter too closely. It is gossip spread by DV industry insiders.

One of the things we learn in the schoolyard is that the best way to do a gossip’s work is to repeat what she* says. The best way to undo a gossip is to name her.

*I’m using she in the current fashion of it meaning he or she.

Your post was that

I can’t go around saying women are false unless I start an anti feminists group for women.

You are a man. You have to have representation in this country. Else everything any of the men say is just a moan.

The Refuge reply - That’s because the game was early in the morning! Duh

You ask to hold the feminists accountable. But who are you? Are you one man who is pissed off with the system or do you represent a group? Why would I risk my knowledge when you are a nobody in the system?

This is just noise. I was after a name. Now I have one.

Catherine Delore, spokeswoman for the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges.

You ask to hold the feminists accountable. But who are you? Are you one man who is pissed off with the system or do you represent a group? Why would I risk my knowledge when you are a nobody in the system?