Journalist Tim Hume must deserve an award for services to radical feminism. [Edit Aug 2013: Yep sure enough, the story was Highly Commended: best investigation, Canon Media Awards 2011.]

His fabricated story in the SST at the end of August claiming that my wife, Professor Felicity Goodyear-Smith was contracted by ACC to advise on recent changes to the Sexual Abuse Counseling Pathway, is now being quoted as an authoritative source of information all over the Internet. [Edit Aug 2013: Here is Felicity Goodyear-Smith‘s response to this attack.]

History repeats, unless we learn

Smear campaigns and dishonesty are standard modus operandi for the NZ sex abuse industry. The March 1993 issue of Metro Magazine included an article by Carroll Du Chateau titled: Is the child sex abuse industry telling the truth?, which documents their use and effectiveness.

In the early days of the Family Court, one male report writer needed to be eliminated because he believed that psychological evaluations should be unbiased and evidence-based.

Psychotherapist Michael Marris, once a valued member of Beatson’s team, now rejected, doesn’t agree. “There was a smear campaign brewed up against me over years because of my increasing unease about what I felt were poor clinical standards accompanied by a groundswell of feminist ideology,” he claims. “They take the view that it is better to have people falsely accused and effectively convicted than to see one child abuser go free”.

These are exactly the same issues, still in dispute now in 2010.

Smear campaigns don’t just affect the immediate target. In the early 90’s all psychologists got the message that deviation from the feminist line might result in professional suicide. I have seen at first hand how psychologists recommended by MENZ have been harassed and threatened. The result is that it now almost impossible to get a Court-ordered 29A psychological report reviewed and critiqued by a non-feminist professional.

Right now all NZ doctors are getting the message that giving expert, evidence-based testimony that does not conform with feminist ideology, is likely to result in what Felicity is experiencing. I have heard dozens of her medical colleagues say they would never be prepared to risk acting as an expert witness for a defendant in a sexual abuse trial.

As Du Chateau concluded in Metro Magazine:

“The fact is, the entire sexual abuse industry is politically driven.”

The feminist network in action

The smear campaign is being supported by dozens of websites, eg: LudditeJouro, Kyle MacDonald, Frogblog, SOSA, ACCforum, ACC Focus, The Swamp Report, Wellington Rape Crisis, Shatter our Silence, castorgirl, K1W1, BNET, Google groups, Scoop, Voxy, grownups.

Someone even went to the trouble of altering the Centrepoint WikiPedia page! [Edit Aug 2013: It looks like this misinformation has now been removed.]

As far as I can see, none of these sites bother to mention the subsequent correction of Tim Hume’s misinformation.

Denise Cosgrove, ACC: “Dr Goodyear-Smith had no role in the development of the pathway”.

In denial, Kyle?

Kyle MacDonald, sensitive claims spokesman for the New Zealand Association of Psychotherapists, is still trying to flog this dead and now rapidly decomposing horse. On 22nd September he writes on his website: and now for the apology…?

Overall I have struggled throughout this process to know whether all of this madness has been the result of outright incompetence from ACC, or malicious intent. The latter seems evident in stories such as those highlighted in the recent Sunday Star Times expose of the possible involvement of Dr. Felicity Goodyear Smith; the former, namely incompetence, is the tune the review panel plays.

I personally think Kyle’s right on the money with his “malicious intent” theory, just very wrong about the perpetrators and the goals.

Perhaps his judgement has been impaired by an overwhelming flow of warm female fuzzies in appreciation for putting his professional reputation on the line in support of this smear campaign? If he is genuinely struggling to understand what is really going on, it just means the sisterhood doesn’t trust him.

Smear campaigns are easy on the Internet

The comments on public forums such as the TradeMe community, where people can post anonymously, have been particularly virulent, as one would expect. ACC lawyers have clearly been at work removing some of the more extreme fantasies about the supposed extent of Potter family / Centrepoint ‘cult’ influence over the Corporation, but hundreds of defamatory lies and distortions remain.

In a discussion (on an unrelated topic) with a feminist calling herself “Scarpetta”; who is one of the most active disseminators of false information about Felicity, me and MENZ, a commenter outlines the strategy for her:

Such falsehoods take on a life of their own on Internet message boards. Some media outlets save their comments for perpetuity. Sometimes, a comment or post on a message board may even become a valid source through a search engine such as Google or Yahoo.

Promoting pedophilia?

One extremely disturbing feature of these smears is that many appear to be encouraging pedophiles to offend. They promote disinformation such as:

• pedophilia is common (all contributors to MENZ just for a start!)
• that this website supports and promotes sex with children
• that Felicity can be hired as a “forensic expert to help pedos get off child sex abuse charges”
• that consequences of offending are likely to be minimal.

Of course, when challenged to provide evidence of these claims, there is no response because none of this is true. If any visitors to MENZ are sexually attracted to children, and are looking for support, I’ve made a page with information for paedophiles, where I make my position clear; sex with children is never OK, and they should seek professional help.

Feminists remain staunch

So has anything changed in the last 20 years? I don’t think so:

From a recent TradeMe community forum:

I think the rape and sexual abuse of women and children is far more important than the few ‘innocents’…

If you are a member of MENZ…of course you would think like this…