Demonstration Organizer Removes Evidence of PBS Promoting Private Partisan Event

Update: Entire Webpage Disappears (Details Below)

By Mark B. Rosenthal

December 8, 2005

The website of an organization called the Mother's Research and Reference Center lists PBS affiliate's showings of the film Breaking the Silence in all 50 states and coordinated demonstrations at courthouses and city halls all across the country. Or at least it did as of December 5, 2005 when Google's web-crawler last archived it.

In her December 7, 2005 article PBS Continues Probe into Biased Film, columnist Wendy McElroy noted that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting ombudsman's report on the film had "wondered whether PBS had been used as 'the launching pad for a very partisan effort to drive public policy and law.'" McElroy went on to say, "If so, the documentary violates PBS' mission statement to be non-partisan and 'provide multiple viewpoints.'" In considering what would constitute evidence of political partisanship, McElroy mentions an event organized in Alaska and quotes the following from the MRRC's Alaska listing:

"Hodson announced, 'We have not yet chosen our date, but since we got the PBS affiliate's [KAKM] go-ahead today, we can now pick any date we want and start planning. The local PBS station has said they will help us advertise and promote our event because we will then in turn promote viewing of their screening date on 10/20'".

The earlier version of the webpage, retrieved from Google's cache, included the following listing:

Alaska

KAKM - Channel 7 10/20 10:00 pm Alaska time

Tentative plan:

Public screening of the film, likely at UAA or our public library's Municipality of Anchorage Assembly Chambers. We intend to invite a panel of speakers from the court system, politicians, a UAA professor, a survivor, maybe an attorney to give opening remarks on the issues and to announce or AK Battered Mother’s Testimony which is underway. We also hope to send written/formal invitations to judges, evaluators, etc. We’ll then show the film. We want to have discussion and testimonials afterwards, with teleconferencing capabilities set up so callers can participate from other sites in the state. We certainly hope to have media coverage. We have not yet chosen our date, but since we got the PBS affiliate's go-ahead today, we can now pick any date we want and start planning. The local PBS station has said they will help us advertise and promote our event because we will then in turn promote viewing of their screening date on 10/20. Good luck to us all!

Paige Hodson
www.custodyprepformoms.org
paigeh@alaska.net

Update: Entire Webpage Disappears

December 12, 2005

The above article reporting that the Alaska listing had been removed from http://www.mrrc.info/Articles/DemonstrationInfo.html first appeared on December 8, 2005. Sometime between December 10th and the early morning hours of December 12, 2005, that webpage was removed from both the Mother's Research and Reference Center website and from Google's cache. A copy of the page as it appeared on December 8 can be viewed by clicking here. A copy of the December 5th version of the page retrieved before it was removed from Google's cache can be viewed by clicking here.