Hello to Everyone Once Again and Welcome to Week 3 on My Blog!
If you have been following along, you will know by now that my chosen topic to focus on in MCO 425 is parental alienation and child custody laws/issues. As I mentioned previously, this topic is near and dear to my heart as my husband has consistently been going through the hardest battle ever fought to see his son from the day he was born. Now I fight this battle with him and research to see how the media treats news on this complicated topic.
For this week, the assignment asks for an analysis of sorts on 4 online items that discuss the topic at hand. So, in my online search travels I decided to find a news and opinion piece that references the same story to make it a bit more interesting. I wanted to see how the “black and white” news story would be reported as opposed to someone’s opinion on that same story.
For the first set of news and opinion pieces, I found what I consider to be a news story out of Harris County, Texas from 2004. The news story was reported by The Houston Chronicle and it was an information riddled piece that spoke of a 10 year-old boy charged with the murder of his father, Dr. Rick James Lohstroh, with a gun that belonged to his mother. The story reported on the fact that the mother and father had just gone through a divorce the year prior. It also spoke of a discrepancy with a dosage of Prozac, not agreed upon by both parents, that could have led to the shooting based on reports from one side of the family. These are the basic facts of what happened reported by The Houston Chronicle at that time, without an opinion from the journalist themselves as to what could have caused the shooting.
Around that same time, ABC News reported what I consider to be an opinion piece on this same story which was then picked up by The Canadian Children’s Rights Council. In this piece, also from 2004, you will see the first mention of Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) as it pertains to the murder of Lohstroh by his son. It not only defines PAS in laymen’s terms but also brings to the forefront the opinion that it could have actually been the cause of the shooting. How the journalist references PAS, which is defined in greater degree on Wikipedia, along with giving an opinion that it could be the cause to the shooting is telling of the fact that this story is an opinion piece.
For the second set of news and opinion pieces, I chose a story many may remember about the actor Alec Baldwin and his issues stemming from a damaging voicemail to his 11-year-old daughter. The news story chosen seemed to become a bit of an objective piece of news reported by Newsweek in 2007. It did reference the facts behind the story in terms of the voicemail that was leaked to the press but it also brought PAS out to the forefront from the beginning of the story. The opinion of whether this case fell under the issues brought on by PAS is not argued but rather the two separate viewpoints of father’s rights and advocating mothers were reported on. While I do believe this news story could straddle the line of being an opinion piece, I think it more so follows the lines of an objective piece as it gives all of the information needed for the reader to further follow up and make their own opinion.
The opinion piece on this Baldwin news story is a bit more forthcoming with how the journalist feels about PAS and its implications on custody cases. The Daily Newspaper from the University of Washington posted the piece in 2007, the day after the press leaked the actual news story. It does reference the facts behind what the voicemail and it also talks about PAS, however, it grossly speaks about this psychological syndrome as nothing more than a ploy for an abusive partner to use court as the upper hand during custody issues. It also does it’s best to use statistics to put a face with the label of abuser in most of these custody cases, which the journalist advises is usually a man. I must say that for myself and my situation, it is a bit disturbing to read, however, it is an opinion piece that does shed light to the other side of the coin of PAS and how some can abuse using the syndrome as a way to hurt others.
I do believe this topic is a controversial and complicated one that has many intricate parts to it. Depending on the situation at hand and how it is reported in the media, you may change your stance on a daily basis as I have in the past as well. I look forward to continuing my journey of exploring the media coverage behind it and I hope you do as well.
Until next time…….
