The Associated Press: A Case Study in Dishonesty
December 6, 2003
During the early 1990s, it was difficult to identify a specific culprit. A large portion of the old media, newspapers, magazines, and television networks regularly sported "deadbeat dad" stories much like you'd expect the regular appearance of cartoon strips.
But in the later half of the 1990s, the proof that the alleged facts in all those stories were false had become so overpowering that much of the propaganda vanished. Slowly but surely however, it became apparent that there was one news agency that wouldn't let it go: the Associated Press was less interested in the facts than in pushing the propaganda. They're still at it.
The latest is an article by Genaro C. Armas and it really has a nostalgic feel to it. Very loosely based on a recent Census Bureau Report, Armas claims a dramatic decrease in custodial mother poverty since 1993 due to 1996 welfare reform and in large part to the government crack down on "deadbeat dads."
Her source for this particular conclusion is "experts." But the only source she mentions is ACES president Geraldine Jensen. Jensen is not an objective expert, but a woman who turned harassing her ex-husband and his family into a cottage industry. ("The fury of a woman scored.") The article is particularly nostalgic because Jensen was so often part of the spread of false information in the 1990s.
The Census Bureau report does not provide evidence that the government's child support enforcement program has provided any poverty relief. Child support compliance was quite high before the federal government got involved. Since 1975, there have been small ups and downs, but compliance has been relatively steady. The report actually shows compliance dropping from 1998 to 2002.
There has been a slight increase in paternity establishment, likely due to stricter welfare rules, and therefore a slightly higher percent of single parents are subject to child support orders. But the most significant change is an increase in employment of single mothers that almost exactly matches their decrease in poverty.
One additional set of statistics found in the report will be of interest to fathers rights advocates, after years of arguing about custody rates between fathers and mothers. "About 5 of every 6 custodial parents were mothers (84.4 percent) and 1 in 6 were fathers (15.6 percent), proportions statistically unchanged since 1994."
Related article:
There is No Spoon: Review of the "Deadbeat Dad" Propaganda Movement
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