NPO Blog Archive

Los Angeles, CA–“Background: Brandweek Magazine is one of the largest publications in the advertising world, and it has repeatedly covered the problem of anti-male advertising, as well as our efforts to combat it. To learn more about Brandweek’s commendable coverage, click here.

Brandweek Senior Reporter Mike Beirne got it right in his recent piece about men and fathers in advertising–Marketers used to venerate the father figure. So why are they making him look like such an ass? (3/3/08). Beirne discusses our campaigns against anti-male advertising and quotes several authorities in the advertising world who sympathize with us. He also details numerous anti-male/anti-father ads, largely the ones we’ve covered and criticized on this blog over the past year.

Several of our readers–including Deborah Sbarra, Rick Panditaratne, Peter Hackmeister, and Darrin Albert–wrote Letters to the Editor which were published in Letters: Dads Deserve Better Deal In Today’s Advertising (Brandweek, 3/17/08). Panditaratne wrote:

“Regarding the portrayal of dads in the media and Spike TV channeling its attention to dads:

“It’s about time that dads received their due respect for loving and raising their children. We do just as much as women today, but it rarely gets noticed.

“It’s always the negative stereotypes that are promoted in the media. For too long we’ve been neglected, mocked and ridiculed. I am appalled and outraged at the lack of positive influences of men in the media.

“I realize why men are shying off of marriage and complain about our family law system. It’s all directly related to the way men are perceived in what we hear, read and see. I hope dads will keep fighting to make things positive for their sons and daughters.”

Hackmeister wrote:

“Far too often when something is on TV, an advertisement, or a movie, or a regular show, and the male is shown in an unflattering way, I cringe.

“My standard response is: If the roles of the sexes were reversed, would this have made it to television? That should be the acid test.

“If you can reverse the sexes and it will still play well, than it is OK. But often the answer is, if that was a woman was in that role, they would never show it. This is a simple test, and all agencies should learn it.”

All the letters can be seen at Dads Deserve Better Deal In Today’s Advertising (Brandweek, 3/17/08)

Los Angeles, CA–“Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley (pictured, right) and LA County Child Support Services Department Director Steven Golightly (pictured, left) recently announced a sweeping new campaign against so-called ‘deadbeat dads.’

“They say their new ‘Most Wanted Delinquent Parent’ list is modeled on the FBI’s fabled ’10 Most Wanted’ list. On paper the 10 offenders owe over $2 million, but it”s very questionable that Cooley & Golightly will be collecting much–according to the California Judicial Council, 80% of California child support debtors earn poverty level wages.”

My new column New LA County Campaign Against ‘Deadbeat Dad” List Unfairly Targets Low-Income Fathers (Los Angeles Daily News, 3/26/08, Daily Breeze [Los Angeles], 3/27/08), criticizes a new, highly-publicized effort against the mythical multitude of rich, high-living “deadbeat dads.” The column points out that many “deadbeats” are, in one form or another, victims of the abuses by the child support system and family courts.

To write a Letter to the Editor of the Los Angeles Daily News concerning Hounding low-income dads won’t pay (3/26/08), write to dnforum@dailynews.com. The Daily News is Los Angeles’ second largest newspaper.

To write a Letter to the Editor of the Daily Breeze [Los Angeles] concerning ‘Deadbeat dads’ list singles out working poor (3/27/08), write to letters@dailybreeze.com.

The column, co-authored with family law attorney Jeffery M. Leving, is below.

New LA County Campaign Against ‘Deadbeat Dads” Unfairly Targets Low-Income Fathers
By Jeffery M. Leving and Glenn Sacks

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley and LA County Child Support Services Department Director Steven Golightly recently announced a sweeping new campaign against so-called “deadbeat dads.’ They say their new “Most Wanted Delinquent Parent’ list is modeled on the FBI’s fabled “10 Most Wanted’ list. On paper the 10 offenders owe over $2 million, but it”s very questionable that Cooley & Golightly will be collecting much–according to the California Judicial Council, 80% of California child support debtors earn poverty level wages.

Golightly”s action is particularly remarkable considering that the California Department of Child Support Services, which supervises the LACCSSD, issued a report in January which contradicts any possible rationale for this campaign.

According to the CDCSS, there are four primary factors creating child support arrearages in California: “high child support orders established for low-income obligors’; “a limited number of child support orders adjusted downward”; “establishment of retroactive child support orders’; and “accrual of 10 percent interest on child support debt.’ Over a quarter of these arrears is interest.

The report was based on a study CDCSS contracted from the Urban Institute. According to the study, “assuming every effort was made to increase child support collections and reduce future arrears…only a quarter of the existing debt is collectible.’

The study found that California is particularly prone to turning dads into “deadbeats’–California arrearages are piling up “much faster’ than those in the rest of the country. With only 12% of the US” population, California”s arrearages represent 20% of the nation”s whole.

Unlike the “Most Wanted Deadbeat Parent’ lists put out by most states and counties, the LACCSSD”s list does not contain the occupations of the “deadbeats.’ One can understand why. Nationwide these lists are never comprised of well-heeled businessmen, lawyers, and accountants, but instead of fathers who do low wage and often seasonal work, and owe large sums of money which they could never hope to pay off. It is rare to find a person with even a college degree on these lists.

New York City, New York–“A woman is dead allegedly at the hands of her husband, who neighbors say was the frequent target of her abuse.

“The 50-year old woman was found strangled inside her apartment just before 10 a.m. Saturday at the Red Hook houses at 151 Richard Street. Her 58-year old husband is in critical condition with stab wounds to chest and arms, possibly self-inflicted.

“Neighbors say the couple struggled with alcohol problem and that the wife was abusive to her husband. They say he apparently had enough when she returned home Saturday morning and allegedly strangled her with the belt of a bathrobe.

“He may have tried to commit suicide. Police aren’t commenting.”

In the audio, the 1010 WINS radio reporter says “neighbors say he was the nicest guy, and they wonder why he took the abuse for so long.” One neighbor who knew him and his wife said:

“She abused him–she beats him up all the time. He probably couldn’t take it no more…she hit in the back of the head with a bat.”

I’m certainly not going to declare the guy an innocent victim or say I’m sure he acted in self-defense, but the third party accounts of his abuse at the hands of his wife certainly suggest it’s possible. The step forward is that the radio station actually acknowledged that he may well have been a victim of domestic violence, and that his action may have been in self-defense or retaliation.

To learn more, listen to the audio by clicking here. The story is Domestic Violence Turns Deadly in Brooklyn (3/30/08).

The story is also another example of the large role that substance abuse plays in domestic violence.

Los Angeles, CA–A nice, father-positive Rice Krispies commercial. To watch, click here.

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Los Angeles, CA–It’s not about how hard you hit–it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.”

In the movie Rocky Balboa (2006), Rocky gives his son some great advice. According to one description, Rocky’s son, Robert (Milo Ventimiglia), is “the opposite of Rocky – a buttoned-down, corporate-minded businessman who is trying to carve out his own place in a very different world. Rocky’s relationship with Robert is strained because Robert has always had to live under the shadow of his famous father; he even believes that the only reason he was hired for his latest job was because of his last name.”

In the video clip, Rocky has decided to fight one last fight. Robert, feeling that his father will embarrass himself and embarrass his son, tries to talk him out of it. Robert feels frustrated with his life and feels that he’s not achieving what he wants to achieve because he is always linked to his father.

To watch the video, click here or see below.

[youtube:http://youtube.com/watch?v=PmqDQCQhKHM]

Los Angeles, CA–More lazy husbands from Dana Summers’ comic Bound and Gagged.

Lincoln, NE–Background: In 10-Year-Old Girl Dying; Mom Says Daughter’s Last Wish Is To See Her Dad, I discussed the heart wrenching case of 10-year-old Jayci Yaeger, who is dying of brain cancer and “has one final wish — to have her father spend some time at her bedside before she dies.”

On March 27, the father was allowed to take leave from prison to go see his dying little girl. He is in a federal mimimum security prison on a drug conviction.

The end to an unbelievably sad story. The poor girl. Her mother had said she was holding on so she could see her dad one last time, and maybe it was true–the day after she saw her dad, she died.

I’m posting this and then I’m going to give my little girl a big hug…

Jayci Yaeger Dies After Seeing Imprisoned Father

LINCOLN, Neb. — A 10-year-old girl has died, just a day after her wish to see her father was granted.

Jayci Yaeger’s imprisoned father, Jason, went to her bedside Wednesday — a visit federal authorities allowed only after being deluged with letters and phone calls from across the nation.

Jayci had terminal brain cancer. Her family had been pleading with federal prison officials in Yankton, S.D., to allow her father to see his daughter before she died.

On Wednesday afternoon, prison guards drove Jason Yaeger to a Lincoln hospice, where he spent less than an hour at her bedside. No one else was allowed in the room except Jason Yaeger, Jayci and the escorts.

Sources said Yaeger did leave the girl’s side to consult with hospice counselors and get some direction on how to speak with the girl about what she was going through.

Prior to Wednesday, the prison warden had allowed Jason Yaeger three visits to his daughter, but had denied requests for a longer furlough or an early transfer to a halfway house in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The warden told Yaeger it was not viewed as an extraordinary circumstance.

Letters and e-mails from across the nation have reached the Yaeger family and appealed to the prison to allow the man to see his daughter. The family asked the media to share their story with the hope of encouraging prison officials to allow the visit.

He’s scheduled to be released to a halfway house in August.

Yaeger asked President George W. Bush for clemency. Yaeger spent four years in a federal prison on methamphetamine-related charges. Officials with the Federal Bureau of Prisons would not confirm a visit took place.

Officials said they would only comment on a possible visit after a prisoner returned from a furlough.

On Thursday, Jayci’s mother described Jayci’s condition as minute-by-minute, saying the girl had gone into respiratory distress three times that day.

Lincoln, NE–Background: In 10-Year-Old Girl Dying; Mom Says Daughter’s Last Wish Is To See Her Dad, I discussed the heart wrenching case of 10-year-old Jayci Yaeger, who is dying of brain cancer and “has one final wish — to have her father spend some time at her bedside before she dies.”

Some good news in a tragic story– Jason Yaeger has been allowed to visit his dying daughter. The story is below, along with a video link here.

It’s a hard video to watch, seeing that little lamb lying there in that condition.

Thanks to Mister-M, a reader, for sending the story.

Dad Allowed to Take Leave From Prison to See His Dying Little Girl
Thursday, March 27, 2008

OMAHA, Neb. — A 10-year-old Nebraska girl with terminal brain cancer had a simple last wish: to have her dad by her side as she lay on her death bed.

On Wednesday, seemingly against all odds, Jayci Yaeger’s wish came true.

Her father, Jason Yaeger (pictured), who has been locked up in a South Dakota federal prison on methamphetamine charges, was allowed to see his daughter for what may be the last time.

He was furloughed after a barrage of letters and phone calls from around the country convinced officials to let him visit the hospital, according to KETV.com.

Jayci, who cannot speak, move or eat, could sense that her father was next to her and feel his touch, because she began breathing more heavily during his visit, the family told FOX News.

But to their disappointment, the visit lasted only about 30 minutes.

“She wants her dad. She goes to her room crying because she wants her dad,” Jayci’s mom, Vonda Yaeger, told KETV before the prison warden agreed to permit Jason to see his daughter.

The girl’s condition has been described as minute-to-minute, and she recently suffered a stroke.

Vonda Yaeger said Jayci went into respiratory distress three times on Thursday.

Jason Yaeger has been behind bars for almost five years, and has battled drug addiction. He is scheduled to be released to a halfway house in August.

Click here to read more on this story from KETV.com