May 3, 2011
Fathers and Families Board Chair Ned Holstein, MD, MS criticized the anti-father bias in the media coverage surrounding the Lashanda Armstrong triple murder on the nationally-syndicated Lars Larson Show on Friday, April 29. According to Talkers Magazine, Larson has an audience of 2.25 million listeners, and his show is heard on over 200 stations nationwide.
Armstrong is the New York woman who drove herself and her four children into the Hudson River, killing herself and three of the kids. The oldest child, who managed to get free, said his mother held the other children down as the car sank.
According to Holstein:
In a familiar pattern, the mainstream media’s reporting of the Lashanda Armstrong triple murder is drenched in gender bias. The media immediately cast sympathy on Armstrong and blame on Jean Pierre, the separated young father of the three dead children.
The gender bias is so pervasive that the Associated Press felt it necessary to generously allow that “whatever [Pierre’s] faults, it’s wrong to blame the tragedy entirely on the father.” “Entirely?” One wonders who it was who drove the car into the Hudson River.
Were Pierre a mother, not a father, despite her blemishes she would receive enormous sympathy as the parent of murdered children.. Somehow Pierre, because he’s a father, is not entitled to the same consideration. He was even vilified because he wanted to hold a separate funeral and burial for his children, rather than the joint service the murderess’ family had planned. Yet who would want to mourn for their dead children at the same service held for their killer?
To listen to the audio of Holstein’s interview, click here.