[Dean's World] Glenn Sacks: Anti-Male Bias at the Los Angeles Times

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Posted by Glenn Sacks:
Anti-Male Bias at the Los Angeles Times
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1204588956.shtml


   The Los Angeles Times article [1]Next speaker enjoys broad support
   (3/2/08) details the rise of Karen Bass, the incoming leader of the
   California assembly and the first African American woman to be elected
   to lead a legislative house in the U.S. The piece was a nice example
   of the subtle and not-so-subtle societal bias against fathers and
   fatherhood. The article begins:

   "Anyone who knew Wilhelmina Bass might understand why her daughter
   Karen Bass, the Los Angeles Democrat elected Thursday as the next
   leader of the California Assembly, has devoted her Capitol career to
   making the state a better parent to its 80,000 foster children.

   "A former beauty salon owner who raised Karen and three boys in a
   well-appointed house in the Venice-Fairfax area, Wilhelmina Bass was a
   kind, poised, contemplative mother, and 'the notion that people would
   come into this world and not have loving parents has always caused
   Karen pain,' said Sylvia Castillo, Bass' district director and a
   friend for three decades."

   We all know the script: heroic, overwhelmed black mother raises her
   kids herself, and now one of them has done mama proud by making good
   in the world. Yet, believe it or not, Bass actually had a father, too.

   It is only much further down in the story, after we are already
   assuming that Bass was raised by a single mom, that we are told, "She
   credits her father, DeWitt, a mail carrier, for making her a 'news
   junkie' -- Bass said she used to wake at 4:30 a.m. to listen to the
   radio with him before he began his route."

   In fact, in the autobiographical information that Bass herself
   provided the Democratic Party, she wrote, "Karen has dedicated her
   life to improving our neighborhoods. Her father, DeWitt Bass--a letter
   carrier for 40 years--and mother, Wilhelmina, raised Karen and her
   three brothers in the Venice/Fairfax neighborhood."

   In other words, Bass saw herself as being raised by both parents, and
   it even seems like she was at least a bit of a daddy's girl. Why did
   the Los Angeles Times choose to place far more importance on her
   mother than on her father?

   To write a letter to the editor of the Los Angeles Times, click on
   [2]letters at latimes.com. Nancy Vogel, the Los Angeles Times Staff
   Writer who wrote the story, can be reached at
   [3]nancy.vogel at latimes.com. [Note: If you or someone you love is faced
   with a divorce or needs help with child custody, child support, false
   accusations, Parental Alienation, or other family law or criminal law
   matters, ask Glenn for help by clicking [4]here.]

References

   1. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-speaker2mar02,1,1046722,full.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
   2. mailto:letters at latimes.com
   3. mailto:nancy.vogel at latimes.com
   4. http://www.glennsacks.com/blog/?page_id=1470