When
The Washington Post reported two weeks ago that Mary Cheney and
her partner, Heather Poe, were going to have a baby, more than a few
people wondered, "How are conservatives going to react to this?"
That's probably the question editors at
Time magazine hoped to explore
when they published an opinion piece in their Dec. 18 issue by James
Dobson, founder of the Christian group Focus on the Family, titled "Two
Mommies Is One Too Many." The subtitle read, "Mary Cheney is starting a
family. Let's hope she doesn't start a trend."
... While its tone was docile
enough to appeal to average readers, its content drew heated criticism
from none other than the two researchers Dobson used to make the claim
that children reared in same-sex parent households are at a social and
psychological disadvantage.
Among other things, Dobson asserted that "the majority of more than 30
years of social-science evidence indicates that children do best on
every measure of well-being when raised by their married mother and
father."
It was a grand claim considering the American Academy of Pediatrics,
the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological
Association and the National Association of Social Workers have all
issued statements supporting same-sex parenting. ...
... Given the level of distortion that Dobson engaged in to make his point,
one question that comes to mind is, What responsibility did
Time have
to present the nature of Dr. Pruett's and Prof. Gilligan's work
accurately?
Time spokesperson Ali Zelenko said
Time editors did fact-check the
piece. "But Dobson's views on this subject and his interpretation of
the evidence are his own," she added.
But
Kelly McBride, Ethics Group Leader at the Poynter Institute, which
teaches excellence in journalism, said that even an op-ed piece such as
Dobson's should not misconstrue research.
"Even if it's an opinion, if you're asserting something as fact as part
of your opinion, you have to be right," said McBride, adding that this
mistake is not peculiar to Dobson. "Journalists frequently overstate or
misstate conclusions of scientific research or social-science
research," she said.
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