National Coalition for Family Justice Criticizes Campaign,
Sacks in 2 CA Newspapers

November 8, 2005

Kim Lurie of the National Coalition for Family Justice criticized the campaign against PBS's Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories and newspaper columnist Glenn Sacks in the Los Angeles Daily Journal and the San Francisco Daily Journal on November 8, 2005. Lurie is a colleague of family law attorney Richard Ducote, one of the key figures in Breaking the Silence.

In her letter Lurie takes aim at Sacks' co-authored column "Film Goes Too Far as Advocate for Cutting Fathers Off From Kids" (Los Angeles Daily Journal, San Francisco Daily Journal, 11/1/05). She states that many protesting fathers "have taken the position, perhaps without first viewing the film, that domestic violence and/or child sexual abuse almost never occurs - that if a mother finally tells the court what has caused her to leave her home, she must, of course, be lying."

Sacks countered:

"I never claimed that 'domestic violence and/or child sexual abuse almost never occurs'--I know very well that it does occur. That doesn't mean that all charges of abuse are true. Some of them are true, some of them are not."

Sol Gothard, a retired judge who was featured in Breaking the Silence devoted a 1,500 word piece to attacking Sacks and the campaign against the film in the two newspapers last week. The piece, "Critics of Child Abuse Film Miss the Point in Rush to Defend Fathers" (Los Angeles Daily Journal, San Francisco Daily Journal, 11/1/05), was co-authored with Paul J. Fink and Tasha Amador of the Family Court Reform Coalition.