The Biased BBC News

Here in Japan, every morning at eight o'clock there is one channel that transmits news from all around the world in the native language of the chosen country. I normally tune into the British because it's my home country and native tongue, then Spain, where I lived for twenty-five years and as a result speak fluent Spanish, and then occasionally France because I want to improve my French.

This morning it was sad to see that in Toledo, Spain three people have died due to floods. In France, the big ticket was the war in the Ukraine. However, it was the British news that really caught my attention. The big issue this morning was the subject of what is called 'Parental Alienation.' "What is that?" I hear you say.

"The term parental alienation was first coined by the controversial US psychiatrist Richard Gardner as "parental alienation syndrome". He claimed mothers in acrimonious divorces brainwashed their children to believe they had been abused by their fathers and recommended completely severing contact to "re-program" them.

The extensive BBC news report claimed that in the United Kingdom, there have been dozens of cases where ex husbands have taken their ex wives to court to gain access to their children. As a result of this, some women have found the whole process of protracted proceedings that they have been dragged through so upsetting that they became totally traumatized, and in some cases have even died.

Now I think it is fair and reasonable of the media to draw attention to this problem. However, I think it is also fair and reasonable to draw attention to the damage 'Parental Alienation' also does to children who have been weaponized to unjustly cause hurt to an ex-husband. And of course, there is also the damage and pain caused to the absent, alienated father to consider. I speak from personal experience, having been denied access to four children from two marriages. In one case my youngest son was effectively kidnapped and taken out of the country. I have not seen nor heard from him or his mother since.

In the case of both of my ex-wives, I know for a fact that I have been scandalously ill portrayed as an unfit parent, an accusation which has no basis in fact. This is an old trick which has been deployed far too much by ex-wives to cause the maximum amount of damage to an ex-husband. However, hardly anybody wants to talk about that.

The problem with the news media is that they always have a hidden agenda and tend to concentrate on the negative things in life. Many years ago the legendary comedian Peter Cook said to his comic partner Dudley Moore, "The problem with the news is that they always go on about the school bus that crashed into a bridge this morning. They never tell us about the thousands of buses that didn't crash into a bridge this morning."

To my certain knowledge, the BBC has never delivered news that thousands of 'Parental Alienation' traumatized children have been successfully re-united with their totally innocent father. And they have never given out news about how many father's have been unfairly and unjustly denied access to their children, and have become so traumatized that they have commited suicide.

I believe that the law of 'Parental Alienation is a good one. Obviously, there may be cases where the mother does have valid concerns such as the father abusing his children. That matter has to be taken seriously. However, that does not mean that we should continue to allow ex-wives with a revenge driven agenda to get away with what they do by cancelling the 'Parental Alienation' law. That would be a highly undesirable retrograde step in the pursuit of protecting both father and children's rights..