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Soap Opera Reporting: ABC's Litigation as Blood Sport
July 14, 2006
Rebecca Goldin Ph.D.
W hen the media prefers extremes to reality

Even though we may have moved away from the stigmatized divorcée of the 1960s, the media still portrays divorce as undoing American society. A case in point is ABC New ’s recent Divorce Wars: Litigation as Blood Sport. The theme: divorce gets messy and people get violent. They hurt themselves, they hurt others, and they play nasty games with each other for money and control of the kids. As a side note, ABC News claims that “The U.S. divorce rate may be holding steady, but violence and bitterness between estranged partners seem to be on the rise.” The text tells the stories of some of the worst cases of marital strife, from a case of arson and possible suicide attempt, to putting puppies in microwaves. But they give no evidence – not even a quote from the police department or from a divorce lawyer – that suggests that the situation is worse than it has been before. What they have is a few examples, that they have woven together to claim a pattern.

It goes without saying that most divorces don’t involve murder, suicide, violence, blowing up town houses (as happened in New York City this week) or microwaving puppies. About 43 percent of marriages in America end in divorce, the majority of them civilly.

An article that highlights the extreme actually is nothing more than a soap opera – it is not a story about divorce, it is a story about specific people (should we add, Hollywood stars provide the best material! Second best are really rich people).

This same article could be written about marriage – after all, it wouldn’t take much to drudge up a few examples of nasty things that married couples do to each other, from domestic violence to pitting their children against each other. We could headline it “Marriage is often a game of domestic violence and child abduction”. Would such a story be a good reflection of marriage in this country?

ABC News should be reporting news – not personal interest stories. A story about extremes, presented as if it were the norm, is no more than a flagrant attempt to get public attention.

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