The Super Bowl - Domestic Violence Hoax Lives On

Mark Twain once observed, "One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives."

Sheila Kuehl and representatives of an organization, which calls itself Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, must surely have had this in mind when they held a press conference in advance of the 1993 Super Bowl to announce that Super Bowl Sunday is "the biggest day of the year for violence against women." They claimed that domestic violence increases by 40%. Ms. Kuehl, now a Calif. State Senator, was then an attorney for the California Women's Law Center.

Playing upon the stereotype that men in general and football fans in particular are brutes, these claims were instantly accepted and reported as fact by the media. Ken Ringle of the Washington Post was one of the few reporters to bother to check the claims before accepting them as factual. His article entitled "Debunking the 'Day of Dread' for Women" was published a mere three days after the press conference.

Although the claims were quickly shown to be baseless, those who manufactured this factoid had achieved their goals. F.A.I.R. acknowledges on its own website that the real goal was to get the NFL to provide $500,000 of free advertising.

Even the Family Violence Prevention Fund acknowledges that no
rigorous national studies have confirmed a link between sports broadcasts and domestic violence.

Nevertheless, every year many of those in a position to know better keep this falsehood alive. For example, last January, a full decade after the Super Bowl Hoax was debunked, the California Assembly's Select Committee on Domestic Violence issued a press release repeating virtually all of the original claims.

It is time this harmful notion is laid to rest. It is harmful because families affected by domestic violence need the best data possible; not marketing hype designed for shock value.