Lest I Be Misunderstood . . .

Lest I be misunderstood, let me hasten to say that I feel sick to my stomach when I see an animal abused. There are not many things cuter that a puppy and I understand the companionship and health building benefits of dogs in our life. I have two and a half year old granddaughter that simply cannot see a doggy without running toward it, and she is the light of her Papa’s eye.
Now having said all that I must say that there are times when I think the media has things out of perspective. Let me explain why I am concerned about the media.
Some needed information to explain my concerns:
Between 25 to 35 % of our population is abused by their domestic partnesr.
Statistics show that each year 3.3 million children in the United States are exposed to Domestic Violence.
324,000 women each year are abused during pregnancy (consider the unborn baby that makes 648,000 cases of abuse each year).
Now we read in the news paper, and see on TV that an elected official is arrested for beating his wife but what is the focus? The focus is who will replace him in his elected position if he steps down? HELLO!! This is a human being that has been beaten!
A woman is killed by her partner and where do we read about it?
In the obituary or perhaps buried in the middle of the “what all happened at the pool today” section of the paper.
It is October, Domestic Violence Month and the Arizona Coalition Against Domestic Violence has its opening event at the Herberger theater and you cannot find one single news media person anywhere! Efforts to get the event publicized are ignored except for Channel 12 TV and an article restricted to the East Valley Edition of the Arizona Republic. The very next morning I go out and pick up my paper and go to the Valley and State section. ABOVE THE FOLD IN LARGE BOLD LETTERS WITH LARGE PHOTOS AND THREE COLUMNS WIDE I READ--- Volunteers retrieve 89 dogs saved from MO. Puppy mill – Please understand that I applaud the tremendous efforts of these volunteers to rescue these dogs from Missouri and all of those like them who work to end the emotional and physical pain and suffering of any of Gods creatures.
My issue is that the media has decided what is in the interest of the masses rather than fairly and equally reporting the real issues. I suspect that the method of selecting the replacement for a public official could be properly carried out without commentary from the media on the front page. On the other hand so many inequalities continue unreported in the human pain and suffering arena, as in the case of the battered wife, with so little interest and less effort by the media to properly focus on them and really make a difference.
John