Domestic Abuse as Meaningful Discussion

All of the attention this week in football (and in most other media outlets as well) has been focused entirely on domestic abuse in the wake of the release of the full horrific video of Ray Rice and his then-fiancee Janay in that elevator in Atlantic City. Plenty of questions arose from this "national discussion" of the matter, partly because of the graphic nature of the video, but also because of the bungling of the case by the NFL. Jason Whitlock of ESPN had a great article on Monday, highlighting how this could or should mean the end for Roger Goodell. Whether or not that happens, it's clear that Goodell is the one to blame for mishandling the investigation; this is the fallout from appointing yourself judge, jury, and executioner of his personal conduct policy.

But unfortunately, media analysis has again made the national discussion of domestic abuse into a sideshow in ineptitude. All Tuesday, every ESPN channel was covering a story that had run out of angles and just placed the talking heads against each other in a futile attempt to stir up ratings. The only worthwhile commentary coming out of "The WorldWide Leader" is from the few female hosts, notably Jemele Hill who remarked on how the national attention is similar to the OJ Simpson case when Nicole Brown's domestic abuse 911 call was played. It strikes powerful feelings in people to see and hear evidence of domestic abuse because although it is a widespread cultural problem, it is behind closed doors the bulk of the time and people become uncomfortable involving themselves in someone else's relationship.

Possibly the silver lining of this national media circus of repetitive stories came about on Twitter yesterday with the hashtags #WhyIStayed and #WhyILeft. These displayed personal accounts of survivors and how they stepped up to end the cycle of abuse. Some of the best examples were collected into articles and reposted on media sites. This could end up being one of the most successful campaigns in Twitter history, a true chance for public education and societal change that trends on social media. Hopefully when athletes do stupid stuff in the future, it can elicit better responses from the people paid to cover them, rather than making the talking heads on TV look more out of touch than your average tweeter.