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She stood up to tyrants, kings, and a society which refused to let her and countless others be recognized due to gender and circumstance of birth. Yet she would not be cowed. She would not be silenced. In doing so she became an icon not only of feminism but of the power of the press.

So why is the network Barbara Walters helped cement as a prime player in global news and opinion trying its damnedest to shatter her prestigious legacy?

There literally was no one like Barbara Walters before. When she assumed her role as the first female co-anchor of a major networks' nightly news broadcast [1], Barbara Walters became the face for a new direction of women both in industry and society, every night with her very presence issuing a challenge to a culture unraveling over issues of equality and bigotry. Over the following decades her candid interviews and sometimes confrontational reporting style would earn her the admiration of millions of viewers and serve as an inspiration to women and journalists all over the world.

However, recent actions of ABC News, the network Ms. Walters helped take to prominence, have taken great pains to let its audience know in no uncertainty that the standards and integrity upheld by Ms. Walters have departed from the network along with her.

The ABC News program Nightline recently ran a segment on Anita Sarkeesian, a "pop culture critic" and opponent of the video game industry [2][3]. What began with inaccuracies, debunked claims and stale myths about video game players [4] concluded with a rather comical display of an activist media lacking any sense of self-awareness:

"Games have a huge impact on our society because the media plays a role in helping to shape our attitudes," she said "So it's not just fantasy. It actually works to potentially reinforce some pretty harmful messages about women."

Ms. Sarkeesian is not entirely wrong. The media does play a role in shaping the attitudes of society and it is precisely that very reason why ABC News spits upon the legacy of Barbara Walters by giving a platform to one who advocates some rather harmful ideas about femininity and the role and purpose of women in society and culture.

In the worldview advocated by Ms. Sarkeesian, women are void of agency: they are either background decorations, damsels in distress, or "F-toys", and should a woman do something so disagreeable to this worldview such as displaying fortitude and common sense, they are relegated to the realm of "Miss Men." [5] In the worldview of Ms. Sarkeesian, there is a vast and endless war being raged against women in society and specifically in the world of tech.

[6]

Ms. Walters disagrees.

watch?v=RAGyyX8coxg [7]

Yet ABC News decided to push this faulty narrative to establish Ms. Sarkeesian as the face of modern feminism, cementing their status as activists and agitprop proselytizers, fully unbeholden to the basic tenets of journalist integrity. As Matthew S. Levendusky writes in The American Journal Of Political Science:

"Scholars differentiate mainstream or detached media outlets, which prize balance, fairness, and objectivity, from partisan outlets, where stories are "framed, spun, and slanted so that certain political agendas are advanced" (Jamieson, Hardy, and Romer 2007, 26). Partisan media are opinionated media: media that not only report the news but offer a distinct point of view on it as well. One could certainly characterize these shows as biased in favor of one party and political viewpoint-they create a coherent liberal or conservative vision of the news. The hosts package the news in a way to help people make sense of the world, creating a "self-protective enclave" of consistent messages and a framework to understand the day's events (Jamieson and Cappella 2008, x). These shows also engage in a biased story selection, reporting more heavily on topics that favor their sides and downplaying stories that harm their points of view (Baum and Groeling 2008, 2010). To the extent they discuss the "other side," they do so in a straw-man fashion, one better suited for easy dismissal than serious debate. Partisan news programs are not primarily about conveying facts; they are about helping people make sense of the world given particular predispositions (Rosensteil 2006, 253). These one-sided messages give viewers an easily digestible version of an otherwise confusing political world." [8]

But a crusade is nothing without a vile foe to rally against. For ABC News, this foe was the "GamerGate" movement. By labeling members of the "GamerGate" movement, an online consumer revolt against what it proclaims are unethical practices of the gaming media, gaming industry, and figures such as Ms. Sarkeesian, as "basement dwelling nerds" and misogynists, ABC News engaged in one of the most egregious ethical breaches possible in journalism: it decided to not report a story, but to create its own narrative.

This can be seen in the ABC News report through the rapid procession of carefully hand-selected tweets and emails meant to visually bombard the viewer and give the impression that these angry screeds are representative of the GamerGate movement, when any investigation into the nature of the discourse of GamerGate reveals a vastly different picture. [9] But the truth is not what ABC News was after. As an article in the Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media entitled "Seeing Is Believing: Effects Of Uncivil Online Debate On Political Polarization And Expectations Of Deliberation" reveals:

"...Participants who are exposed to uncivil online debates will show greater stereotypical perception of group opinions (i.e., opinions among Republicans and Democrats) than those who are exposed to civil debate, such that:

H1: Participants who are exposed to uncivil online debate will perceive greater mass partisan polarization than will participants who are exposed to civil debate.

In addition, exposure to uncivil online exchanges in which members of both sides are uncivilly attacking the ''other side'' leads to greater polarized attitudes toward issues relative to exposure to civil debate. Thus we predicted that:

H2: Participants who are exposed to uncivil online debates will show greater extremity of issue attitude than those who are exposed to civil debate." [10]

Furthermore, Rinaldo Kühne writes about the nature of this structural form of media narrative in "Media-Induced Affects And Opinion Formation: How Related And Unrelated Affects Influence Political Opinions", writing:

"Reason and emotion are often seen as two distinct mental faculties, with optimal decision-making assumed to require the protection of cognitive reasoning processes from the intrusion of irrational emotions. Accordingly, the media are expected to cover political issues without appealing to the emotions of the citizen, in order to support rational opinion formation. However, recent research indicates that the media often elicit affective responses in the recipients." [11]

The issues, participants, and story of GamerGate are diverse and distinct: while ABC News could plausibly claim that modern news simply does not allow for the necessary time to cover all the disparate issues, what occurred was not just a problem of the size of their story. What is most problematic is the veracity and nature of their report:

"In 1907, the historian Henry Brooks Adams wrote that "practical politics consists in ignoring facts." The same can be said of network news "analysis" today.

Much of what many Americans learn about political issues comes from these three-to-five-minute examinations of the news. For better or worse, they help shape the political landscape.

Usually, it's for worse." [12]

However ABC News did not stop at merely slandering countless people: so assured of the righteousness of their crusade they began a mass deletion of the comments on the YouTube upload of the Nightline report. [13] However this seems to be a matter of course when Ms. Sarkeesian deals with the media, as the YouTube comments on the Colbert Report segment she appeared in are disabled [14], the only video uploaded by the Colbert Report to be handled in such a manner, as are the comments on her own YouTube channel. [15]

What is most astonishing is that Nightline, the program of ABC News which aired the report, began as coverage of the Iranian hostage crisis [16]: to give a voice to those who without one. To not give a single member of GamerGate the opportunity to voice their views, or members of the "Not Your Shield" movement, a related but distinct online community, all for the purpose of glorifying one who takes every possible measure to silence dissent is a cowardly betrayal of the purpose to which Nightline was brought into existence.

Yet as ABC News discards the legacy of both Ms. Walters and Nightline for the sake of Ms. Sarkeesian, one has to wonder why? The Nightline report focuses on the "bravery" of Ms. Sarkeesian as the face of modern feminism, even going so far as to leaving unchallenged the claim that one of the public speeches that Ms. Sarkeesian was to deliver was canceled due to threats of violence. The FBI, however, stated that there was no merit to the threat, and neither was there merit to the previous threats Ms. Sarkeesian has publicly touted during fundraising for both the Kickstarter campaign which she raised nearly $160,000 over and for donations to the group she founded, Feminist Frequency [17] [18].

In leaving that claim of Ms. Sarkeesian unchallenged, ABC News missed what may have been a bigger story, which is the possible flaws in the largest domestic policing agency in how it handles the safety of US citizens. Furthermore, if ABC News had information which countered what was asserted by the FBI, ABC News should have disclosed that information or at least its existence in its report on Nightline, as it could have led to a conversation about the nature of online discourse which would have had actual substance, and which might have given Ms. Sarkeesians most ardent opponents a moment to pause and reflect.

But how well does ABC News do in regard to covering women who deal with undeniable violence and terror and who seek to make a positive change in society for women? Out of the 100 female reporters honored by the International Womens' Media Foundation, ABC News briefly mentions two as part of larger stories [19] [20], and outside of those who have worked for ABC News such as Barbara Walters, only mention four other recipients, giving coverage to roughly less than ten percent of recipients of the IWMF award. [21] [22] [23] [24].

Ninety-two percent of those honored by the International Womens' Foundation have never been reported on by ABC News. [24-113]

Anita Sarkeesian has had more coverage by ABC News than any single recipient of the International Womens' Foundation Award. [114] [115]

In the Nightline report, ABC News makes unsubstantiated claims about women such as Ms. Sarkeesian who had to "flee their homes" due to the GamerGate movement and glorifies them as exemplars of modern feminism. However, ABC News chooses not to give exhaustive coverage to the stories of these women:

"The January 2013 case in which a Somali journalist and a rape survivor were both convicted on spurious charges for reporting a rape by Somali government forces casts a dark shadow over any attempts to encourage women to report sexual crimes. Their convictions were later overturned, but the journalist and the woman fled the country in fear of reprisals from those shamed by the case." [116]

"She had written a front-page story about a fugitive Basque youth who was acquitted by a jury in a controversial trial even though he had admitted killing two policemen. This forced her to move from her lifelong home in San Sebastian to Madrid. Her name is often found on "black lists," and Molotov cocktails have been thrown at her office." [117]

"Warned that her "life is at risk" if she doesn't "stop anti-government writings" she sought asylum and fled to the United States." [118]

And countless others. [119] [120]

Yet Anita Sarkeesian states that an online consumer revolt is the "most harassment" she has ever received. [121]

One of the most beloved programs Barbara Walters hosted is the "Most Interesting People of the Year" series. Yet there is nothing remarkable nor interesting about Ms. Sarkeesian so as to merit the impressive coverage she has garnered from ABC News. Ms. Sarkeesian is no great feminist facing the perils countless others who go unnoticed and unnamed by the media face. She produces no great seminal works and indeed, the YouTube video series which she had raised almost $160,000 for is several years beyond when it was sold to backers as being completed by [122]. Ms. Sarkeesian does not hold up a mirror to society reflecting its Pride and Prejudice, but holds a donation sign out as she talks of Patriarchy and Patreon.

But that is not to say that there are not those who carry on the work of Ms. Walters though one would not know this by the reporting of ABC News, as they had neglected to cover any of the female journalists and writers who have been covering or are a part of the GamerGate movement and its various issues. [123]

Yet the behavior of ABC News in disgracing the work and memory of Barbara Walters is quite understandable: when new ideologies supersede the previous ones, the True Believers destroy the legacy of those who had come before [124]. In their crusade to anoint Anita Sarkeesian as the saint of modern feminism, ABC News has unfortunately forgotten, however, the discretion necessary to distinguish between true icons and false idols.

Larry Carney is the author of Dreams of A Distant Planet: Chrono Trigger and the World Revolution of Video Games. A scholar of the industry and culture of gaming, he can be reached on Twitter @JazzKatCritic

Sources and Works Cited:

1. http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/la-et-st-critics-notebook-barbara-walters-20140516-column.html

2. http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/jumping-gamergate-turns-fearing-life/story?id=28230901

3. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-11-26/anita-sarkeesian-battles-sexism-in-games-gamergate-harassment

4.http://www.sciencealert.com/definitive-study-finds-zero-link-found-between-video-game-and-youth-violence

5. http://www.scribd.com/doc/130661629/Masters-Thesis#scribd

6. https://twitter.com/femfreq/status/525080886337748995

7. http://www.billoreilly.com/show?action=viewTVShow&showID=3664

8. Levendusky, Matthew S. "Why Do Partisan Media Polarize Viewers?". American Journal Of Political Science 57.3 (2013): 611-623.

9. https://medium.com/@cainejw/a-statistical-analysis-of-gamergate-utilizing-newsweek-data-e2bada31ea7e

10. Hwang, Hyunseo, Youngju Kim, and Catherine U. Huh. "Seeing Is Believing: Effects Of Uncivil Online Debate On Political Polarization And Expectations Of Deliberation." Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 58.4 (2014): 621-633.

11. Kühne, Rinaldo. "Media-Induced Affects And Opinion Formation: How Related And Unrelated Affects Influence Political Opinions." Living Reviews In Democracy 3.(2012): 1-13.

12. Bozell III, L. Brent. "Big Media's Continuous Assault On Truth Warps Public Opinion." Human Events 51.20 (1995): 11.

13. https://twitter.com/CatterAxe/status/556023666094268418

14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L_Wmeg7OTU

15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZPSrwedvsg

16. http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,292931,00.html

17. http://www.usu.edu/ust/index.cfm?article=54179

18. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/566429325/tropes-vs-women-in-video-games/description

19. http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=Jila%20Baniyaghoob

20. http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=Vicky%20Ntetema

21. http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=Nan%20Robertson

22. http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=Mabel%20Rehnfeldt

23. http://abcnews.go.com/search?searchtext=Shahla%20Sherkat