Newspapers once observed a tradition whereby those strongly criticised in reports were contacted in advance for a response. This tradition, like much that was decent about this business, has disappeared.
Last Tuesday, this newspaper carried a report on the launch of what was described as a "paper" on "gender and violence against women". I have not seen this "paper", but it appears that, at its launch, representatives of what were described as "women's groups" claimed they were operating in an "increasingly hostile environment" which is undermining their validity and funding.
The Deputy Chairwoman of the National Women's Council of Ireland, Mary Kelly, apparently noted a "wave of anti-woman misinformation being disseminated through certain media columns and by so-called men's groups".
One person was named as responsible for this misinformation: John Waters. I was not quoted in my defence, not having been contacted by The Irish Times's reporters.
Ms Kelly reportedly claimed this "hostile environment" came at a time where there was a "disturbing increase in the number of women" being injured and killed.
Teresa O'Donnell, communications manager for Women's Aid, was quoted as stating that Irish and international research shows that more than 90 per cent of violent attacks are perpetrated by men. Ms Kelly lamented that journalists "like Fintan O'Toole and others, who challenge opinions which incite hatred against women" were subject to backlash.
I doubt if any jury would encounter much disagreement as to who is alleged to be responsible for this incitement. Nor can there be any doubt about the target of Ms Kelly's comments that those who "deny the reality . . . simply do not care about the lives, safety or human rights of women and children".
It seems that, not content with inciting the murder of Irish women, the Osama bin Laden of violence in Irish homes, John Waters, now also threatens children. I am willing to test this allegation before any jury of non-feminist men and women in the land.
The record will show that I have been assiduous in promoting the human right of children to have relationships with their fathers and mothers, unimpeded by those with a financial interest in inducing conflict between their parents.
Last year, feminist groups such as Women's Aid received about £10 million of taxpayers' money from the Department of Health and Children, a considerable proportion of which was spent on disseminating propaganda like the above.
That same Department also spent a more modest sum of £10,000 on a study of the factual position concerning domestic violence.
This research revealed that the Department's policy of supporting only groups holding that men are the sole perpetrators of domestic violence is morally bankrupt. The Department responded by continuing that policy and burying its report.
The report I have in mind is entitled Men and Domestic Violence: What Research Tells Us. It was produced by Kieran McKeown and Phillippa Kidd of Kieran McKeown Limited, Social and Economic Research Consultants. McKeown and Kidd studied research in the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand, with particular reference to violence against men.
Their report comprises 125 pages, but its central finding is: ". . . the results of representative studies are fairly consistent in showing that, in approximately half of all intimate relationships where domestic violence occurs, both partners use violent acts, with the remainder divided equally between male-only violence and female-only violence.
"As a result, the self-reported prevalence of domestic violence among men and women, both as victims and as perpetrators, is broadly similar for all types of violence, both psychological and physical, minor and severe".
These facts, the report states, "can no longer be ignored", pointing as they do to "the need for a larger and more inclusive paradigm of domestic violence than is currently allowable within the existing consensus.
"By the same reasoning, these findings also make it extremely difficult to credibly sustain a perspective on domestic violence which assumes that, in the vast majority of cases, men are its only perpetrators and women its only victims".
This report, which has been with the Department for 18 months, makes clear that the only people disseminating misinformation about domestic violence are feminists and their media muppets.
The Department has failed to publish it, while continuing to disburse public monies for the purveyance of what senior officials in the Department now know to be incorrect.
For many years, feminist propagandists have maintained that all inter-gender violence is the fault of men, and that all males are potential abusers of women.
I have argued that the figures quoted are one-sided and misleading, and that a highly lucrative industry has, on the basis of misinformation, been offering women the means of removing inconvenient men from their lives.
The report of Kieran McKeown and Phillipa Kidd vindicates the position I have taken. I believe the Minister for Health, as an urgent matter of public interest, should order its immediate publication.
An apology from The Irish Times would be nice also, but my many feminist readers may be disappointed to learn that I won't be holding my breath.
jwaters@irish-times.ie