Brogan's+Page

media type="youtube" key="5cauXgZhROM" height="344" width="425" "What a long day. I am tired! Why don't you go play. OHH that's IT. That is the last time I trip over that...THING (sound of a slap is heard) (sound of girl crying) (pan to living room, old man rubbing face) "What is it you **do** all day? Ugh, **and pick that thing up!**"

This commercial ran regularly over the television in 2006 - onwards. It was produced in Ontario.

This commercial intends to shine a light on elder abuse in the home. A woman and her daughter arrive home from a long day. The woman voices her fatigue, and saunters into the living room, only to trip over an elderly man's cane. She strikes the man, and scolds him.

This commercial is, at the very least, shocking. You immediately sympathize with the elderly man, and wonder why anyone would do such a thing, therefore, bias isn't as obvious in this commercial. The bias, however, is through omission. What Ontario elder abuse advocates don't want you to know is that the elderly are by far, the most free from crime and abuse. I quote Dan Gardner's novel __Risk: Why We Fear the Things We Shouldn't - and Put Ourselves in Greater Danger__ (Page 221) when I state:

"The media pay far more attention to incidents in which the victims are children, women, and old people, a tendency that is particularly misleading in the case of the elderly because they are by far the //least// likely to be victims of crime. Statistics Canada's surveys have found that Canadians aged 15 to 24 are //20 times// more likely to be victims of any sort of crime than those 65 and older. Even 55- to 64- year-olds were four times more likely to be victims of than senior citizens." End quote.

I hope this has made you realize that commercials can often show bias. In the great words of Daniel Handler: "No matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter how many people are chasing you, what you don't read is often as important as what you do read."

Maddie Taylor-Gregg: I recommend that you put links and statistics to support your statement that the elderly are the least likely to be abused. That would make your page more official. Or just show a bibliography on where you got the information on the 15-24 year olds to support this. Without links and a bibliography you could have made up the statistic about the 15-24 year olds being 20 times more likely to be victims. Well done otherwise!

Brogan in RE: Maddie Taylor-Gregg: I did insert a bibliography. All of this information came from Dan Gardner's Book: Risk, and the information he included within this passage was from Statistics Canada.