--- title: "2 Children Fought Quotes By Sue Richardson" description: "2 Children Fought quotes by Sue Richardson. Plus more from Sue Richardson and more Children Fought sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/09b/sue-richardson-86668_abuse_cleveland-was-the-first-war-over-the-pro_1784537.jpg" --- > [“...Cleveland was the first war over the protection of children to be fought not in the courts, but in the media... Given that most of the hearings took place out of sight of the press, the following examples are taken…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-richardson/cleveland-was-the-first-war-over-the-protection-of-children-to-be/) Sue Richardson [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/09b/sue-richardson-86668_abuse_cleveland-was-the-first-war-over-the-pro_1784537.jpg) > [“It is often said that Vietnam was the first television war. By the same token, Cleveland was the first war over the protection of children to be fought not in the courts, but in the media. By the summer of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-richardson/it-is-often-said-that-vietnam-was-the-first-television-war-by-the/) Sue Richardson [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4a1/sue-richardson-86668_abuse_it-is-often-said-that-vietnam-was-the-fi_3188479.jpg) ## More by Sue Richardson > [“But nothing in my previous work had prepared me for the experience of reinvestigating Cleveland. It is worth — given the passage of time…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-richardson/but-nothing-in-my-previous-work-had-prepared-me-for-the-experience-of/) Sue Richardson > [“...Cleveland was the first war over the protection of children to be fought not in the courts, but in the media... Given that most…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-richardson/cleveland-was-the-first-war-over-the-protection-of-children-to-be/) Sue Richardson > [“It is often said that Vietnam was the first television war. By the same token, Cleveland was the first war over the protection of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-richardson/it-is-often-said-that-vietnam-was-the-first-television-war-by-the/) Sue Richardson ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/children-fought/sue-richardson/#itemlist", "name": "2 Children Fought Quotes By Sue Richardson", "numberOfItems": 2, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“...Cleveland was the first war over the protection of children to be fought not in the courts, but in the media... Given that most of the hearings took place out of sight of the press, the following examples are taken from the recollection of child protection workers present in court. In one case, during a controversy that centred fundamentally around disputes over the meaning of RAD [reflex anal dilatation], a judge refused to allow ‘any evidence about children’s bottoms’ in his courtroom. A second judge — hearing an application to have their children returned by parents about whom social services had grave worries told the assembled lawyers that, as she lived in the area, she could not help but be influenced by what she read in the press. Hardly surprising then that child protection workers soon found courts not hearing their applications, cutting them short, or loosely supervising informal deals which allowed children to be sent back to parents, even in cases where there was explicit evidence of apparent abuse to be explained and dealt with. (p21) [reflex anal dilatation (RAD): a simple clue which is suggestive of anal penetration from outside. It had been recognised as a valuable weapon in the armoury of doctors examining children for many decades and was endorsed by both the British Medical Association and the Association of Police Surgeons. (p18)]”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sue Richardson" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-richardson/cleveland-was-the-first-war-over-the-protection-of-children-to-be/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/09b/sue-richardson-86668_abuse_cleveland-was-the-first-war-over-the-pro_1784537.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/09b/sue-richardson-86668_abuse_cleveland-was-the-first-war-over-the-pro_1784537.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/09b/sue-richardson-86668_abuse_cleveland-was-the-first-war-over-the-pro_1784537.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“...Cleveland was the first war over the protection of children to be fought not in the courts, but in the…” — Sue Richardson", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“It is often said that Vietnam was the first television war. By the same token, Cleveland was the first war over the protection of children to be fought not in the courts, but in the media. By the summer of 1987 Cleveland had become above all, a hot media story. The Daily Mail, for example, had seven reporters, plus its northern editor, based in Middlesbrough full time. Most other news papers and television news teams followed suit. What were all the reporters looking for? Not children at risk. Not abusing adults. Aggrieved parents were the mother lode sought by these prospecting journalists. Many of these parents were only too happy to tell — and in some cases, it would appear, sell— their stories. Those stories are truly extraordinary. In many cases they bore almost no relation to the facts. Parents were allowed - encouraged to portray themselves as the innocent victims of a runaway witch-hunt and these accounts were duly fed to the public. Nowhere in any of the reporting is there any sign of counterbalancing information from child protection workers or the organisations that employed them. Throughout the summer of 1987 newspapers ‘reported’ what they termed a national scandal of innocent families torn apart. The claims were repeated in Parliament and then recycled as established ‘facts’ by the media. The result was that the courts themselves began to be paralysed by the power of this juggernaut of press reporting — ‘journalism’ which created and painstakingly fed a public mood which brooked no other version of the story. (p21)”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Sue Richardson" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sue-richardson/it-is-often-said-that-vietnam-was-the-first-television-war-by-the/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4a1/sue-richardson-86668_abuse_it-is-often-said-that-vietnam-was-the-fi_3188479.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4a1/sue-richardson-86668_abuse_it-is-often-said-that-vietnam-was-the-fi_3188479.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4a1/sue-richardson-86668_abuse_it-is-often-said-that-vietnam-was-the-fi_3188479.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It is often said that Vietnam was the first television war. 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