So Newsday had some articles on bullying, which is nice in terms of drawing attention to the dimensions of the problem. And it's a tabloid, not an education journal, so I shouldn't be that surprised, I suppose, that it didn't say anything much substantive. I'd sent a reporter an entire article by Rebekah Heinrichs and I cited Dan Olweus. Who's their talking head? Some psychologist in Manhattan and Hauppauge who got her Ph.D. in 1999. Amazing what you can find on Google. That would make her, oh, maybe 35. She seems to have some specialty in depression and adult psychology, so I can't help wondering why Ellen Mitchell went to her, not someone who specializes in bullying issues. Maybe Ellen Mitchell went to high school with her or otherwise suffers from what a wise woman of my acquaintance calls Lazy Journalist Syndrome. Infuriating.

Also? I am so sick and tired of bullies being described as suffering from low self-esteem. By and large, they don't. They suffer from lack of empathy and if anything have high self-esteem. They think their victims deserve it. But that doesn't fit into our psychobabble society of throwing enough self-esteem at people to fix any problem. Argh.