Media Watch wants to sanitize our image by education in a way that sounds like censorship to me. The whole effort seems to indicate our continuing insecurity as a profession. There is real dramatic impact in depicting a member of a respected profession as a secret criminal or somebody whose life is spinning out of control. This does happen in real life and it's fortunate that it happens infrequently. Now that we've arrived in terms of numbers, political influence, and visibility, it's inevitable that we'll be used in ways that are unflattering for dramatic purposes.
Somebody has to be the villain.
Go to a meeting of mystery-suspense writers and you'll hear a real concern that fears of ethnic and occupational stereotyping are making the process of writing believable bad guys more and more difficult. There is no anti-defamation group for these folks for whom we certainly should feel some responsibility. For one reason, I am not convinced the negative depictions of therapists on screen are so inaccurate. For example, dual relationships account for most of the ethical violations reported. While I agree that it is important to try to ensure that therapists are accurately portrayed, it is also important to depict what is really going on in the field.