This isn't addressed at anyone in specific just at some general ideas I've seen floating around in light of the AP events.
"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for
authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place
of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They
contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties
at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."
That quote is often attributed to Socrates though the actual source isn't certain. Every generation since the beginning of time has thought the next generation is a bunch of spoiled brats that could have used a good beating when they were younger. When you look at the youth of today and get all angry about how unruly they are just remember that your parents and grandparents thought the same thing about you, and there's before them.
Also rationalizing hitting children because it used to happen back in the good ole' days is ridiculous. You know what else happened back in the good ole days? Slavery, segregation, and lots of other shitty stuff we don't do anymore. Are our parents bad people for whipping their children? No. It was the way of the world at the time, and they were doing their best. But times change and we learn better ways to do things.
Lastly, despite my previous comments I'm not even for making spanking children illegal. I would never do it because I don't think it's effective, but I also don't think a reasonable spanking that leaves no lasting physical harm should be illegal. That being said there is a world of difference between swatting someone on the butt a couple times and beating them with a switch or the like. What AP did was clearly child abuse.
Just my 2 cents on the whole thing.