TIME TO RAIN ON THE MEDIA PARADE by Dan Olmsted

[Guest guest]

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/01/post-1.html

01/27/2008

TIME TO RAIN ON THE MEDIA PARADE

By Dan Olmsted

The sad state of American journalism's coverage of the autism epidemic is

on display today in tens of millions of Sunday newspapers, probably

including yours. Parade magazine's cover story is titled: " With Children

Struggling, Parents Ask: Is There Hope for Autism? "

Looking out from the cover is a child identified as " Nick Furth, 9, (who)

attends a school for autistic children in New Jersey. " When I saw that, my

jaw dropped all the way to Beijing. This is the same Nick Furth who in May

2006 was on the cover for Time magazine's “New Insights Into the Hidden

World of Autism” (caption: " Nick Furth, 8, of Mine Hill, N.J. " ).

Good heavenly days, as my mother might have put it. Out of thousands and

thousands of children with autism, you're telling me Parade couldn't find

one other child suitable for its cover? There's a technical term for this

in my journalism dictionary. It's spelled l-a-z-y.

In the interest of full disclosure -- and also to make my point -- I need

to say that I used to work for Parade's main Sunday supplement competitor,

USA Weekend. Coming from this small universe, I can tell you these

mega-circulation magazines have all the time and money they need to find

and photograph anyone they want.

Both these photos were taken by the same photographer -- are they even new?

I wonder. But here's what really sucks: After putting young Nick on the

cover, both Parade and Time drop him like a hot potato. There's no mention

of Nick, his family, his challenges and triumphs, that special school he

attends and whether it helps, why his parents think he has autism, whether

living in New Jersey, the state with the highest autism rate in the world,

might conceivably have anything to do with it -- nothing. Two national

magazine covers, and he's still a cipher.

This is the commoditization of children with autism.

I'm sure Nick's parents are proud of their photogenic son’s second

appearance on a major magazine cover, and nothing I have to say detracts

from that. But if you're going to put Nick -- or any other sentient being

beyond a fashion model – on the cover, you need to tell us something about

that person for one simple reason: He is a person. What is the implicit

message if you do not?

The cover story itself is not offensive, merely insipid. But inoffensive

insipidity in the mainstream media is our besetting problem. Everything

from the cover line to the last sub-head is a non-committal question with

no useful answer in sight. " What Do We Know About Autism? ... Is Autism an

Epidemic? ... What is the Best Treatment? ... Do Vaccines Cause Autism? ...

Is There Hope? "

Then there's " Does It Work? " , a sidebar on alternative treatments, with

this cagey wording about chelation: " No rigorous scientific studies have

shown any benefit to chelation therapy. " Maybe because there are no such

studies at all despite parents' clamoring for years? (Last I heard the

National Institutes of Health was planning one, but something went awry.

Something always go awry -- it's frightfully complicated, don't you know?)

I'll quit picking on poor pitiful Parade in a second, but first I've got to

highlight this assertion: " Until the 1940s, there was no autism -- in the

sense it was an unrecognized condition. " No! There was no autism in the

sense there was no autism. This is one of the fundamental questions that

lead inexorably to the heart of the matter, one I've written about

endlessly and will keep writing about. You can dispute that by offering

actual evidence of earlier U.S. cases (good luck), but to dismiss it in

this cavalier and circular way is, well, cavalier and circular.

Why does this matter? Because if autism is relatively recent in origin,

that suggests the rise of an environmental illness -- coming from the

outside in -- rather than the recognition of a genetic disorder. And that

would be a whole new ballgame, one that we have a lot better chance of

winning.

Which brings us back to Nick Furth. As I mentioned, Time gave his hometown

as Mine Hill, N.J. I looked up Mine Hill back in 2006 and discussed it in

my talk at the Autism One conference in Chicago that May. The Powerpoint

presentation is HERE.

By now, many readers know that I am alert (critics would say hypervigilant)

for possible environmental associations in autism. Here's what Wikipedia

said about Mine Hill: " Mine Hill was once a thriving mining center, with

the first mining occurring in the early 1700s. The Dickerson Mine supplied

much of the iron ore used during the Revolutionary War. The township had

some of the richest iron ore mines in the country, until the last mine

closed during the late 1960s. "

And here's what Medical News Today said about iron in March 2006: " An MRI

study opens new doors to preventing brain iron accumulation associated with

risk of degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and

Dementia … This largest-ever study of brain iron demonstrates gender

difference in brain iron levels for the first time. Until now, researchers

had considered the brain blood barrier as protection against accumulating

too much iron from the body. … "

Imagine that: a neurotoxic heavy metal passes with unanticipated ease

through the blood brain barrier, leads to chronic brain damage -- and

displays a surprising affinity for males. And Nick Furth is literally

sitting on top of it.

Forget Mine Hill if you want (and forget the vaccine mercury analogy). We

all know New Jersey has the highest autism rate in the world, with one in

every 60 boys – yes, one in every six-zero boys -- on the spectrum; that it

is full of toxic pharmaceutical waste and environmental hot spots where

autism numbers spike even higher; and that it is fast becoming the vaccine

capital of the world (mercury-containing flu shots for all!). A lot of

folks are looking at these numbers and patterns and waking up to the toxic

dimensions of autism.

But for Parade and company, it's the same old story -- baffling illness,

hopeful parents, helpful doctors. And the same old photo, too.

--

Dan Olmsted is Editor of The Age of Autism

in Current Affairs, Epidemic, Olmsted on Autism , Treatment , Vaccines |

Permalink

Digg This | Save to del.icio.us

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:

http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2465202/25496106

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference TIME TO RAIN ON THE MEDIA

PARADE:

Comments

Dan, YOU bring us hope for autism! thanks!

Posted by: Heidi | 01/27/2008 at 02:02 PM

Mine Hill is in County; Brick is in Ocean County, " down the shore. "

Posted by: a Chew | 01/27/2008 at 01:38 PM

How can there be any hope? The press has given us the same old empty lines

about autism for years.

The media dutifully reports the autism rate with no sense of alarm.

Reporters tell us genes cause autism, yet they ignore the fact that

genetics alone could never explain why a once rare disorder is now

so common that everyone knows someone with an autistic child.

The press promotes the myth that all the kids everywhere with autism are

there because suddenly doctors somehow got smarter at recognizing autism at

the same time they report that the American Academy of Pediatrics is

calling for doctors to do a better job looking for autism at well baby checks.

Universally, doctors, agencies, politicians, and organizations aren't

worried about the epidemic autism rate. No one is demanding to know where

all these disabled kids suddenly cam from. Even more alarming is that fact

that no one is worried about how this country will provide for a generation

of children with autism when they become the generation of adults dependent

on the taxpayers for their support and care.

Anne Dachel

Media Editor

Posted by: Anne Dachel | 01/27/2008 at 12:40 PM

Dan,

I absolutely LOVE the way you “tell a story” – it totally cracks me up. (I

almost spewed out my coffee while reading it!)

Oh….and didn’t you mean to say:

“But for BM (Parade and company), it's the same old story…”

Posted by: Kelli Ann | 01/27/2008 at 12:08 PM

" There's no mention of Nick, his family, his challenges and triumphs, that

special school he attends and whether it helps, why his parents think he

has autism, whether living in New Jersey, the state with the highest autism

rate in the world, might conceivably have anything to do with it --

nothing. Two national magazine covers, and he's still a cipher.

This is the commoditization of children with autism. "

It seems to me that fear of autism is the biggest hurdle that is staring in

the face of the media. It is fraught with controversy - firstly, vaccines.

You mention vaccines, the big dangerous entity will come after you. You

don't mention vaccines, the autism " bio-medical " community will come after

you. Then there's the actual disease itself. It isn't too hard to buy a DAN

treatment textbook from Amazon these days, there are 2 or 3 out there. What

is stopping anyone from buying these, not understanding them, and then

interviewing the DAN doctors? It's not such a mystery after all. But you

see, if you do read the textbooks and God forbid speak to the DAN doctors,

then you are going to open this can of worms and you are going to stir a

hornets' nest. There will be anger, there will be a furor, people will get

to listen to these " other " i.e., DAN doctors as to THIS can happen to you

if you get too many vaccines.

Nobody, but nobody, wants to go there because living with autism is a very

ugly truth. If you start talking to the doctors and the parents then you

will have to start listening to the horror of it and nobody likes horror

very much at all. You see horror is reserved only for Halloween and then

you have Christmas soon after, much joy, much happiness, much promises of

something better in life. No, it is much much easier to pretend that this

is not such a bad thing after all and all is well. Yes, yes, nobody knows

what causes this because all is well and vaccines were the greatest

invention of modern medicine, and to even suggest anything to the contrary

would be outright blasphemy. It all ultimately boils down to the " too much

of a good thing " analogy.

Posted by: Nobrainer | 01/27/2008 at 11:41 AM

Hear hear. I'm a published writer too and it's definitely LAZY. God forbid

they put any effort into getting the facts straight. I used to be a

stringer for a Pittsburgh newspaper and I can tell you from past experience

that these folks just skim the information enough to get a so-so

understanding of the subject and plunk it out on their keyboard in about an

hour and move on to the next story. There is no in-depth understanding of

the subject, they only scratch the surface -- enough to get by. Maybe that

should be their motto: Good Enough.

Good article, Dan, but I fear the media has been bought, sold, and bought

and sold again by the pharmaceutical industry. Nobody is going to write

what you want to see written. God forbid they piss off their advertisers.

If I see the upside down turtle for Chantix one more time I'm going to the

nearest place that sells turtle soup. Drugs to stop addiction from...... a

drug? Interesting. It's not just Parade doing this -- it's every major

media outlet in the country. They only scratch the surface, they don't do

any research, and they present it in the same old same old. But man, they

sure do have a lot of drug ads in those publications, don't they? Hrm.

So how far away from Mine Hills, NJ is Brick, NJ?

W.

AutismLink

Posted by: Waeltermann | 01/27/2008 at 09:21 AM

Great article once again Dan. The Parade piece had me steaming when I read

it. It's full of generalizations and messed up facts.

There is SOOO much hope in various autism treatments, some children are

even recovered. They need to put a picture of recovered kids on the cover.

THAT would get some attention.

My eight year old with autism is currently on a special diet and getting IV

chelation. He is still delayed, but doing things I never thought I would

see. A kid who barely talked in preschool, he now talks about going to

college. There IS hope for autism, but my biggest hope is that parents

DON'T read Parade Magazine.

-

Posted by: Heeren | 01/27/2008 at 08:54 AM

--------------------------------------------------------

Sheri Nakken, former R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath

Vaccination Information & Choice Network, Nevada City CA & Wales UK

$$ Donations to help in the work - accepted by Paypal account

Voicemail US 530-740-0561

Vaccines - http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm or

http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccine.htm

Vaccine Dangers On-Line courses - http://www.wellwithin1.com/vaccineclass.htm

Reality of the Diseases & Treatment -

http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccineclass.htm

Homeopathy On-Line courses - http://www.wellwithin1.com/homeo.htm

NEXT CLASSES start by email January 9 & 10