Defend PBS Autism Series

[Guest guest]

Based on what I've seen so far of the PBS " Autism Now " , I think MacNeil

deserves a Pulitzer Prize. But as we might have expected, the " neurodiversity "

people are on the attack. In fact, Ari Ne'eman began his assaults before the

series aired, when he couldn't have known in any detail what it would cover.

The ASAN e-mail quoted at the end of this message contains several obvious

distortions. First, MacNeil never said that autistic children " lack empathy. "

He only said that their ability to feel empathy is impaired or delayed, which is

obvious to their parents. And the series did not rely " on disproven and

scientifically dubious claims around vaccines " . MacNeil never made any claims

about vaccines, he simply and objectively discussed the controversy and gave air

time to both sides.

If ASAN plans to flood PBS with protests, we need to counter that with

supportive messages. I reproduce below a call just issued by the Autism Action

Network:

PBS Autism Series Under Attack

Take Action!

Please call and email to support MacNeil- Call

Please call and thank Anne Bell of PBS NewsHour at

for MacNeil's Excellent Series, Autism Now

The NewsHour on PBS this week has presented a groundbreaking series of reports

from Robin MacNeil, former anchor of the NewsHour who is also the grandfather of

a child affected with regressive autism. The series has attempted to be

scrupulously fair and has provided serious reporting on the physical symptoms of

autism, which is probably a first for American national television.

Ari Neeman, and his organization ASAN, has launched a campaign to discredit

MacNeil and his reporting. If we want more national media of the caliber we saw

this week then we need to support MacNeil.

Please call PBS and let them know how much you appreciate the reports on autism,

and please click on the Take Action link to send an email to PBS in support of

MacNeil.

Anne Bell, PBS NewsHour,

If you read the email below that Neeman has been circulating, it appears that

his biggest complaint is that he was not interviewed for the series.

Nonetheless, a campaign like this may give great support to those at PBS that

would have preferred that the series was never broadcast.

Please share this email with friends and family, and please post to Face Book

and other social networks. If you support the work of the Autism Action Network

please consider making a donation on our website;

http://www.autismactionnetwork.org/donate.html

The ASAN email message to which we take exception:

" As man (sic) of you are aware, ASAN and others in the Autistic Community have

significant concerns about this week's PBS NewsHour series " Autism Today " . The

series relies on old stereotypes against Autistic people and uses poor quality

science to advance the personal agenda of the journalist, Reboert MacNeil, who

put it together. Our concerns are as follows:

" In interviews leading up to the airing, MacNeil, NewsHour co-founder and

reporter, made reference to many crude stereotypes about Autism and Autistic

individuals and used rhetoric that dehumanized Autistic people. He stated in his

interview, Autistic Americans lack " the most human thing we have, which is our

ability to look into each others eyes and feel that other person's existence and

what might be going on in their mind, and to empathize with them. " ;

" No input from Autistic-run organizations or groups advancing an

acceptance-oriented perspective about autism was sought in this supposedly

" Comprehensive " approach to the autism spectrum and the issues surrounding it;

" The series relies on disproven and scientifically dubious claims around

vaccines and biomedical interventions with no basis in science.

" We're providing our allies in the blogging, advocacy and academic communities

with contact info for NewsHour below to urge you to express your concerns

directly to the program and encourage you to send this information out to your

networks through whatever means you deem most appropriate. We ask that you voice

your opinion! Let it be known that a conversation about Autism should include

Autistic people. "