My Publicist Ate My Homework
I recently wrote a post about a news story which, after describing new research by Dr. Manuel Casanova on the structure of the autistic brain, informed its audience that the research would be used for "wiping out autism entirely." I wrote about how disgusted I was that anyone would use this sort of language.
Dr. Casanova has since posted on both the Autism Vox blog and the Aspies for Freedom forum, asserting that he was misquoted. He wrote:
"I never said that I was getting ready to wipe out autism. The attribution should go to the reporter. I never said most of the statements in that release, they came from the publicist who was there with me. "
He has maintained a polite and respectful tone in his discussion with autistic activists who questioned him about the interview, and I'm amenable to giving him the benefit of the doubt as to his intentions. Still, this debacle goes to show that anyone who is doing research on autism, or who is marketing products or services to the autistic community, needs to be very careful about how their work is presented. It's not enough just to hand the task off to a publicist who knows nothing about the autistic community. Anyone who employs a publicist to write a press release about a new discovery or product related to autism has the responsibility, first, to ensure that the publicist is reasonably well informed, and second, to review the press release before it is given to the media.
One person who commented on Dr. Casanova's posts on Aspies for Freedom pointed out that the autistic community has "become rather paranoid of late." I would describe that as a major understatement. The autistic community is in a desperate struggle for survival. We know that there really are influential, well-financed organizations spreading hate and prejudice against autistics—organizations that would like nothing better than to see every autistic person wiped out. We know that if the eugenicists had their way, the entire global autistic population, recently estimated at 70 million, would go the way of Down Syndrome—deemed categorically unfit to live, reduced to a few isolated survivors treated as subhuman curiosities, always facing the stares and whispers of strangers: "Didn't her mother know there was a prenatal test?"
So when we see a news story about someone proposing to wipe out autism, many of us take it at face value and respond accordingly. Anyone who wants to sell autism-related products or services had better be aware that using careless language with even the slightest whiff of eugenics could turn out to be a major marketing disaster. To the autism industry: Do your homework.
Dr. Casanova has since posted on both the Autism Vox blog and the Aspies for Freedom forum, asserting that he was misquoted. He wrote:
"I never said that I was getting ready to wipe out autism. The attribution should go to the reporter. I never said most of the statements in that release, they came from the publicist who was there with me. "
He has maintained a polite and respectful tone in his discussion with autistic activists who questioned him about the interview, and I'm amenable to giving him the benefit of the doubt as to his intentions. Still, this debacle goes to show that anyone who is doing research on autism, or who is marketing products or services to the autistic community, needs to be very careful about how their work is presented. It's not enough just to hand the task off to a publicist who knows nothing about the autistic community. Anyone who employs a publicist to write a press release about a new discovery or product related to autism has the responsibility, first, to ensure that the publicist is reasonably well informed, and second, to review the press release before it is given to the media.
One person who commented on Dr. Casanova's posts on Aspies for Freedom pointed out that the autistic community has "become rather paranoid of late." I would describe that as a major understatement. The autistic community is in a desperate struggle for survival. We know that there really are influential, well-financed organizations spreading hate and prejudice against autistics—organizations that would like nothing better than to see every autistic person wiped out. We know that if the eugenicists had their way, the entire global autistic population, recently estimated at 70 million, would go the way of Down Syndrome—deemed categorically unfit to live, reduced to a few isolated survivors treated as subhuman curiosities, always facing the stares and whispers of strangers: "Didn't her mother know there was a prenatal test?"
So when we see a news story about someone proposing to wipe out autism, many of us take it at face value and respond accordingly. Anyone who wants to sell autism-related products or services had better be aware that using careless language with even the slightest whiff of eugenics could turn out to be a major marketing disaster. To the autism industry: Do your homework.
Labels: language
posted by abfh at
11:02 AM
2 Comments:
Thanks for posting the links. I'm glad Dr. Casanova is trying to set the record straight---at least somewhat.
My husband is active in local politics and organizations in our small town.
Twice he has been misquoted or misrepresented in our local bird-cage liner by lazy reporters who could have asked him for a direct quote or clarification simply by picking up the phone.
It drives him absolulely batshit.
So I can see how a reporter might not want clarification to muck up the works of their intended slant.
It's scary to think how frequently this happens. :-(
By
Attila the Mom, at 1:57 PM
It was probably the University PR dept. but he has a responsibility to provide them with an accurate summation of his research and to proof read the final copy before it's released.
Of course I have to question the judgment of any legitimate researcher who chooses to present at the Mercury-One conference.
If we only had a mini-column chelation agent.
By
notmercury, at 2:37 PM
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