Aspies For Freedom

The article points out that he is autistic as though that somehow was the cause of his aggressive behavior. I don't like to keep playing the same chord, but the way that this information is presented is discriminatory. Imagine if they had stated ",who is Muslim" or ",who is gay" there would be an outcry from those respective communities to say that this person does not represent typical behavior in that community.  I believe this is an old problem in journalism and there are ethical guidlines to word stories that do not mistakenly imply a person of a certain race or culture represents all other individuals in his or her group. The writer of this article is just sloppy.

This is what the Canadian Association of Journalists Statement of Principles has to say about reporting on difference:

DISCRIMINATION

We will not refer to a person's race, colour or religion unless it is pertinent to the story. We will exercise particular care in crime stories.

http://www.caj.ca/  principles-statement-2002.htm

First the writer discriminates against the person with autism, then goes on to identify the race of other individuals. In the area where I live if a newspaper reporter were to write such a description of race while reporting the facts of a crime it would be considered a blatant violation of journalistic standards.  I'm not sure though, if many would recognize the same violation if it were directed toward disability.

There, I sent him an email too.

I probably could have made myself clearer, but I wrote:

Hello, I am writing to tell you that I am offended by your article entitled, "Knife attack injures Central student" as it contains two references that are discriminatory toward minorities. You report that the youth who is alleged to have physically harmed another student was autistic, yet you fail to provide any information as to why your identification of his difference is relevent to the report.  As well, you identify two other students involved in a previous incident by their race (Vietnamese) yet, again, fail to provide any information as to why their race is relevent to your report.

The kinds of references you have shown to disability and race indicates that you are bigoted and a sloppy writer. I feel compassion and sadness for the people upon whom you impose your unethical practices.

I understand that you are working for a US publication, however I am sure that guidelines for your journalism must have ethical standards similar to those instituted in Canada.

This is what the Canadian Association of Journalists Statement of Principles has to say about reporting difference:

"DISCRIMINATION

We will not refer to a person's race, colour or religion unless it is pertinent to the story. We will exercise particular care in crime stories."

http://www.caj.ca/   principles-statement-2002.htm


Sincerely,

***************

I don't know what he meant by that line.  I hope he didn't mean autism is a fact in the way of saying that autistics are predisposed to violent behavior.  If that's the case then I would rather they did not use the fact that this young man is autistic as part of his defense.  I'm sure there are good and bad autistics just as there are good and bad neurotypicals.

This could do more harm than good for other autistics.  I mean, would that be their proof that we need to be contained, locked up, drugged and watched for the rest of our lives because of the harm we may do to others?  I don't think he understands what many of us go through with those that wish to eliminate us.  

If the tables were turned, I wonder if he would want sympathy just because he is a minority?

I got the exact same reply word for word. I went out for a walk, feeling that I had written too harshly to him and that I would have to send an apology. I thought about his writing about autism, as well as his statement about the Vietnamese youths.  I don't know what my answer should be.

I think his report does inadvertantly depict the people with difference as being violent and that their behavior is representative of their minorities.  He links the incident with the Vietnamese youth to the autistic boy's behavior and thereby implies that all of their behaviors were retaliation against bigotry.  The reader comes away with the image of various minority youths retaliating with violence against the dominant culture.  He then contrasts that view with quotes from school officials who state that the majority of youths at the school do not behave this way. It sets up a dichotomy in which minority youths are violent, while the majority of students are not.  However, I concede that I am being a bit too strident and harsh in my criticism.  Another person might read his article without seeing any inadvertant or intentional discrimination. Should I send a email with an apology or not?

Hold off on an apology and let's discuss this for a bit.  Do we really have something to be sorry about here?

I've spent so much of my life apologizing for not being the person others wanted me to be....being embarrassed for reacting differently than the majority in society....let's discuss this a bit amongst ourselves before we go and give an apology for what we believe might be going on here.  What exactly does "autism is a fact" mean?

Well, I do like to be right rather than have to apologize. So I'll hold off on the apology for now.  I will give it some more thought.

"autism is a fact" could be construed to mean that people who have autism are more prone to violence.

True, but aside from this just being a fact, it also holds connations. I find the article quite painful to read, it does seem to depict autism as some sort of dangerous condition. If I had ever retaliated against all those who made my school life such a living hell I might have behaved in a siimilar way just because of the social conditions I experienced. I don't think I would ever have used a knife, but I can think of at least one time I fantasized about using a baseball bat to smash things, not people.  I did vandalize school property once. I was a very badly behaved student. I often swore at teachers and took great pride in being able to do that.  I was expelled about eight times for skipping class. I could not go to class because of all the bullying I experienced. In grade six I tested with grade 12 reading and vocabulary, but because of bullying I did not even finish grade nine. I then enrolled in college in my early twenties and eventually completed a university degree.  I empathize with this autistic boy and his difficulties. I wish that the reporter had done a more indepth study of the autistic boy's experience that led to the incident.

You see, that's the thing.  This article was originally brought to my attention by a co-worker.  Her impression was not a sense of sympathy for the autistic young man.  Her first impression was fear of the unprovoked violent nature of this autistic young man in the school system.  Her children are school age after all and so this distressed her.

She felt as if the article was saying that violence and autism were connected somehow.  When I spoke to her about my son (which she knows) and myself and how we do not have that type of unpredictable violence it calmed her a bit.  She now sees that the mention of autism and this violent behavior is totally unrelated....that is, after we talked about it.  What about those that don't have an autistic friend to talk this over with?  What conclusions will they make?

I've been searching the codes of conduct that apply to various national journalist's organizations. The clearest guideline for how journalists should report disability comes from the British National Union of Journalists code of conduct. http://www.iit.edu/departments/  csep/codes/coe/jour-uk.html

10. A journalist shall only mention a person's age, race, colour, creed, illegitimacy, disability, marital status (or lack of it), gender or sexual orientation if this information is strictly relevant. A journalist shall neither originate nor process material which encourages discrimination, ridicule, prejudice or hatred on any of the above-mentioned grounds.

The US codes of ethics seem less clear on the subject. However, for our purposes the British code provides us with the language to articulate what is wrong with this reporter's depiction of the autistic boy.  It is not clear how his disability is relevant to the report.  The writer has reported his autism as though it were relevant which would lead the average reader to believe that autism is linked to violent behavior. Therefore, by reporting the irrelevant detail of this youth's autism the reporter inadvertently leads the reader to hold a distorted view of autistic people as prone to violence.

As I posted previously, I wrote to the reporter and received the same reply that you received. I also made the unfortunate mistake of addressing her as Mr. Boyd. The reporter is a woman.  

Oops.

I've made that mistake before, anandamide.  It's too bad there isn't a generic hail that would include Mr. and Mrs. & Ms.   Maybe just "M." when you are uncertain of the gender of the person you are speaking with.

I feel this is really a time when we should use our advocacy letter-writing skills.  The media depicts autistics so poorly and anytime we see or hear something that depicts autism or autistics in a bad light (or in this case, encourages fear) we should write to the reporter or the news station that has done this.

I have not only written to this reporter, but to news stations locally that have broadcasted this story and added the fact that this young man is autistic.  It really is not relevant to the story as autistics are not generally any more violent than neurotypicals and it has been stated that this was a totally unprovoked attack.

It is an uphill battle and I feel like a fish swimming upstream but the educating of the media has to start somewhere.  

Write on, brothers and sisters   :lol:

anandamide and anyone else that wants to write;

Here are the news stations I have emailed so far.


Channel 8 News

tcochrun@wishtv.com; kfinch@wishtv.com

Channel 6 News

ericka_flye@theindychannel.com

Channel 13 News

cproffitt@wthr.com

Fox 59 News

http://fox59.trb.com/news/local/morningn...ews-subnav

This is a generic version of what I wrote to each.  Remember, if all of the emails look alike, they will just think that it is spamming and will quit reading them.  They may not read them anyway, but it's worth a try to get our point across.  I wanted to share what I wrote because I feel it's easier to see what others have written and then put my own style into it.  I hope it helps;

Dear _____________;

In your news report today, you bring up the fact that the young man accused of stabbing another student in Muncie, Indiana is autistic. Maybe in doing so you feel that the readers would feel sympathy for this young man in this particular situation. This article was brought to my attention by a person in my office (she is not autistic but knows I am). Her feeling towards this young man was not sympathy but fear.

I belong to a few autistic groups and forums and fear of autistics and autism is something we see a lot of. It is the fear of autism that brings about the groups that wish to eradicate autism. There are groups that wish to see autism wiped off of the face of the earth. But you see, autism is not an emotional imbalance or a defect or even a disease to be cured of. Autism is merely a different wiring of the brain. My family and friends do not wish to see an end to autism as we see it not as a defect but as a neurological difference. We are a very misunderstood people.

Perhaps this young man has emotional problems along with being autistic. The emotional problems can be something (besides autism) that this young man struggles with, but autism in itself is not an emotional imbalance or disturbance. There are people that do good things and those that do bad things in this world - there are also autistics that do good things and bad things. It is not autism that cause them to be predisposed to such random violent actions, though.

We do have a knack for being blunt and straight to the point which make us appear to be aggressive, but from what I have seen of autistic friends and family, we are not violent people. We are more apt to be victims rather than predators.

Please understand that I am very concerned with how the media depicts autism as our very lives may depend on how we are seen. If someone commits a violent act and it is stated that the person is autistic as the reason, it could be the beginning of a fear of autistics.

If we are considered a people that are prone to violence then we cannot be trusted to our own devices. Perhaps it will be decided that we must then be contained, locked up, drugged or watched for the rest of our lives. Perhaps it might be considered to eliminate autistics altogether. Is this an extreme thought? I think not. Sad but true, many of us have already had to deal with this in our own lifetime.

Autism is a neurological difference and not connected whatsoever to random acts of violence.
I ask that you please refrain from using the fact that this young student is Autistic as it is not relevant to the report any more than it would be relevant if he were gay, African American or Muslim.  Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Patti Shepard

I just wanted to give you all an update on this story;  

As you know, a few AFF members wrote to Indiana Newpapers and the local News Stations about their misguided wording in a story.  It seemed as if they were trying to establish a connection between autism and violence.  The reporters/newcasters had mentioned that one of the students were Autistic when it was not relevant to the story.   We asked that they omit the fact that the student was autistic as it created negative connations equating autism with violent actions.

Although I only received the one reply, when I got up this morning to get ready for work, I watched the news on TV (my usual routine).  On the channel 8 news, they made mention of the story BUT did not mention autism in the report at all!  I did not have the time to watch the other two stations but will let you know what I find out.

I know this seems like such a small thing, but for me it's monumental.  To make these reporters aware of autism and for them to listen to us - this is an important step in educating the media.  Even if they don't agree with our views, at least they respected us enough to honor our request.  

I will continue to look for these type of misguided misinformed articles and will do my best to let writers, reporters, editors and the like know that I do not approve of distorted and prejudice views against autistics.  I am happy to know that many of you will do the same.

EnglishLulu, thanks so much for your advice and tips, they mean alot to me.  I've done very little of this kind of thing and have only been at it a couple of years....but I come from a long line of strong women activists  :smile:  My mother, ticked off a government official so badly  (in the 1950's) with a few letters to the editor of a local newspaper, that the man actually threatened to confiscate her typewriter to keep her quiet. :lol:   How cool is that?  I have those documents saved along with pictures of my family.  


anandamide wrote:

I have hardly ever gotten a reply to my letters and emails other than the auto-reply that is generally sent out when you email or write someone in a government position.  I just hope they read them or at least someone does.