Aspergers and tv editing

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Doesn't it drive you crazy how they edit aspies or other disabled people on tv shows? NTs often stutter, say fillers like um or like and misspeak words. They just edit it out. With disabled people they don't edit those things out. Or they select moments when they stutter the most. So they end up sounding so slow compared to everyone else on the tv show. This clip shows lower functioning people, but I think it really shows the contrast.

I have generally been edited well in my audio and video interviews. But, I agree that, if the reporter/editor likes or agrees with a subject, better editing happens. One radio interview I did was edited to give me that "NPR" sensibility (the station was, in fact, an NPR affiliate). I thanked the reporter genuinely. But, it did show me that different subjects get different editorial treatment. Indeed.

Why were you on the radio show? I think the shows where aspies get bad editing tend to be shows where the narrative is trying to make you feel sorry for the parents or show how weird and childlike aspies are. If the aspie is a professor or scientist type it's more likely they'll get better editing.

I was interviewed about Second Amendment advocacy among LGBT Utahns. I know that isn't autism-related, but I took the opportunity to use it as a way to show that editing (good and bad) happens. I agree that editing is used to make subjects look horrible or fantastic depending solely on how the topic is "sold." My state's LDS-owned radio and television news broadcaster often made me look and sound like a lunatic because I am gay. I cringe about how they would have edited me if they had known I was autistic, too.

It would have been nice if I would have found out through meeting actual people from Salt Lake County in person.

But...do you find that people from Salt Lake County are much more socially liberal than people from most any county in Utah?

It would be a cool experiment. Maybe I can record some generic interviews with some aspie and NT students mixed together. I'll tell one group of editors they're aspies and one group that they're just students. Than I can compare the clips I get.

Well....

If a known autistic is being interviewed about his expertise about the Second Amendment then what he is saying about the Second Amendment is what would be newsworthy. So they would edit out any stammers.

But if a known autistic is being interviewed about his autism and his stammers were somehow indicative of his autism then they would leave them in because those stammers would be part of the story. So I dont see the problem.

Utah has some very weird reasons for how it is. Because the federal government owns 71 percent of the state, what land is left over for private ownership might not always be desirable land to develop (think high desert without water, or mountainous land where roads, sewers and water would cost too much to create and transport). Another factor is the LDS Church; while it has majority membership in most other counties in the state, Salt Lake County is by far the most non-LDS and liberal. But, apart from the vocally anti-gun liberals, even a lot of Salt Lake County liberals enjoy outdoor activities and recreation including hunting. There are many LDS Democrats in Utah. As such, they support the Second Amendment.

So, Salt Lake County is a strange mix of ideologies and politics ... even in the same people. I am gay and I like sport shooting. I don't care for hunting animals, but I respect those who do. I used to be a Democrat, but I now align more with Jeffersonian constitutionalism (libertarianism). I like government to leave me alone, but I am willing to support improving the lives of others.

Great idea!

I agree. The many reporters I know would edit as best they could, but would still leave enough of the subject's speech, personality and mannerisms unedited because they wouldn't want to "fake" news.