Navigating Love and Autism

Post Reply New Topic

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/us/na ... utism.html

This is an article in a series on autistic youths.

I really, really loathe the NYT's coverage of Autism and Autistic people and I cannot believe a WrongPlanet member consented to being featured in that rag.

These kind of articles do not help us, people. We are not circus freaks, space aliens (whatever our site's mascot may be), or lost little lambs in need of a Neurotypical shepherd - but that is the brush nearly every single mainstream media outlet loves to paint us with.

Beware the media, folks.

Hate to say it but it sells more writing it like that. People aren't interested in hearing some socially awkward but otherwise reasonable person achieving things, nah that's too boring, they want to bring out the "freaks" and patronize them by saying, "OMG these beings can act like us too, look at that, what a wonderful accomplishment!"

But what's new? This occurs with virtually any topic. The media loves to kick it up a notch to pull emotional heart strings and thus get more readers/viewers/listeners.