"As far as working for others papers go, it's a very unusual paper that will take on a learning disabled person. You're competing against people with college degrees or just people with a lot of writing experience." Humboldt Beacon
This comment was made to me after some time witting for the paper more so in a volunteer sense as I could not get paid enough to call it minimum wage. After he called me names like spineless for apologizing to a local police department for misquotes the editor messed up on and made fun of me he told me basically I could not write for other papers and it felt like it's because of my disabilities and that he was the only one who would deal with me. Just after though a competitor paper said ok but with no pay for autism related articles. The competitor paper I was able to get front page stories in about autism conferences. I was able for a time to work with a much larger competitor paper and write autism awareness in this H.B newspaper about autism and disability to work groups locally. I feel like papers won't let disabled minority group members write for them typically as they do not have the tolerance and my experience with this paper was likely a rare find with the insults and put down and as well as making me think I did not have a chance anywhere else but where I would be put down and not valued.
Why does not the media have diversity even in ability which respects and includes differences. The media is a projection of our society yet it fails to include a true diversity that projects it so it cannot be said to be diversity. MY experience with the media is good and bad. If I work on my own with my own accommodations and my own creativity they are nice but if I try to work for them othey can be really mean and egotistical such as me being some kind of charity case writter. Yet this is a small fraction I have experienced. I don't bother to watch TV or read newspapers anyways, just YAHOO and CNN.
The person that made the comment is now no longer the editor. Just a staff writer.
P.S The local police department purchased over 40 candles for gifts for volunteers.
Nathan Young
21 Mar 2009, 6:00 pm
