Comments on: Getting the Facts Straight in Louder Than Words

By: Last Week’s Top Posts

Last Week’s Top Posts — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 16:10:53 +0000

[...] McCarthy’s June 6 interview about her “autism crusade,” it’s as hard as ever to get the facts straight about what her son Evan [...]

By: Recovered or Not?

Recovered or Not? — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:02:06 +0000

[...] Jenny McCarthy’s book Louder Than Words: A Mother’s Journey in Healing Autism was published last September, all the [...]

By: About This Autism Debate

About This Autism Debate — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:42:21 +0000

[...] children and adults with more than a few beliefs about what causes autism—-and who (unlike a certain mother) know that Google (which David Kirby exhorts people to check to find out how many times terms like [...]

By: Bonnie Sayers

Bonnie Sayers — Sun, 04 May 2008 22:09:29 +0000

I was watching yesterday the ABC GMA video with Kim Stagliano and her family and some special needs atty. I was surprised when she mentioned google and Jenny Mc Carthy. There was no need for that.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2008/03/good-morning-am.html

By: Bonnie Sayers

Bonnie Sayers — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:44:12 +0000

Thanks for the feedback on this book. I read enough to know I am not interested, and never was really. It was more of a curious nature.

I was writing about autism back in Jan of 2000.

I got the diagnosis for Nck in June of 98 and used the fax back system for ASA to get my reading material. Matt was dx in Feb of 99 and I used the regional center library for my reading materials. I got my computer (A gateway astro) in Dec of 99 and joined Epinions.com in Jan of 2000 and started writing. I was in a mail group, (which is now yahoo groups and I forget now the other two names before yahoo took them over) that discussed the first autism rally in DC. I had issues with a lot of how they organized things and was very vocal. Several names back then are still visible in the autism community.

My first writing on autism – I never updated it after 2000 to see how my writing has changed over the years:

http://www.epinions.com/kifm-review-22D2-255A6F3-389321CA-bd3

By: That Was Then, This is Now: A Note on the Literary Corpus of Jenny McCarthy

That Was Then, This is Now: A Note on the Literary Corpus of Jenny McCarthy — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 20:37:49 +0000

[...] “informative”? Only if you like your facts served up with a “zany” (read: questionable) adherence to the truth. A passage (see p. 82) that is set in 2004 or 2005 shows McCarthy looking up information on [...]

By: Autism News Beat

Autism News Beat — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:49:54 +0000

I can’t fault Jenny for being popular, for writing a book that reflects her personal perspectives, or for publicizing her book to the best of her ability. I certainly can’t fault her for using her “natural talents” to raise money and awareness. And after all, she’s not a researcher: she’s a celebrity, a mom, and a “personality.”

Nobody is faulting Jenny for being popular. She is faulted for exploiting parental fears, and recklessly misleading them with bad information. No, she’s not a researcher, and that makes her shtick all the more egregious. Jenny McCarthy’s sole cause is Jenny McCarthy awareness. Autism is nothing more than her ticket off the Hollywood D-list. She is truly sickening.

By: Who Remembers Secretin?: Let the Parent Beware When Seeking Treatments for Autism

Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:46:51 +0000

[...] McCarthy writes that she thought she was to be the one to write about this (specific reference in her book to follow). But, as noted by Dr. Susan Swedo of the NIH in Autism and the Environment:Challenges [...]

By: Tanya

Tanya — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 21:44:16 +0000

Just wondering what interaction would be best for my step-son as he seems to only be comfortable watching “mighty machines” and it really makes him happy but the fact is he needs more expansion with his mind to go beyond tv. We only get him every second weekend so trying to enstile new things seems to be difficult. any ideas?

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 17:55:56 +0000

Regan, thanks for that link—-I remember a few years ago people were wishing that “some big name” would have an autistic child. I guess someone could write an interesting case study looking at what (mis)information gets spread after celebrities “speak up” about science.

Lisa Jo: I had vague memories of McCarthy from the era of MTV. When I saw her in Atlanta at the National Autism Association conference, she had a microphone and was interviewing parents about vaccines and their kids and thoughts of VJ’s in Malibu (or some other California beachy spot) holding out the microphone to bikini and swimtrunk clad coeds kept coming to mind—-a little surreal!