In the wake of Imus’ ouster
April 12, 2007 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
CBS and MSNBC have dropped Don Imus’ radio show over his racially insensitive remarks about the Rutgers University basketball team. An article in today’s New York Times notes that “millions of dollars in future donations” for children’s charities may have been lost “as a result of his ill-considered remarks”:
For four and a half hours this morning, he turned his radio program into a live fundraiser for three charities — two benefiting children with cancer, and the other for families that have lost babies to sudden infant death syndrome — an endeavor he has undertaken each of the last 18 years.
Among the guests were children and parents who had been the beneficiaries of his efforts — particularly the Imus Cattle Ranch for Kids with Cancer, a program that the host founded on his New Mexico ranch along with his wife, Deirdre.
It should be noted that, just under a year ago, Imus’ MSNBC show broadcast A New Decade for Autism, a fundraising event at which the video Autism Every Day was first screened—a video which depicts life with autism as difficult (as it can be, but there are ways to change this, for sure) and hopeless; a video that was felt by more than a few autistic persons and parents of autistic children as portraying autism as horrrible and hateful only: No surprise, perhaps, that it had the endorsement of Imus.
As I asked a few days ago: I do not know understand how any national autism organization can be associated with someone who can use such hateful words.
Well,
I think that this shows the hypocrisy. Hate speech is OK as long is it not against certain groups. I remember when that lady left the guy to die pn her windshield. She even said it wasn’t bad cause the guy was white. It was downplayed by the media. The Law & Order episode that was based on this had the racial element completely removed.
It is always done. I remember what happened to jim bakker (yeah surprisingly I am very supportive of him. I think he got a raw deal. Overbooking is bad business not a serious crime.) And Jimmy swaggert. The howls of hypocrisy was deafening. You can say it was deserved but when it came to the Rev. Jackson who *counseled* bill clinton on bill’s infidelity and then found out not only the reverend had a mistress but a baby out of wedlock, You could not hear a peep out the media. They were all afraid to be called racist.
I think this rethoric about one particular minority having more clout than others is VERY dangerous. And if anyone considers that African-Americans have some kind of privilege over other minorites in this country, please think again.
There was a public outcry against those racist remarks by Imus, it didn’t come only from Blacks or women. Nobody thinks hate speech is okay except the rightwingers and racists. Unfortunately, there are many of those in the airwaves, and I hope that Imus’s fate will work as a warning to people like Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter, to name a few. Better yet, I hope that they do slip and say something so offensive that they’ll all be fired like Imus!
We’ll have to keep listening……
Imus and wifey and their friends described autism in humiliating and totally false ways, but the difference is that most people don’t realize the harm in saying, “Thank god I don’t have an autistic child.” as both of the Imuses have said on the air.
If a person wants to get sympathy for autistics being slurred against by the Imuses, that person needs to talk for a couple hours to educate the audience on why it’s not good that Imus showed a video that had a mom saying, “I wanted to kill my black child and myself but changed my mind because I have a white child at home who I love and who needs me…” – of course Allison Tepper Singer didn’t say “black” child, she referred to her autistic child (while smiling and in the presence of that child) that she thought she might kill and, in contrast her normal child who provided a reason to live for Allison mommy dearest.
Imus has done tremendous real harm to autistic people, and he’ll go down in history as the hero of autistic children who stuck his foot in his mouth and lost his job.
He should have lost his job for his remarks about the basketball team, his co-idiot was even worse, he called them “hardcore hos” before Imus joined in and called them “nappy headed hos”.
The mercury parents are just all upset over this, saying how unfair it is for poor baby Don to get fired etc, some of them say it’s all a conspiracy to stop him from talking about thimerosal, with the Clintons and big pharma at the bottom of it… right.
Lets not forget his hideous comments about his former “Jewish” bosses, at CBS, too. That was hideous. The man is just a total idiot, and his wife is beneath contempt, in my opinion.
Doherty was pwned a few entries ago, but he manages to grasp at a few straw(men?)s in his own blog-
http://autisminnb.blogspot.com/2007/04/autism-vox-falsus.html
Smells like desperation to me.
And now Harold Doherty has devoted a whole post to Autism Vox.
My favorite part of the post: “Parents across Canada and the United States and elsewhere in the world have fought hard to seek and obtain a better life for their autistic children through treatment and education. For their efforts they are mocked, ridiculed and demonized by the Neurodiversity movement.”
I like the “us vs. them,” “with us or against us” rhetoric going on. Because, apparently, those involved in the Neurodiversity movement are outside of the efforts for education and treatment. There are those, like Doherty and other Americans and Canadians, working tirelessly for autism treatment and education. And, there are those involved in the Neurodiversity movement who *aren’t* involved or concerned with education or treatments. Because our efforts are from a different perspective, they don’t count, I suppose? Implication: You’re either “with us” (i.e., Autism Speaks, Cure Autism Now) or you’re “against us” (i.e., Neurodiversity movement, high functioning autistic essayists).
What I really like about Doherty’s visits to Autism Vox is that he likes to attack commenters for sharing their experiences as not being “autistic enough” (so to speak) and then he disappears. He starts this little fires and then disappears just as soon as the conversation goes in any direction he’s uncomfortable with. Go back and review his comments, just like yesterday with Kev and christschool and postings before, he comes on, attacks, and runs back to his and John Best’s blogs to pout and fume.
And, finally, and then my rant is over (I’ve been holding this in for a while), I completely agree with Kev’s comment yesterday that Doherty expects all of us to cower to his verbal attacks and bow down to his experiences, like his are the only one that matters. Because his son has “low functioning autism” we’re expected to build some sort of shrine or cower to his expertise on the subject. That he’s the only one who knows what autism is. That his experiences are the only ones that count.
Because I’m sure you’re reading this, Mr. Doherty, I’ve specifically refused to directly respond to you in this forum because you’re a bully. Feel free to respond back to my post, if you like, but I will not answer back. This is the only and last time I will ever directly address you in a comment because I will not waste my time, especially since you’ll disappear anyway.
Kristina, if I am violating internet etiquette, I apologize. I’ve wrote this response a hundred times and never posted it. I needed to make this point (especially since we are those he is addressing in his blog), but I will not rant like this again.
I read your Autismland blog for many months, followed by Autism Vox, and have found both to be invaluable resources as a parent of a child with autism. I have a 14 year-old daughter with autism who shares many traits with Charlie. She has benefitted greatly from ABA, sensory integration OT, an augmentative speech device, oral-motor speech therapy, sensory-integrated gymnastics, and recently began a therapeutic horseriding program. She started using a touchscreen along with the Edmark programs when she was five and now uses a keyboard and mouse with great facility, her favorite pasttime being Google image searches for whatever interests her at the moment. For a child who was once considered severely autistic, she has indeed come a long way. Thank you so very much for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us. I hope it does not sound ungrateful to mention that I also find your recent entries criticizing Autism Speaks to be somewhat “perseverative” and diminish the objectivity of your blog. However, I will continue to be a faithful reader and admirer of all your writings on autism, including any books you are working on!
Thanks so much Maria especially for sharing about your daughter! When it comes to autism and one’s child, perhaps some perseveration, and also speaking from the heart, are unavoidable.
Leila,
You are making assumptions. I did not say black americans have an advantage. All I did was to relate facts that give a sense of the grip of political correctness that is so pervasive today.
And you have made a rather dubious equation of rightwing with racist.
Rochelle, thanks for the analysis of Mr. Doherty’s rhetorical tactics, and for pointing out the “us vs. them” mentality—I suspect the spectrum is big enough to make a place even for such “black and white” thinking.
I have never read Mr. Doherty’s blog because I can surmise from his “commentary” on this forum that this would be a waste of my time. And I have no time to waste. I’m too busy raising some very different children. Why do I feel this way? Because I have TWO children with autism (plus three others)…..one “high-functioning” (”their” term), one “low-functioning” (”their” term). I make no such differentiation. Thank goodness Mr. Doherty only has one autistic child (is that the case? hope so)…more than one could do him in.
I am almost always willing to read any autism parent’s blog because I feel I will more than likely learn something. I feel fairly assured that I will NOT learn anything from Mr. Doherty. Well, I might learn how to be close-minded….
On the other hand, I will ALWAYS read Kristina’s blog/forum/soapbox….because she actually has something worthwhile to read. I will always learn something from Charlie….
And _always_ more than glad to have “met” you, AJ, and to hear from you!
Joseph Mele: “Well, I think that this shows the hypocrisy. Hate speech is OK as long is it not against certain groups. I remember when that lady left the guy to die pn her windshield. She even said it wasn’t bad cause the guy was white. It was downplayed by the media.”
JL: It should have been downplayed…because there is NOT a history of Blacks making such remarks.
On the other hand, there are a ton of historical and contemporary comments from the other side. To take one woman’s comments and blow them up as if “All Blacks think that way” would be very misleading.
Joseph: “then found out not only the reverend had a mistress but a baby out of wedlock, You could not hear a peep out the media. They were all afraid to be called racist.”
John: That’s NOT true. The story of Jackson’s child was ALL over the news.
John Lindsay