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PBS Frontline on Autism Resorts to Pseudo-Documentary, Tabloid Journalism



 
 
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  #1  
Old April 28th 10, 10:00 PM posted to misc.health.alternative,misc.kids.health,sci.med
john[_5_]
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Default PBS Frontline on Autism Resorts to Pseudo-Documentary, Tabloid Journalism

PBS Frontline on Autism Resorts to Pseudo-Documentary, Tabloid Journalism
by Jay N. Gordon, MD, FAAP

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-go..._b_554691.html

Tonight PBS aired a show called "The Vaccine War." I was interviewed at
great length and in great depth about vaccines and my point of view and
expressed my ambivalence about the polarization of this issue and the need
for more calm reasoned discussion about the number one question that new
parents have. I told Kate McMahon, the co-producer of the show, that there
was a large group of doctors and others who cannot be dismissed with the
facile label "anti-vaccine" because we still give vaccines and see a place
for them in the practice of medicine but we do not agree with the current
vaccine schedule nor the number of vaccines children receive all at one
time.

A few days ago, Ms.McMahon emailed me to tell me that the decision had been
made to omit my interview from the show. There would not be one word from
me. She didn't tell me that she had also omitted 100 percent of Dr. Robert
Sears interview. And that any other comments from physicians supporting the
parents on the show in their ambivalence about vaccines or their decision to
refuse all vaccines would also be omitted.

She left this as a show with many doctors commenting very negatively, very
frighteningly and often disdainfully and dismissively about vaccine
"hesitation" as they called it.

Below is my email response to Kate McMahon.

****
Dear Kate,

The Frontline show was disgraceful. You didn't even have the courtesy to put
my interview or any part of the two hours we spent taping on your web site.

You created a pseudo-documentary with a preconceived set of conclusions:
"Irresponsible moms against science" was an easy takeaway from the show.

Did you happen to notice that Vanessa, the child critically ill with
pertussis, was not intubated nor on a respirator in the ER? She had nasal
"prongs" delivering oxygen. I'm sorry for her parents anxiety and very happy
that she was cured of pertussis. But to use anecdotal reports like this as
science is irresponsible and merely served the needs of the doctor you
wanted to feature.

No one pursued Dr. Offit's response about becoming rich from the vaccine he
invented. He was allowed to slide right by that question without any follow
up. Dr. Paul Offit did not go into vaccine research to get rich. He is a
scientist motivated by his desire to help children. But his profiting tens
of millions of dollars from the creation of this vaccine and the pursuit of
sales of this and other vaccines is definitely not what he says it is. His
many millions "don't matter" he says. And you let it go.

Jenny McCarthy resumed being a "former Playboy" person and was not
acknowledged as a successful author, actress and mother exploring every
possible avenue to treating her own son and the children of tens of
thousands of other families.

I trusted you by giving you two or three hours of my time for an interview
and multiple background discussions. I expressed my heartfelt reservations
about both vaccines and the polarizing of this issue into "pro-vaccine" and
"anti-vaccine" camps. I told you that there was at least a third "camp."
There are many doctors and even more parents who would like a more judicious
approach to immunization. Give vaccines later, slower and with an
individualized approach as we do in every other area of medicine.

What did you create instead?

"The Vaccine War."

A war. Not a discussion or a disagreement over facts and opinions, but a
war. This show was unintelligent, dangerous and completely lacking in the
balance that you promised me -- and your viewers -- when you produced and
advertised this piece of biased unscientific journalism. "Tabloid
journalism" I believe is the epithet often used. Even a good tabloid
journalist could see through the screed you've presented.

You interviewed me, you spent hours with Dr. Robert Sears of the
deservedly-illustrious Sears family and you spoke to other doctors who
support parents in their desire to find out what went wrong and why it's
going wrong and what we might do to prevent this true epidemic.

Not a measles epidemic, not whooping cough. Autism. An epidemic caused by
environmental triggers acting on genetic predisposition. The science is
there and the evidence of harm is there. Proof will come over the next
decade. The National Children's Study will, perhaps by accident, become a
prospective look at many children with and without vaccines. But we don't
have time to wait for the results of this twenty-one year research study: We
know that certain pesticides cause cancer and we know that flame retardants
in children's pajamas are dangerous. We are cleaning up our air and water
slowly and parents know which paint to buy and which to leave on the shelves
when they paint their babies' bedrooms.

The information parents and doctors don't have is contained in the huge
question mark about the number of vaccines, the way we vaccinate and the
dramatic increase in autism, ADD/ADHD, childhood depression and more. We
pretend to have proof of harm or proof of no harm when what we really have
is a large series of very important unanswered questions.

In cased you were wondering, as I practice pediatrics every day of my
career, I base nothing I do on Dr. Wakefield's research or on Jenny
McCarthy's opinions. I respect what they both have done and respectfully
disagree with them at times. I don't think that Dr. Wakefield's study proved
anything except that we need to look harder at his hypothesis. I don't think
that Jenny McCarthy has all the answers to treating or preventing autism but
there are tens of thousands of parents who have long needed her strong
high-profile voice to draw attention to their families' needs: Most families
with autism get inadequate reimbursement for their huge annual expenses and
very little respect from the insurance industry, the government or the
medical community. Jenny has demanded that a brighter light be shone on
their circumstances, their frustration and their needs.

I base everything I do on my reading of CDC and World Health Organization
statistics about disease incidence in the United States and elsewhere. I
base everything I do on having spent the past thirty years in pediatric
practice watching tens of thousands of children get vaccines, not get
vaccines and the differences I see.

Vaccines change children.

Most experts would argue that the changes are unequivocally good. My
experience and three decades of observation and study tell me otherwise.
Vaccines are neither all good--as this biased, miserable PBS treacle would
have you believe--nor all bad as the strident anti-vaccine camp argues.

You say the decisions to edit 100% of my interview from your show (and omit
my comments from your website) "were purely based on what's best for the
show, not personal or political, and the others who didn't make it came from
both sides of the vaccine debate." You are not telling the truth. You had a
point to prove and removed material from your show which made the narrative
balanced. "Distraught, confused moms against important, well-spoken calm
doctors" was your narrative with a deep sure voice to, literally, narrate
the entire artifice.

You should be ashamed of yourself, Kate. You knew what you put on the air
was slanted and you cheated the viewers out of an opportunity for education
and information. You cheated me out of hours of time, betrayed my trust and
then you wasted an hour of PBS airtime. Shame on you.

The way vaccines are manufactured and administered right now in 2010 makes
vaccines and their ingredients part of the group of toxins which have led to
a huge increase in childhood diseases including autism. Your show made
parents' decisions harder and did nothing except regurgitate old news.

Parents and children deserve far better from PBS.


--
Jay N. Gordon, MD, FAAP
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, UCLA Medical School
Former Senior Fellow in Pediatric Nutrition, Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Institute

Signature Links

http://www.drjaygordon.com
http://twitter.com/JayGordonMDFAAP
http://bit.ly/ar1nGr
http://simonegordon.netboots.net/


  #2  
Old April 28th 10, 11:22 PM posted to misc.health.alternative,misc.kids.health,sci.med
Peter B.[_2_]
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Posts: 28
Default PBS Frontline on Autism Resorts to Pseudo-Documentary, Tabloid Journalism

"john" wrote in message
...
PBS Frontline on Autism Resorts to Pseudo-Documentary, Tabloid Journalism
by Jay N. Gordon, MD, FAAP


A few days ago, Ms.McMahon emailed me to tell me that the decision had
been made to omit my interview from the show. There would not be one word
from me. She didn't tell me that she had also omitted 100 percent of Dr.
Robert Sears interview. And that any other comments from physicians
supporting the parents on the show in their ambivalence about vaccines or
their decision to refuse all vaccines would also be omitted.


LOL, where your heart on your sleeve much?

What a cry baby, can you spell looser? L O O S E R!!!!!!!

Boo hoo


  #3  
Old April 30th 10, 01:20 AM posted to misc.health.alternative,misc.kids.health,sci.med
David Harmon
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1
Default PBS Frontline on Autism Resorts to Pseudo-Documentary, Tabloid Journalism

On Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:22:56 -0700 in sci.med, "Peter B." .@. wrote,
LOL, where your heart on your sleeve much?

What a cry baby, can you spell looser? L O O S E R!!!!!!!


ROFL. Next, can you spell "loser". There's one "o" in it.
  #4  
Old April 30th 10, 02:31 AM posted to misc.health.alternative,misc.kids.health,sci.med
Peter B.[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 28
Default PBS Frontline on Autism Resorts to Pseudo-Documentary, Tabloid Journalism

"David Harmon" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:22:56 -0700 in sci.med, "Peter B." .@. wrote,
LOL, where your heart on your sleeve much?

What a cry baby, can you spell looser? L O O S E R!!!!!!!


ROFL. Next, can you spell "loser". There's one "o" in it.


Hey, I could always try, but then the online spell checkers would have
nothing to do.


 




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