So some Autistic people have proposed several changes to the Autism Speaks Wikipedia entry, attempting to show that not all Autistic individuals support the Autism Speaks organization. Most of these changes were reverted due to the fact that no reliable source was cited stating that there is a disagreement going on between Autism Speaks and some Autistic Individuals. So I spent a few hours today looking for large media outlets that covered the criticism of Autism Speaks, to which I found none. This caused me to raise the question, is the media being Biased towards coverage on Autism Speaks?
Its really no secret that Bob Wright, the founder of Autism Speaks has large connections in the news media – being the former CEO of NBC Universal (which controls several large cable news agencies, local news affiliates and NBC national level news) and Cox Cable which has several other spinoff companies that own newspapers, local television stations, and radio stations. I have to wonder if the major media outlets are being biased towards Bob Wrights Autism Speaks venture, as airing criticism of Autism Speaks may result in retaliation from Mr. Wright through many of his connections in the media.
I don’t know if its a bit paranoid to make that assumption, but its clear that there is a large vacuum of criticism of Autism Speaks, so I think a question needs to be raised – how do you get the large scale media to cover Autism Speaks in a more objective fashion? How do you make sure all sides of the issues are shown?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Maybe there could be more open protesting of Autism Speaks. I would be more than willing to stand outside at an Autism Speaks walk protesting peacefully.
As I said over at the Gestalt – an article asking a question like “Does Autism Speaks represent the autism community?” would be perfect.
Autism Speaks appear to be disliked by quite a few. The mercury militia hate them when AS don’t do as pleases them, and an article with such a title should definitely mention that 13yo boy on Autism Podcast who ridiculed AS, totally.