Comments on: Media & Autism Portrayal

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 22:32:13 +0000

This story the way it is portrayed, gives the message if you’re autistic you can get away with a crime.

You are absolutely correct that the headline is an outright lie. If it read “autistic person receives light sentence for hacking conviction” it might be more accurate. If it was ever argued by the defense that he should receive any special consideration due to a disability, then that could certainly be relevant.

It is an unfortunate reality that nationalism sells more than an unprejudiced reporting of facts. News reporting provides a very biased view of reality, which is obvious if you actually know what happens in a day vs what is reported in the news.

I would hope that your identity is invested in being more than autistic. My identity is much more than being someone with Asperger’s Syndrome. Any way its very rare for people in the media to choose to champion a specific cause to educate the public unless it specifically touches their lives, and just as rare for a media outlet to let them use their money, time and facilities to do so.

By: Sadderbutwisergirl

Sadderbutwisergirl — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:18:48 +0000

Dear Unbeliever: Your comment makes me think of an episode of SpongeBob Squarepants that I saw recently. In the episode, Mr Krabs decides to sell newspapers to make more money, with SpongeBob as a writer. At first, SpongeBob writes stories that are boring, but true. So Mr. Krabs tells SpongeBob to get any kind of interesting story he can so the newspapers to sell. What follows is SpongeBob publishing stories that are interesting, but they are not true, and even worse, they ruin the lives of the subjects. In the same way, the news article is dragging autism into the situation unnecessarily and blackening the reputation of all autistics for no reason. And all for the sake of money.

By: Unbeliever

Unbeliever — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 12:03:14 +0000

I completely agree, but I doubt the autistic community is the first to suffer because of these tabloids.
I don’t know what’s more depressing, the fact that these papers write crap to try sell more papers, or that people actually buy, read and believe them.

By: Sadderbutwisergirl

Sadderbutwisergirl — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 18:24:51 +0000

But still! When they just mention that the hacker is autistic, it implies that all autistics/Aspies are criminals. Do you know what I mean?

By: Timelord

Timelord — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 11:06:00 +0000

Interesting. I’m not exonerating the situation as you are quite right, Zach, but maybe the lawyers and the police thought that he may have trouble getting a job because he’s an Aspie (rightly or wrongly) and giving him a job was a way to keep him out of trouble.

Just putting a possible explanation out there for a thought or two.

By: DreadZer0

DreadZer0 — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 00:17:45 +0000

i hope you get a response. And fast.