31
March 2013
Dear
ABC News Executive Producer Michael Corn, Diane Sawyer, and Dan Harris,
Your
reporting over the past few years has demonstrated a serious engagement in
misrepresentation of Deaf people.
A recent example has been the March 26th, 2013 broadcast
story, “Child who needs corrective surgery gets wish” which once again
perpetuates a mythical “miraculous” and one-sided view of cochlear implants.
While this particular story focused on insurance coverage of such surgeries,
there were many statements and assumptions made rooted in audism—a
discriminatory attitude toward Deaf people and those who use sign language (see
below). Deaf people and children do not have damaged intellectual capabilities,
are not disengaged from the world, and navigate the world safely.
At the
end of the story’s broadcast, the newscaster mentioned your plan to follow up
with filming the moment when Carson’s cochlear implant is activated. These type of scenes are becoming an
incessant bit of medical propaganda where the media is complicit in promoting
cochlear implants as a “cure.” Where is your follow up years later? Where are
the cases of disappointed individuals and families that have suffered
educationally, emotionally and economically due to the fact this ‘miracle’ did
not happen in the long run? Where
is your examination of the children who have had complications from this
surgery? Where is your examination
of the cruelty done on animals in the name of cochlear implant progress?
We
encourage you, as journalists, to offer more balanced reporting by showing
families who choose to sign with children like Carson as well as looking at
cochlear implant recalls and children who experience multiple cochlear implant
surgeries. We believe in the power
of media to promote truth and justice
Thus,
we appeal to your journalistic integrity to provide viewers with a more
complete and less prejudicial portrayal of signing Deaf people. We believe in the power of media---and
in the intention of ABC news-- to promote truth and justice.
Let
Freedom Roll,
Patti
Durr, Ruthie Jordan and Karen Christie for Audism Free America
Audism is attitudes and practices based on the
assumption that behaving in the ways of those who speak and hear is desired and
best. It produces a system of privilege, thus resulting in stigma, bias,
discrimination, and prejudice—in overt or covert ways—against Deaf culture,
American Sign Language, and Deaf people of all walks of life.
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NOTE: FOR INFORMATION ON THIS NEWS STORY SEE: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/03/26/child-who-needs-corrective-hearing-surgery-gets-wish/
