Spikol Nails It
Several readers thought I was far too kind to ABC’s “Primetime” program of Tuesday night on Mad Pride. Fair enough. I guess I was so staggered that we didn’t have the usual major media completely screwing up a mental health story situation that I lost control of my critical faculties.
Fortunately, Liz Spikol live-blogged the show the other night and brilliantly so. Here, she picks things up when the show spins away from dealing with Mad Pride, the stated purpose of the program, and plays the violence card:
“‘But critics worry …’ That’s journalism-speak for ‘We don’t have any specific sources who say this, but we’ll generalize it so we have reason to focus on …’
“… violence. That’s what they’re focusing on. Why am I not surprised?
“So of all the things they could talk about related to Mad Pride — and related to mental health — this is what they’ve come up with: criminals and violent crime. Ugh. TV is so predictable and depressing.
“Okay, so now we’re telling the story of a kid with hallucinations and delusions (the CIA, yadda yadda) who KILLS HIS MOTHER? Does the average American viewer understand how fucking rare this kind of thing is? That it’s not the necessary result of deciding not to take meds?”
Liz is right: folks with psychotic disorders going off the reservation, so to speak, and committing unspeakable violence is actually a pretty rare event. What’s more, she’s right that these rare acts seem to occur independent of someone’s medication status. The NAMI and Treatment Advocacy Center crowds rarely acknowledge that. TAC is of course quick to waive the off-meds argument around anytime an incident pops up where a person is off-meds, but is utterly silent when someone happens to be treatment compliant, to use their terminology.
It’s also kind of offensive–now that I’ve reflected on things a bit–to present David Oaks (of MindFreedom, once upon a time diagnosed with schizophrenia), Madigan Shive (who I believe is connected with the wonderful Icarus Project and has a diagnosis of bipolar disorder) and Joe Pantoliano (of Sopranos fame and chronically depressed) as the faces of Mad Pride when none of them have ever been connected with anything violent, ever. It’s cheap shot journalism. Oddly enough, Pantoliano’s medication status is not discussed on the program. (And how does depression get hooked in with the program’s “psychotic and dangerous and off-meds” theme? ABC’s evidence would be what?)
Spikol sums it up nicely:
“This show is so bad, it’s like a joke. I guess it all goes back to what producer Ia Robinson told me, when we discussed my being on the show: She doesn’t have any friends or family who have mental problems, so the whole topic was like ‘walking on the moon.’ Yes, that’s the phrase she used. The show should’ve been blasted out to Mars.”
I also spoke with Robinson a few months ago when she was in the early stages of reporting for the show. Within five minutes I could tell she was someone who was way out of her depth with mental health issues and had that typical network news superficial take on things that leads no place good. She then had to go into a meeting for something or other and excused herself. I didn’t bother calling her back.
Not to be too much of a dick, but why are folks like that employed full-time in journalism when reporters like me are on the sidelines?
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