Why People Believe Oprah
Published June 01, 2009 @ 12:18AM PT
First I have to issue a disclaimer:
I have only watched Oprah once in my entire life (in April of 2007.)
Autism was the subject of that show and has been the subject of subsequent shows that I haven't watched because we don't have cable and the TV is in storage. (Thanks to Oprah's website, I am able to see puh-lenty, thank you.)
But back to that April 2007 show. There had been more than a bit of media build-up about it and, like many parents of children on the autism spectrum (and I'd been one for ten years in 2007), I was cringing in advance about how autism would be portrayed.
As we were living with my in-laws in April of 2007, we did have access to a TV, the small one in the far corner of their kitchen, by the heavy sliding glass door. That TV, with photos of five grandchildren at ages younger than Charlie is now and some pots with a few plants on it, was on for much of the day, starting with the morning talk shows to midday programming to the evening news and Jeopardy (and in her day, my mother-in-law "coulda been a contestant"). The TV was certainly on for the afternoon talk shows and so around 4pm on April 5, 2007, I found myself standing in the doorway to my in-laws' kitchen and waiting for Oprah to come on. I noted I was feeling pretty dubious about the whole thing when my mother-in-law gave me a glance and said,
"You should watch. Maybe you'll learn something."
My father-in-law always sat (sits) facing the far wall of the room; my mother-in-law was sitting on the side of the table. She asked me if I'd like to sit down with them and I assured them I was fine at the door, so I could hear Charlie if need be (we lived on the lower floor of my in-laws' 1960s split-level).
I can't say that I learned anything new information-wise from the show. And, now that Jenny McCarthy is going to have her own talk show on Oprah's network, I guess we'll all be hearing much much more about autism, vaccines, toxins, and remedies biomedical, bioidentical, and suffused with more than the faint odor of quackery, for all manner of ailments. What is it about Oprah, about her appeal, her mystique, her "Secret," that has millions watching her, following her suggestions and those of the "experts" on her show, though much of the medical "advice" offered flies quite in the face of science?
A big article in the recent Newsweek ponders these questions and suggests this is why.
Oprah, as Newsweek notes, has an "exquisite ear for the cravings and anxieties of her audience"---"cravings and anxieties" that she masterfully portrays herself as sharing. It's not just that she feels your pain: She knows our pain.Oprah's audience admires her as much for her failings as her successes. In real life, she has almost nothing in common with most of her viewers. She is an unapproachable billionaire with a private jet and homes around the country who hangs out with movie stars. She is not married and has no children. But television Oprah is a different person. She somehow manages to make herself believable as a down-to-earth everywoman. She is your girlfriend who struggles to control her weight and balance her work and personal life, just like you. When she recently related the story of how humiliated she felt when she arrived for a photo shoot to find that she couldn't fit into the clothes she was supposed to wear, she knew she had every member of the audience in her hand. Oprah's show is all about second and third and fourth chances to fix your life, and the promise that the next new thing to come along will be the one that finally works.
As the scientific community has pointed out, the kind of "advice" being dispensed on Oprah about vaccines, thyroid conditions, and much more, is potentially and simply detrimental to public health. Again and again scientists and the medical community ask, why is the general public so readily swayed by pseudoscience and advice about medical treatments by actresses, actors, and other celebrities, and so disinclined to get educated about science? In regard to autism, why do so many parents feel misunderstood and condescended to by pediatricians and other non-alternative medical professionals?
I'm not a biomed-doing mom (once was). I'm a literature and languages professor, but my science and math background is pretty decent, and "traditional" or "standard" or whatever you want to call it medicine (such as it is) is pretty much what has helped Charlie. (Though I should note that I always keep a couple of packs of Chinese herbs around for when I get really really sick.)
I've written that my mother-in-law has been in the hospital. It's now been over two weeks. While it's said that she has "this wrong with this internal organ" and now "this respiratory issue," it's the effects of her untreated mental illness----psychotic depression----for many many years that are more than apparent. The hospital she is in is a "regular" hospital, not at all equipped to address her needs which are, as they have long been, serious. Sunday Jim and I each visited her: She'd been moved to yet another room. The blue fleece blanket we'd brought her from Charlie's room was spread over her and, while she stared quizzically at me, she seemed to know who I was. She was hallucinating---kept saying her address was a house she'd lived in when Jim was in high school---pointed out blue and brown suitcases and coats that were not there----looked at me a bit slyly and asked how she could get out of "here." (She walks with a great deal of difficulty after knee replacement surgery and for other reasons, so I'm not sure she could get out of her bed if she tried.)
Jim is not in charge of his mother's medical care. He made a huge effort a couple of years ago---right before we moved in with his parents in 2006---to get her the intensive psychiatric care she needed, over the objections of everyone else in his family. After his mother came home in the fall of 2006 (she had not been home since January of that year), a psychiatrist was found to continue treatment for her. Jim was on sabbatical and drove his parents to the appointments. I did write "parents": While Jim's mother was the patient, her husband was present at every session, and Jim sometimes found himself asked to participate too in what turned out to be sort-of-but-not-really-family-therapy-sessions minus his sisters. When I told Jim I thought this was all kind of odd---I mean, weren't the psychiatrist visits for his mother, Jim told me that the psychiatrist was actually a child psychiatrist.
"There's dolls and toys in the room," he told me; the same sorts of stuff we'd seen constantly in psychologists' offices on visits with Charlie.
My mother-in-law has been under the care of this psychiatrist since 2007. And as of the past few months, she seems to be back to where she was before she went, by ambulance, to a psychiatric facility in the early summer of 2007.
We trust Charlie's doctors, whom we drive long miles to see. The one pediatric neurologist who has known Charlie since he was seven has been a staunch advocate for our boy, and offered us warm support and encouragement, and understanding. He is unusual and I know that's why we've stuck with him over the years; while we've been taking Charlie to a new neurologist, we've had reason to suspect we should stick with the doctor who knows Charlie well, who takes the time to observe Charlie and listen to Jim and me; who talks about his own struggles with his own rather "different" children.
Who shows that he's not always sure what to do, but seeks to be as best a guide as he can be.
I think Oprah not only knows that she has a winning formula, that "Secret," but why it's a winner; why so many people---certainly so many parents of children with autism----are looking for someone who "understands," who "gets it," who won't just string them along with medications and "maybe it'll get better" 's.
The TV was on in my mother-in-law's hospital room when I visited yesterday. I think it was one of her old standbys, Fox News, with dire economic news, bombs, a car accident; all the stuff she used to follow so avidly. Yesterday, she was totally unaware.
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Comments (25)
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Author
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Kristina is a Classics professor in Jersey City, New Jersey, a blogger (formerly at AutismVox), a translator (of Virgil), and an advocate every day for her son, Charlie.
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End the Perpetuation of Pity
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End the Perpetuation of Pity
This is a hard moment in your family's life. So much to deal with at one time.
Hope you do something positive for yourselves each day. Have something to look forward to before the day begins.
Trust your gut instincts when it comes to doctors.
Posted by L I on 06/01/2009 @ 05:41AM PT
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The only encouraging thing is that many people get disoriented in the hospital.
Perhaps once your MIL is back in her own environment and on her own schedule, she'll get back to her own self a bit more.
Hang in there.
Joe
Posted by Joseph Kras on 06/01/2009 @ 05:41AM PT
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Keeping you and your family in my thoughts.
Jane
Posted by Jane S on 06/01/2009 @ 07:58AM PT
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I'm so sorry to hear that you and Jim are going through this Kristina. So many of our mums and dads are also semi-parenting their own parents along with their super kids.
As for Oprah? why can't she just stick to Mom Jean interventions and giving away a pontiac to everyone in the audience. I hate to think that there are people spotting the potential pull of autism as a ratings winner, but hmmmmm....
xx
Posted by lisadom dom on 06/01/2009 @ 12:45PM PT
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think you took the words out of my mouth.
I've been contemplating how I can possibly take Charlie to the hospital with me, to visit her (even just really briefly) during the week. Not sure if that would be best for him---she is in a geriatric wing and it's very crampt. Will have to see.
Posted by Kristina Chew on 06/01/2009 @ 12:51PM PT
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I use to take my son places by giving him something he obsessed over like video games. You could count on him behaving for a little while. It was a relief for family members to see him behaving.
Posted by L I on 06/02/2009 @ 06:01AM PT
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Read about your MIL the other day, I'm really sorry about all that. You and Jim take care of each other so you can continue to care for her.
Oprah makes my skin crawl. Even before I was a mom, I couldn't stand her. The fact that she's given Jenny McC a platform to spout her lies and nonsense is just the final nail in the I-loathe-Oprah coffin for me.
Posted by ASD momNC on 06/01/2009 @ 03:07PM PT
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Hope your mother in law gets better soon.
The thing about Oprah is I can't help having a bit of, I don't know, feeling proud as a black woman of what she's accomplished? At the same time, I refuse to get all of my information from any talk show host. I'd rather just take in knowledge, swish it around in my head and think, maybe that's not accurate, there could be an alternative point of view, that you just don't get on Oprah and other shows
I also find Jenny McCartny to be ditzy and I don't need to know about her biological functions considering the fact that I'd like to know less about my own! I don't she'll have other perspectives of Autism like, it doesn't have to be a hopeless depressing thing.
But sometimes Oprah can have interesting things to say, unlike JM who really annoys me up a tree.
Posted by Shondolyn (Synesthesia) Gibson on 06/01/2009 @ 06:40PM PT
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I really like your point on "refusing to get all of my information from any talk show host." I do not know if a talk show host is the best person for parents to learn about making medical choices for their children. JM's planned talk show may have nothing to do with Autism or an Autism theme. Being rich and famous like Oprah, I do not think that she is "dumb" enough to invest her money in a talk show with a polarization theme like biomedical in Autism. But I have been wrong many times before.
Posted by Hai Dang on 06/01/2009 @ 08:43PM PT
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I think Oprah is "rich" enough to invest her money in causes she believes in without caring about profits.
I used to think all medical doctors had the highest of morals and acted with the patient's best interest in mind. I don't necessarily think so now, and I am not afraid to question medical information from any source.
My son's principal told me this week something I treasure, "there is no such thing as alternative medicine, either it works or it doesn't." For us, bio-med is working - that is, if you consider reducing pain and inflammation 'working.' Abatement of autistic symptoms is happening for us, too. Will he always be autistic? Maybe. He was, in my opinion, vaccine-injured. That won't change, so maybe that also means he will always be autistic. But, hopefully he will live a full, independent life. He's on track for that to happen and I will do my level best to see it through. I can't wait to ask him HIS opinion on the neuro-diversity debate in about 10 years or so!
Posted by Amom whoblamesva... on 06/05/2009 @ 11:57PM PT
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That April 2007 show on Oprah was so exciting. That was the day that Katie Wright, daughter of the founders of Autism Speaks, insisted on saying that she believed (as she still does) that vaccines caused her son’s autism. During the break, Oprah’s people advised her not to allow this to be said. But Oprah pointed to her name on the wall, and said, “Who’s name is that? I am making this decision.” After the break, Oprah announced that Katie wanted to say something, that she was expressing her beliefs as a parent. Thus Oprah made it clear that this was not necessarily the show’s position. But she let Katie have her say.
There are so many controversial topics on TV, yet the autism-vaccine connection was up until then almost completely verboten. The fact that Oprah was not afraid to open the door to this topic shows greatness in her character.
The biomedical treatments for autism that Jenny McCarthy tells about are not “quackery”. They have helped many people. Jenny is not spouting “lies and nonsense”. I have read three of her books, and they all rang true and were consistent with information from other sources – books, conferences, and acquaintances.
Nobody should “get all of [their] information from any talk show host”, but the information presented on Oprah’s show provides publicity that can make people aware of important issues, such as that maybe it’s not a good idea to give your baby 9 vaccines at once, or a flu shot containing thimerosal, or a hepatitis B vaccine on the date of birth (which is totally unnecessary unless the mom is a carrier of this virus). And that maybe dietary intervention and digestive enzymes are worth a try.
Lots of books and web sites have more in-depth information, including Dr. Bryan Jepson’s book “Changing the Course of Autism” and Dr. Kenneth Bock’s book “Healing the New Childhood Epidemics – Autism, ADHD, Asthma, and Allergies”. But without coming into contact with mass media publicity – such as via Oprah or Larry King – it would never occur to most people to even look for this kind of information.
Jenny McCarthy’s son was diagnosed with autism by respected professionals, and then that diagnosis was removed. He is now a smiling, talkative boy. Why is it surprising that many people are interested in the story she has to tell? What is more surprising is that so many people throw mud at her without even understanding what she is talking about.
For an interesting discussion of the developing science related to autism, see http://www.rescuepost.com/files/autism-one-may-2009.doc
The Change.org site is about causes – people’s rights – causes related to (for example) civil rights and the environment. Oddly, the vaccine-autism link has become a civil rights issue. Ten years ago I would not have believed it, but it’s true.
Posted by Twyla Ramos on 06/01/2009 @ 09:00PM PT
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Not to throw mud at her, and I do think sometimes alternative treatments can work, but... I just don't really trust her as a reliable source of information. I feel like she and all of these other folks claiming autism is an epidemic get in the way of true information about it because they are so loud and have a lot more outlets and places to scream from than people who disagree with that point of view.
I'd like to see more of the sort of folks who blog on Change.org point of view because it just seems healthier and better for autistic people in my opinion.
Posted by Shondolyn (Synesthesia) Gibson on 06/01/2009 @ 09:13PM PT
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I think it would have been better to have someone who is autistic doing the show.
Posted by L I on 06/02/2009 @ 06:06AM PT
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True, that's another thing ,they never have any actually autistic perspectives on her show. Just parents who are like, "how awful and tragic" and there's no other perspective besides that.
She does tend to increase awareness of things, like what gays go through in various parts of the world.
Posted by Shondolyn (Synesthesia) Gibson on 06/02/2009 @ 09:37AM PT
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Until Jenny can get her story straight, what she says most certianly IS lies and nonsense. Depending on her audience, she will give a different answer to the question of whether or not her son is autistic. If she's playing to curebies, she'll say he's cured. If she's playing the sympathy card, she'll say he's autistic. In her book she says she knew he was different from birth, but then she does a total 180 and says he was totally "normal" until he was vaccinated.
As someone who is a friend to autistic adults (many of whom are UNVACCINATED...ahem) and parents of autistic children who don't consider their lives or their autism to be a horrible tragedy, I share their view that her rhetoric is offensive, histrionic, and often hurtful to autistics themselves. Trying to get unbiased, factual information about autism and biomed from the rescue post is like trying to get factual, unbiased information on smoking from Phillip Morris.
Biomed works for you? Great. Knock yourself out, do all the chelating and supplementing your little heart desires. Leave me and my kid and the millions of other autistic people who are just fine, thank you, out of it. As an autistic adult I know says, "if you suffer from autism, you're doing it wrong."
Posted by ASD momNC on 06/02/2009 @ 10:00AM PT
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ASD momNC -
You need to realize and accept that different people have different experiences of autism. There is no need to be so scornful towards a mom who found ways to help her son to feel better and function better. That is not a put-down to people with autism who are happy with how they are. Nobody is trying to make you do chelation and supplements. If you are interested in trying any biomedical, fine; if not, that's fine too.
You act as if someone is putting you down, but that is not the case. You are the one putting others down.
Jenny is not telling lies and nonsense.
Correction to your friend's statement that ""if you suffer from autism, you're doing it wrong." Some people suffer from autism because it affects them differently than it affects some others who have autism but don't suffer, or who only suffer from the world's lack of understanding.
Posted by Twyla Ramos on 06/02/2009 @ 05:01PM PT
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Quote of the week:
"if you suffer from autism, you're doing it wrong"
The gas thing about rescuers and curebies is the lavish splashing around of generalisations about the causes and cures. It always reminds me of L.Ron Hubbard!!
*looks fearfully over shoulder*
Whereas the evidence based interventions actually have suitcases of data available to support claims, but will always allow for the possiblity of other influences, like maturity, peer support, maybe a change of diet and support of the child or adult's wider community. They could say "we did this and it absolutely resolved the problem, what WE did worked"
but they don't.
Whenever someone comes up with a newfangled theory or
"cure" my answer is always the same "show me the data"
*jerry maguire voice* SHOW ME THE DATA!
then I'll think about giving it a try..
xx
Posted by lisadom dom on 06/02/2009 @ 10:42AM PT
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Yeah, I agree with you on that. I'd like to have some solid proof before I believe completely.
For example, isn't chelation kind of... Dangerous?
Posted by Shondolyn (Synesthesia) Gibson on 06/02/2009 @ 06:13PM PT
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Kristina,
I can't say anything about your and Jim's situation except I'm real sorry. Having some experience with a family member with a mental illness, it's not always clear how these things will go, but I hope for all that it goes well. My best wishes.
As far as Oprah:
"...Oprah, as Newsweek notes, has an "exquisite ear for the cravings and anxieties of her audience"---"cravings and anxieties" that she masterfully portrays herself as sharing. It's not just that she feels your pain: She knows our pain..."
Masterfully portrays as sharing--I wish Ms. Winfrey would just get an Oscar and leave the pathologizing, scaring, and fixing of America alone. I would have thought we'd come to our senses after the promotion of "The Secret". To put it in perspective...it's a TV show.
Wwaayy back in the day I admired Ms. Winfrey, as someone else above did, as a role model of a strong woman of color making good in a tough industry of afternoon talk shows competing with Phil, Jesse and Rikki. Not a big fan of the show, but...
Now, this comglomerate has morphed into something with the close to the GNP of some countries and having watched the show more recently my perception is that she doesn't feel much of anything about those on the show beyond their value in bringing in viewership, and yet as Will Durst put it, "the American public would chew through their ankles if Oprah told them there was liquid gold in their veins". The reason people laugh is because they know at some level it's true.
To quote Marge Gunderson, "I just don't understand it".
Posted by Regina Claypool-Frey on 06/02/2009 @ 03:26PM PT
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It's become a case of Oprah, Inc.?
Me being me, I can barely watch the show even when I near a TV.
Thank you for the good wishes, they are much more than appreciated.
Posted by Kristina Chew on 06/02/2009 @ 03:48PM PT
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"yet as Will Durst put it, "the American public would chew through their ankles if Oprah told them there was liquid gold in their veins".
Wow. I won't forget that quote. It's powerful and I agree there is some truth in it.
Posted by L I on 06/03/2009 @ 10:44AM PT
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Twyla, here's the thing...facts cannot be altered. Saint Jenny has changed her story many times to fit her audience.
You think she hung the moon. Wonderful. I think she spouts nothing but quackery and nonsense. If you are trying to convince me she is anything but a hack, you are talking to the wrong woman. You're entitled to think she's wonderful. I'm entitled to think she's a liar who has spreads potentially harmful misinformation. End of discussion.
Posted by ASD momNC on 06/02/2009 @ 07:28PM PT
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There's an excellent article about the Newsweek article on Oprah at:
http://www.ageofautism.com/2009/06/newsweeks-newspeak-pharmas-weapon-against-oprah.html
Posted by Twyla Ramos on 06/08/2009 @ 06:32PM PT
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At least one good thing about her was she was talking about puppy mills
I have no idea why they are not illegal. They should be.
Posted by Shondolyn (Synesthesia) Gibson on 06/08/2009 @ 06:36PM PT
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Here are two more interesting critiques of the Newsweek article about Oprah:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/claire-shipman-and-katty-kay/did-anyone-else-think-the_b_212819.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/mainstream-medicine-and-t_b_213132.html
Posted by Twyla Ramos on 06/09/2009 @ 08:22PM PT
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