In a segment about Autism that aired 18 February, the US television magazine 60 Minutes got some things right but misrepresented some other things. Gina Green, an eminent authority on Autism wrote a letter to 60 Minutes explaining the misrepresentation and encouraging the show’s producers to correct it. Gina generously agreed to let me publish the letter here.
Dear “60 Minutes:”
Having worked with “60 Minutes” producers several years ago on a story on the bogus autism intervention Facilitated Communication, I know that yours is one of the few network news programs that makes an effort to present accurate information based on sound evidence. That was confirmed in the portion of your February 18 segment on autism that featured a scientist who spoke to the lack of objective evidence that there is an “epidemic” of autism. But the portion of that segment that dealt with early intervention was not up to your standards. The discovery that early intensive intervention using the methods of applied behavior analysis can produce normal functioning in a large subset of children with autism was not made recently by the MIND Institute, as your program implied, but by Dr. Ivar Lovaas back in 1987. That finding has been replicated several times by other behavior analysts, as documented in published studies (see the attached reference list). It would be great if “60 Minutes” could do a followup story on that very exciting science and some of the wonderful human success stories that have resulted from it.
Sincerely,
Gina Green, PhD, BCBA
Link to the 60 Minute Web site that provides access to some of the show’s contents.
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Interesting. Do you know if 60 minutes have ever retracted or edited past programmes?
Best wishes
I don’t know. (Part of the reason is that I don’t have TV reception, and I’ve not had it since ~1985.) But, I have a vague memory that 60 Minutes does have a letters-from-listeners segment. Let’s hope that Gina’s message makes that, at least. More importantly, let’s hope that this show and other mass media outlets do a good job of accurately reporting research that provides a strong evidentiary base of treatment of Autism and other Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.
Thanks for the comment, and good luck with Whitterer on Autism.