Comments on: One story, two leads

By: dave miers dot com » Jesus Life Culture Design #9

dave miers dot com » Jesus Life Culture Design #9 — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:06:48 +0000

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By: mattt

mattt — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:28:41 +0000

Great post Soph. I noticed the same thing when Dr Jayant Patel was brought back to Australia. Channel 7 lead with something like “Serial killer Jayant Patel…” then SBS said “Jayant Patel who allegedly killed a number of patients while working as a doctor at Bundaberg hospital” – talk about sensationalist reporting. Terrible.

By: Libby

Libby — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:24:53 +0000

It’s funny, my initial feelings were pity/sadness for the man
because the way I read it is that, because he has AS, he doesn’t have full control over his facilities, so was possibly a bit more forgivable for his actions? So maybe instead of tarnishing people with Asberger’s, I saw that they were being more forgiving about his crime? I agree with you that SMH tends to sensationalise more than ABC, but I didn’t read it the same way you did for some reason.
Maybe it’s because I know a lot about Asbergers that I know it doesn’t cause you to kill your mother but the general public don’t know that, so your point still stands. Hope I was clear enough…?

By: Dave Miers

Dave Miers — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 11:30:26 +0000

thanks for this. confirms me in having abc as a homepage instead of smh!

By: John Dekker

John Dekker — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 06:05:54 +0000

This is a really helpful blog post. Thanks!

By: onlinesoph

onlinesoph — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:55:59 +0000

good point. I looked it up on wiki (source of all knowledge…how gen Y am I) and it says its an “autism spectrum disorder”. Though the media wouldn’t use that term, mainly because it’s not widely recognised by the public. But you’re right – it does bring up the question of whether a stigma is attached to personality disorder. What connotations does it have?

By: Alison

Alison — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:18:23 +0000

“Personality disorder” is a funny, loaded, phrase to use to describe Aspergers, which is mild autism as far as I know.