Greg Easterbrook, whose article TV might really cause autism appeared on October 16th in Slate magazine, writes that Claudia Wallis’ article A Bizarre Study Suggests That Watching TV Causes Autism in the October 20th Time.com is “awfully casual about accusing others of ‘irresponsibility.’” He writes:
TIME declaring that a statistician who finds a clue should not publish unless he can offer definitive proof is like saying an astronomer who discovers a star should not reveal its location unless he can prove the origin of the universe. And suppose this theory of autism turns out to be true. Should those with suspicions remain silent, offering no caution to parents of young children?
I think that Easterbrook is being “awfully casual” here himself, at least in regard to discussing theories of autism. Easterbrook’s Slate magazine article mentions that there is no “definitive link between autism and vaccines,” but does not take into account the theory of autism aetiology that was widely believed in the not-so-distant past, namely, the refrigerator mother theory of autism which was popularized by Bruno Bettelheim in the 1960s. According to this theory, autism was caused by bad parenting and, in particular, by mothers who were “cold” and “withdrawn” and failed to bond with their children.
And Michael Waldman’s theory of TV causing autism bears more than a casual resemblance to the supposedly outmoded refrigerator mother theory of autism—-what kind of mother parks their young child (their toddler, their baby) in front of the television to be entertained, edutained, and babysat by the likes of Baby Einstein and the PBS kiddie cohort? We have gone, as another mother of an autistic child noted, from refrigerator mother to TV mom. It would be well for Eastbrook to note that the “TV causes autism” hypothesis contains echoes of this terrible and simply incorrect theory that has ruined the lives of autistic persons and of their parents.
Eastbrook concludes by noting that TIME has something at stake in denouncing a study that denounces cable TV: “Since TIME sees fit to accuse others of irresponsibility, it would have been nice if TIME’s article had disclosed that its corporate parent has a financial interest in denouncing this research.” As Eastbrook notes, the same company owns TIME, “leading cable television carrier” Time Warner Cable, and also the Cartoon Network, “which is marketed to young children.” One wonders, what interests, corporate or otherwise, might be those of the authors of a study that suggests that parents are in danger of causing? making? their children autistic by not turning off the TV?
[...] to Mercury Blaming. Too right: Since I have been writing this blog, I’ve noted anything from TV to environmental toxins to mothers, the MMR, and mercury and older fathers as supposed [...]