Published on 12, July, 2020
The first report on the BBC news tonight was about the awful stabbing of the 15 year old Holly Newton and the mention that the killer had autism. But this is just inflammatory, is it not? They did exactly the same regarding the Southport killings (there's a separate thread about that in this forum). But it doesn't take much for an ill-informed public to make the leap that people who commit awful crimes are autistic. Or that autistic people are likely to commit such crimes. Yes of course a tiny percent of people with autism commit heinous crimes just as there are a tiny percent of neurotypicals who do too. But what is the reason for reporting that the boy was autistic? I wonder, would they mention that a killer was of a different race or gender or physically disabled so readily?
UPDATE. Reply from BBC Friday 13th September
Dear Audience MemberThanks for contacting us about BBC News.We were careful in our approach to this story to report with sensitivity. We believe our coverage of this incident to be both factual and fair.We reflect court proceedings in our reporting, and his autism and other learning difficulties were prominent during the trial; the defence tried to use his diagnosis to provide context around him saying that he couldn’t recall the incident.There is no suggestion in the piece that him having autism was relevant to the murder itself.We have shared your feedback with senior editors at BBC News.Kind regards, BBC Complaints Teamwww.bbc.co.uk/complaints
NB - I'm not entirely satisfied with their response at all but don't know where to to next with it
Thanks for advocating on behalf of our autistic community!
Reports like this by the BBC and other major media outlets make me really angry too as if any other minority group was deemed relevant to the context of a crime e.g being gay there would be uproar and it would immediately be called out as homophobic but for some reason the same thing doesn’t apply to our autistic community. This kind of reporting is a result of being Autisticphobic - a term coined by Dr Nick Walker (she/her).
just a suggestion but if you havnt already it might also be worth saying your a member of the national autistic society so that they dont think your just a random person that read the article. it could give what you say in the BBCs view more credability if you do if you do take bunnys advice
Authistic said:the defence tried to use his diagnosis to provide context around him saying that he couldn’t recall the incident.
I feel like the press reporting about him being autistic seems reasonable in this context. Because if an autistic person were to commit a crime whilst having a meltdown, then I can appreciate why they might not have any recollection of it.
Interesting - thank you for sharing. I have a couple of thoughts about things you could include if you do choose to reply. These are, of course, extracts from the BBC's response, not yours:
Authistic said:his autism and other learning difficulties
You might like to correct the BBC Complaints Team's false assertion here that autism - in itself - is a form of "learning difficulty" / learning disability. Even though it can, of course, be comorbid with them.
Authistic said:There is no suggestion in the piece that him having autism was relevant to the murder itself.
And also that - in line with NAS guidance on terminology usage - we don't "have autism". We are autistic.