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BBB negatively reporting on autism again (murdered Hexham girl)

Authistic
20 days ago

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? 

Parents
  • 5 days ago

    UPDATE. Reply from BBC Friday 13th September

    Dear Audience Member

    Thanks 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 Team
    www.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

  • 5 days ago in reply to Authistic

    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.

  • 3 days ago in reply to Bunny
    Bunny said:
    the murder itself.

    And also that - in line with NAS guidance on terminology usage - we don't "have autism". We are autistic.

    Hi Bunny, yes I always describe myself as autistic (identify first) but I may have been reflecting how the headlines reported it - can't remember now. Of course there is the whole person-first Vs identify-first. I do come from an era where autism was portrayed in a negative light but have embraced my diagnosis which was very late - in my early 60s.

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  • 3 days ago in reply to Bunny
    Bunny said:
    the murder itself.

    And also that - in line with NAS guidance on terminology usage - we don't "have autism". We are autistic.

    Hi Bunny, yes I always describe myself as autistic (identify first) but I may have been reflecting how the headlines reported it - can't remember now. Of course there is the whole person-first Vs identify-first. I do come from an era where autism was portrayed in a negative light but have embraced my diagnosis which was very late - in my early 60s.

Children
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