David Kirby, Possibly Made Dizzy By Accolades, Mixes Up Change.org and Change.gov In An Embarrassing Fashion

On December 29, the Obama-Biden transition website, Change.gov, announced that the second round of "Open for Questions" was live.  On December 30,  the Age of Autism echo chamber blog urged its readers to advance their anti-vaccination, anti-science agenda on Change.gov.

On the same day, Age of Autism announced that David Kirby was their Reporter of the Year.  The announcer wrote:

I know that for many of us in the autism community, that's an understatement.  David should be receiving a lifetime achievement award for what he's done.

Now, pay attention. 

There's another organization, Change.org.  I know the names are confusing, but  in fact, Change.org pre-dates the Obama campaign's "Change" mantra.

Change.org is a social entrepreneurship venture based in San Francisco, CA. The company was founded by Ben Rattray in the summer of 2005, and with the support of a friend from Stanford, Mark Dimas, and a founding team of Darren Haas, Rajiv Gupta, and Adam Cheyer, Change.org launched the first version of its site in 2007.

Here's an important bit:  Change.org has no relation to the Obama-Biden transition team or the website Change.gov

Back in November, Change.org advertised that it was looking to hire a part-time blogger to manage its autism portal, http://autism.change.org/

Previous blogging experience is a plus but not required; we're most interested in someone with passion for autism activism, excellent writing skills, and the drive to lead an online community of like-minded people working for change.

As I reported here, on January 1, Change.org announced who they had hired: Kristina Chew and Dora Raymaker.  Both Chew and Raymaker disagree with the Generation Rescue/Age of Autism position that autism is caused by vaccinations, and that autism is "curable" by biomedical interventions.

In an article datelined January 2, 2009, David Kirby takes issue with Chew and Raymaker's approaches to autism, and indicates that he believes that Chew and Raymaker are the "national autism bloggers."  In other words, he confuses  Change.org with  Change.gov.  This is a very curious lapse from a professional journalist, let alone a "Journalist of the Year."

What follows are some direct quotes from Kirby's post at Huffington Post.  I have taken the precaution of taking screenshots of the whole article, in case of  a desire to revise this embarrassing incident out of existence.

"Recovery from autism is neither possible, nor desirable"

It's hard to believe that those words would appear anywhere on an official website of the United States Government. But there they are, on the new Autism Blog of President Elect Obama's transition team at www.change.gov.

They were written by the two women the Obama people hired to head up what could ostensibly be described as the "National Autism Blog" - Kristina Chew, who has a son with autism, and Dora Raymaker, an adult on the autism spectrum.

These women believe that autism is a genetic disorder that children are born with, and is simply part of natural human diversity. They are generally opposed to those who would seek to "treat" autism, or try to recover a child from the spectrum.

......

So, the people who were chosen to run Obama's autism blog don't want to find treatments for autism. They don't believe that autism is epidemic, and don't think there are environmental factors involved in its cause.

In fact, they are not particularly interested in even finding out why children have autism in the first place.

"Focusing on what causes autism diverts attention away from considering issues of pressing concern to actual autistic persons and their families today," they wrote, which seems like an odd representation of a man who ran for President on a pro-science agenda.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and to the right to express their opinion. But now, I think, it is time to hear the opinion of the incoming President.

And Age of Autism's Journalist of the Year concludes on a characteristic magisterial note:

I have written to Change.org and asked them if Mr. Obama shares the view that autism is purely genetic, and that it is not only impossible, but "undesirable" to try to recover children from its grips.

I'd jump on Kirby's misrepresentations and distortions of  Chew's approach to autism, but his primary blunder is just too much, all by itself.   My daddy taught me not to kick a man while he is down.

I wonder what the good folks at Age of Autism think now about their Journalist of the Year.

Update: Orac at Respectful Insolence  on Kirby's confusion.  Kevin Leitch at LeftBrain/RightBrain on Kirby's befuddlement.

Comments

[Karoli]

I saw that just a bit ago and figured you'd be right on it...if you weren't, I would've sent it to you.

What amazed me (probably because I don't read a whole lot of what Kirby writes) is how eager he was to take pot shots at Chew. It was obvious there was more than information-sharing motivating that HuffPost piece.

[Sullivan]

I wonder what the good folks at Age of Autism think now about their Journalist of the Year.

Oh, I guess they will forget this mistake. AoA doesn't have a lot of journalists willing to take up their cause. The closest to a journalist that they have is David Kirby, followed by the other former journalist Dan Olmsted. They can't afford to reject Mr. Kirby.

That said, I find it amusing that the Age of Autism blogged about Change.Org and their effort to recruit an autism blogger. Apparently, David Kirby doesn't read the Age of Autism blog--where he is a contributor!

[Orac]

You forgot Sharyl Attkisson, AoA's attack poodle at CNN. ;-)

[Ken]

Age of Autism wrote about Change.org a few months back, and published the phone number of the change.org editor who was searching for an autism blogger. Maybe Mr. Kirby was too distracted by the accolades to notice.

[jypsy]

Its now on AoA

[jypsy]

AoA caught on and removed their post

[mike stanton]

Kirby has caught on now and re-written the piece. It seems that anti-vax parents reported it to Kirby and he did not check the original before writing his piece.

[isles]

Pretty funny that the mercury moms told Kirby what to say and he dutifully said it. Just like his book.

What percentage of Kirby's Huffington Post articles have now required corrections? I guess they really will let just anyone blog there.

[storkdok]

I thought one of the top priorities of journalists was to check their sources, but of course, not being a real journalist, Kirby didn't.

Like I said to Kev, at least the Obama team will know what a lousy "journalist" Kirby is, and will hopefully avoid him and AoA in the future. I have a mind to write the Obama team myself to spell out a few things for them about the pseudojournalism and pseudoscience that they promote.

[Anne]

Storkdok, I saw your question on change.gov:

"Is Obama willing to point out non-evidence based science and medicine and not pander to unscientific theories with no evidence supporting them (ie vaccines cause autism)?"

People can go here:
http://change.gov/page/content/openforquestions20081229/

and put "autism unscientific" in the search box to display Storkdok's question and vote for it.

I asked the following question:

"What will the Obama administration do to ensure that autistic people, as the primary stakeholders, will be able to participate meaningfully in policymaking on autism issues?"

Search "autism policymaking" to find that one.

[storkdok]

Anne, thank you! And I saw your question and immediately voted for it! I absolutely agree with you!

[paya]

Kirby is great.

Who is the dumb person saying not recovering from autism is desirable.

If you do not want autism you should not vaccinate.

[Liz Ditz]

Honestly,paya, you should get out more. The vaccine-autism hypothesis is so 2002.

If reading is too hard for you, here's a five-part YouTube video explaining why the vaccine-autism hypothesis has been disproven since the early 2000s. Part One

Kirby is far from great -- he is a vaccine-autism shill, who can't be bothered to do the least fact-checking.

Who is the dumb person saying not recovering from autism is desirable.

Kirby cherry-picked that quote to inflame folks like you, who do not seem to understand nuance or bother to question your own assumptions.

Here's the whole thing, drawn from a 10-point list

10 Autism Controversies

#2 Recovery From Autism

Autism is a lifelong disability that is most likely genetic in origin. Nonetheless, claims that children have been "cured" from autism and have lost their diagnosis have been reported and are often given excessive attention in the media. But focusing on recovery distracts from attending to the needs of autistic individuals in the here and now. Parents may put all their energy and resources into so-called "cures" for autism, instead of focusing on the individual in front of them, and on the educational needs of that individual. Recovery from autism is neither possible, nor desirable.

[Dr Aust]

Did Kirby really get the wrong change-dot? I hadn't realised. That really takes the biscuit - what a chump.

Perhaps that explains how he stopped being a travel writer? I have this vision of him filing a story about London, Ontario, and mentioning the Palace of Westminster as a must-see.

On the other hand, I guess I shouldn't be too snide. With a fact-checking (in) ability like that, he could probably work as a "health" reporter on many of the British newspapers without standing out as in any way unusual. The ability (chutzpah?) to re-badge a press release with minimal changes or checking seems to be a key skill in far too many places these days.