Yesterday, in one fell swoop, Joe Scarborough in an MSNBC interview singlehandedly sabotaged all efforts to humanize our children with autism.
Mr. Scarborough has transcended the title of “profiler”. During a discussion following the horrific events of murder in Colorado, Morning Joe decided to log in with his perspective: "Most of it has to do with mental health. You have these people that are somewhere, I believe, probably on the autism scale," said Scarborough, whose own son has Asperger's syndrome. "I don't know if that's the case here, but it happens more often than not. People that can walk around in society, they can function on college campuses, they can even excel on college campuses, but are socially disconnected." He then congratulated his own family’s support of his son, but highlighted the loneliness involved for those on the spectrum. "Again, I don't know the specifics about this young man, but we see too many shooters bearing the same characteristics mentally," Scarborough said.
While Joe Scarborough may not have realized the power of his words, he might need a lesson in humility. His talk show host status does not canonize his parenting or assessment of mental illness. Perhaps a more legible message might shock him. His reporting angle that he has chosen to highlight is on of bias; fodder for bigots. He has spurned discrimination, and this is reprehensible.
Interestingly, Joe did mention that we as a nation should have “comfort in a time of need” and that only a president can do what Obama did by addressing the nation and the families of victims. He went on to compliment Regan and Bush when they comforted the nation in time of tragedy. He should have stopped there.
Additionally, Mr. Scarborough might take a lesson from Dave Cullen, author of Columbine. Mr. Cullen best states in a NY Times how perspective is sculpted by misinformation: Over the next several days, you will be hit with all sorts of evidence fragments suggesting one motive or another. Don’t believe any one detail. Mr. Holmes has already been described as a loner. Proceed with caution on that. Nearly every shooter gets tagged with that label, because the public is convinced that that’s the profile, and people barely acquainted with the gunman parrot it back to every journalist they encounter. The Secret Service report determined that it’s usually not true. The title of Dave Cullen’s piece is Don’t Jump to Conclusions About the Killer, sage advice.
Finally, a video message from Kerry Magro with Aspergers says it all. Joe Scarborough, I Have Autism and Am Not a Murderer.
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