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Musings on Mass Media and Mad Pride

by David W. Oaks — last modified Aug 25, 2009 06:41 PM

Tonight, ABC-TV intends to air its piece about MAD PRIDE. There's good news, and bad news.


I'm here in Norway hosted by the wonderful mad movement group WE SHALL OVERCOME. What a great time, with lots of support and speakers.

The ABC-TV show on MAD PRIDE airs in a few hours, but we can get an idea about the coverage from the two parts of text on the ABC web site.

While of course I have to see the piece to review, so far there's some bad news:

ABC-TV producer Ia Robinson had promised two sides of the debate on MAD PRIDE. But instead of reasoned debate, it looks like the show will air sensationalist footage about a murder.

For our very disenfranchised movement, it often helps to compare an action to our sister and brother movements who have come before us, and inspire us.

Imagine early media coverage of GAY PRIDE.

Gay Pride inspired Mad Pride, so imagine:

It would be as if the last half of the media coverage on early Gay Pride events, "responded" to Gay Pride by doing the last half of the show about sensational coverage of a homosexual child rapist.

That's not a debate. How can you respond to that? That's sensationalism.

Imagine early media coverage on BLACK PRIDE.

It would be as if the last half of the coverage "responded" to civil rights, by doing a sensational footage about a murder by an African American.

I talked earlier this evening with Ms. Robinson about her coverage.

I finally summed it up, "The Mouse is Sick." What I mean by that is that Disney Corporation (known in show business as "The Mouse House") owns ABC-TV. And these huge media conglomerates are airing violence over and over again through the evening, on a variety of shows.

As media critics say about editors of the nightly news, "If it bleeds... it leads."

Well, despite the predictable sensationalism... Apparently tonight, for the first time in years, the MAD PRIDE movement reaches a sector of the general public.

Here's a "creatively maladjusted" way to respond to this media coverage.

If you are new to this MAD MOVEMENT, I highly encourage you to join MindFreedom.

If you are already a member, donate again!

  • Support the voice of psychiatric survivors.
  • Support a historic movement.
  • Support humane non-drug alternatives.
  • Support MAD PRIDE!


Join and donate now! Click here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/join-donate

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Samantha Johnson, psychiatric survivor, MFI intern

Samantha Johnson is a 22-year-old psychiatric survivor who is interning at the MindFreedom International office. "I was absolutely in disbelief at how the people were treated at the hospital. It was an environment of emotional abuse interspersed with 'treatments' and 'policies' that could be more accurately described as assault. The tragic thing is that there really are some good people working there, but they are unable to provide people with the help they need inside a system that prioritizes profits over people. It might take five years of counseling for someone to truly recover from a mental health crisis, but it takes five minutes to tranquilize them. This is why I started working with MindFreedom. For 25 years MFI has been challenging the mental health system to see us as human beings- to treat us as human beings- through peaceful activism. At MFI we emphasize individual choice, empowerment, and compassion as necessary aspects of a true healing process."

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