Five Groups Join NAMI In Trying To Stop Disney/ABC From Airing Hurtful Modern Family Episode Tonight: Will Greed Trump Corporate Responsibility?

unmodern

The above graphic prepared by the National Alliance on Mental Illness contains quotes from Modern Family’s Halloween episode that belittles Americans with mental illnesses. And those are just a sample. Words such as “nut job, Looney Bin, cuckoo” are sprinkled throughout the episode’s dialogue. If the network aired a program that contained racial slurs or anti-Semitic remarks, its executives would be reprimanded, but the three men who have the authority to stop tonight’s broadcast have chosen to thumb their noses at NAMI and its supporters.

Those executives are Bob Iger, the chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney CompanyBen Sherwood, co-chairman of Disney Media Networks, and President, Disney-ABC Television Group, and Paul Lee, head of ABC Entertainment Group, which oversees the television network ABC and its production arm ABC Studios.

Five other major mental health groups joined NAMI yesterday in calling for ABC to drop the episode, increasing pressure on the network. But my guess is that corporate greed will be more important to these three executives than personal ethics.

Here’s the latest news from NAMI National, which is encouraging its members to register their disgust at #unmodernfamily and filing a complaint at http://abc.go.com/feedback

Six Leading Mental Health Organizations Call on ABC-TV to Drop Halloween Episode; Stigma Violates TV Network’s Own Anti-Bullying Campaign

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27, 2015  Six of the nation’s leading mental health organizations have joined in calling on ABC-TV to drop its Wednesday night broadcast of a “Modern Family” Halloween episode that mocks and stigmatizes people with mental health conditions.

A copy of the letter is below, signed by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the Bazelon Center on Mental Health Law, the  Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA), Mental Health America (MHA), the National Alliance on Mental Illness and the New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services (NYAPRS), Inc.

Click to continue…

3 Executives Behind Trashy Episode: Disney/ABC Re-showing Stigmatizing Modern Family Show Despite Calls By NAMI To Cancel It

modernfamily

The Disney Media Networks and ABC Television plan to re-air an episode of Modern Family on Wednesday night that is a distasteful example of blatant prejudice against Americans with mental illnesses.

I first wrote about Modern Family:Halloween 3: AwesomeLand the day after it aired last year and thousands of you and The National Alliance on Mental Illness joined me in expressing outrage at the show’s stigmatizing characterization of persons with mental illnesses.

This morning, NAMI’s Executive Director Mary Mary Giliberti issued a strongly worded press release calling the network “Callous” for refusing NAMI’s request that it not show the episode again on Wednesday. NAMI is asking its members to participate in a Twitter conversation at  #unmodernfamily 

In the episode, Claire Dunphy decides to create the most frightening house in her neighborhood by transforming her front yard into a “scary insane asylum” complete with “deranged mental patients,” a “sadistic nurse” and “demented doctor.” The episode features daughter Alex chained to a hospital bed and Luke wearing a straight jacket – images that are intended to make viewers chuckle. Words such as “nut job, Looney Bin, cuckoo” are sprinkled throughout the dialogue — less viewers forget that nothing is more frightening than someone with a mental disorder.

Three men have the authority to stop the showing of this episode and two of them should know better than to air such hurtful garbage.

The trio are Bob Iger, the chairman and chief executive officer of The Walt Disney CompanyBen Sherwood, co-chairman of Disney Media Networks, and President, Disney-ABC Television Group, and Paul Lee, head of ABC Entertainment Group, which oversees the television network ABC and its production arm ABC Studios.

Click to continue…

A NAMI Friend Maintains Her Recovery Through Exercise, Determination and Friendship

When the Utah state chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness invited me to speak at a public meeting and talk to state legislators in January, my tour guide was Francisca Blanc, NAMI Utah’s development director. She knew every state legislator, was an effective lobbyist and a whiz at getting me on Salt Lake City television and radio programs.

At one point, she told me that she had been struggling with her own mental illness, including bouts of depression, for more than two decades.

What she didn’t tell me during our jam-packed day together was that she was self-medicating with booze during my visit. Lots of booze. I had no idea because she hid it so well. But shortly after my visit, Francisca crashed and ended up in a emergency room.

Last week, I returned to Utah to speak at a Housing Matters Conference held by the Utah Housing Coalition in Park City and I was thrilled to see Francisca waiting there to introduce me. She had quite a story to share.

Click to continue…

Deputy Says Jail Diversion Is A System Wide Concept: Not Only For The Police

ME-SECURE

I posted a blog criticizing Bryan Wolfe, the Republican candidate for Fairfax County Sheriff,  for comments that he made in a local newspaper about Crisis Intervention Team Training and Jail Diversion. Candidate Wolfe wrote a rebuttal to my comments which I was happy to post. I thought that would be the end of it, but I recently received an email from Kevin Pittman, who is President of the Fairfax Deputy Sheriff’s Union, and a member of the county’s First Diversion Committee, which is crafting and implementing an expanded diversion program in our county. Given his credentials, I’ve decided to post his comments, as he requested. I will let Mr. Wolfe and Sheriff Stacey Kincaid continue to share their different points of view on their own webpages and let Mr. Pittman’s words be the last on mine about diversion and  the differences between the  two candidates.

Dear Mr. Earley,

Recently Republican candidate for Sheriff Bryan Wolfe responded to a blog article written by you that was critical of public statements made by him about Sheriff Stacey Kincaid with regard to CIT and Jail Diversion. Having read both the original blog article and Mr. Wolfe’s response, I find that you are right on with your initial criticism of Mr. Wolfe’s position on this important issue. Allow me to explain why.

Incarcerating persons suffering from mental illness and essentially criminalizing one of our most vulnerable populations is not something new. This has been a tragedy that has been unfolding for decades with only a minority of voices shouting in protest. One of the challenges that exist in lobbying for legislation or funding to remedy this atrocity is the overwhelming complexity and budgetary challenges this unique issue presents. Everyone is looking for a quick, cheap and easy solution and according to Mr. Wolfe CIT is the solution.

Click to continue…

Reviewers Are Surprised Duplicity Is Not Overtly Political Or “Liberal Bashing.” It’s A Fictional Thriller

Reviewers Assumed Duplicity Would Be Filled With Political Rhetoric But It's Not

Reviewers Assumed Duplicity Would Be Filled With Political Rhetoric But It’s Not

Book reviewers are expressing surprise that Duplicity, the novel that I wrote with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, is fiction and not, as one wrote, “overt political rhetoric and liberal-bashing.” It’s a political thriller — and a good one.

The Book Wheel, reviewed by Allison Hitz

…I must admit that I’m not a Newt Gingrich fan when it comes to politics, so I was hesitant about the subject matter of his latest book. It’s described as the story of a Benghazi-style attack on a U.S. embassy that was opened by the president for political reasons. Because I’ve followed along with the Benghazi hearings, this immediately put me on high alert and I went in mentally prepared for a book that leaned heavily on overt political rhetoric and liberal-bashing storytelling. Naturally, when I started reading, I was able to point out precisely these things.

But it wasn’t long before a funny thing happened – I became engrossed in the story. Not only that, but I found myself flipping the pages so quickly that I forgot to look for political rhetoric and started enjoying it. Then, about halfway through the book, I pulled myself out of the story and realized that the book is pretty balanced and that this isn’t a book about personal politics at all – it’s just a book! In fact, Muslims, marines, politicians, and the media are all portrayed in both positive and negative lights, meaning personal politics were not at all the distraction I had anticipated. 

In short, I was wrong (insert foot in mouth here).

Click to continue…

She Was Not A Human Being – She Was An Inmate: An Insider’s View Of Natasha McKenna’s Death In Jail

natshaphoto
Dear Mr. Earley,

I am writing about Natasha McKenna and her death in the Fairfax County Detention Center. (I have provided you my contact information so you can confirm who I am and my credentials, but I ask that you withhold my name for reasons that will become obvious.)

Why was she “managed” by trained professionals in a manner that was so callous & inhumane? Why was she shocked repeatedly with a Taser while posing no serious threat to the men who had her on the floor? How were the deputies able to overlook and disregard her pathetic, desperate cries, whimpers and gasps?

How did this happen? There were six men directly involved and several others looking on, only a few feet away. Any one of them could have interrupted what was happening, but there’s no indication that anyone objected. No one said, “Put away the Taser – we don’t need it.” Nobody said, “One time with the Taser is enough!” (or two times, or three, or even four). There was no sign that anyone said, “She’s scared, this isn’t working. Let’s stop and think about a better way to get this done.” Equally important is the fact that the Lieutenant in charge didn’t stop to say, “This is going bad. I’m going to call my Captain for guidance, or my Major, or my Colonel, or the Sheriff.”

Why did this happen?

Are these men (and women) sadists? Are they sociopaths? Are they inexperienced? Are they stupid? Are they racist murderers?

I know them personally, I work with them and my answer to these questions is “No, no, no, no and no.” I’ve had conversations with them in our workplace about our kids, about our jobs, and, in some cases, we’ve shared both laughs and secrets. We are not bad people.  The deputies that did this are not much different truthfully than most of our friends and neighbors – your friends and neighbors too. We are ordinary Fairfax citizens.

So how could these deputies treat another human being this way?

Click to continue…