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 Company; Ben 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.