ABC News (GMA) confuses type 1 and type 2 diabetes - again
Today's Good Morning America program had a segment on cutting the risk of Type 2 diabetes.But they forget to point out exactly WHICH type of diabetes (there are 3 main types) they were talking about. Has ABC forgotten to check even the BASIC facts?
It seems that US news media constantly makes the mistake. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes but it's NOT the only one.
Folks, like myself, with type 1 diabetes are then told by folks that we are to blame for our disease. Or that we can 'prevent' it by simply exercising.
What's even worse is that they tried to cover up their mistake by changing the associated text piece to make it clear there they were talking about type 2 diabetes.
I wish they'd consider doing a real piece on type 1 diabetes.
Maybe they could talk about how this disease is being treated in essentially the same way it was when insulin was first extracted in 1922. Or how this disease is sometimes treated as a disability by companies when they're hiring, but then not treated as a disability for the purposes of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
I'd love to see Good Morning America actually talk about the mistake they made and then combine it with a story about type 1 diabetes and its tolls and costs.
Come on ABC News let's have some real coverage of this serious disease.
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posted by Bernard @ 10:07 PM
7 Comments:
Why should ANYONE feel shame or blame for their disease - whether it be a type of diabetes or anything else? Why should that feeling be limited to type 1?
In your fight to make type 1 known (and yes, there's education to be done), you and others have ostracized those of us who have type 2 and are trying to fight off the stereotypes of our condition.
As you know, this house holds both types. There is no distinction here. I'm struggling to lower my A1C every much as my husband.
If you've been surprised on why my voice is quiet on type 1 awareness, this is why.
talesofmy30s thanks for bringing this up.
I'd love to hear more from you about how asking for the media to specify which disease they're talking about is ostracizing folks with type 2. That certainly is not my intention.
I think all types of diabetes are being misrepresented in various ways. I'd like to see the mediad distinguish between the various forms of diabetes and get much more factual in their reporting.
4 types of diabetes - not 3
don't forget me.
I changed the text version. I understand it started just as bad.
Part of the reason for the change mey be the folks over at CWD. The Parents Forum was buzzing about this yesterday. CWD's parents forum is one of the more active web boards.
http://forums.childrenwithdiabetes.com/showthread.php?t=18990
How can we expect the media to make such a distinction, when the American Diabetes Association has worked so hard to blur the distinctions?
Let me add that the medical profession also shares some blame for this. Instead of being treated by endocrinologists, here's a radical idea -- maybe type 1 patients should be treated by immunologists instead. Rather than treating the symptoms of the disease, perhaps we should consider treating the disease itself?
Can we write them letters, something??! The lack of distinction between all types of diabetes is such a problem. It is not that I'm being the whiny type 1 diabetic who doesn't want to be grouped with type 2 diabetics, nor that I am discounting the efforts of type 2 diabetics... it's that the two diseases are very different and deserve the distinction. I think that, although Type 2 diabetes is the type most frequently discussed in the media, there are still misconceptions about it as well. If they are idiotic enough to still not differentiate, then I don't put it past the media to (inadvertently, perhaps) create stereotypes about Type 2 Diabetics. I think that sometimes we are frustrated by the fact that the misconceptions about Type 2 Diabetes, and the facts that do not apply to t1 diabetes, are projected onto Type 1 diabetics because there is no distinction made and we can tend to come off like we are, in fact, ostracizing type 2 diabetics. There is so little said about T1 Diabetes in the media that I think we are also upset by the wide coverage of type 2 diabetes without distinction, coupled with the fact that type 1 diabetes is rarely discussed and so the general public sometimes appears to have no other knowledge, besides the crap they hear on the news.
Once, I was talking to a friend who asked me about my weekend plans. I told him I was possibly going to meet up with some diabetic friends, he asked me "What do you guys do, hang out and talk about how fat people ruin your lives?"
He was referring to type 2 diabetics, and distress I had expressed at the media associating diabetes with obesity as a main factor and failing to mention any type, or any other cause. I was sorry that my annoyance had ever been interpreted in this way, and I promptly told him that NO- We don't hang out and complain about "fat people ruining our lives" (also that I was quite offended he would think so). Then I went on to explaining that obesity doesn't mean type 2 diabetes, and vice versa- and that it is not always preventable. No one deserves blame, at all. The media fails to mention that, as well.
He also then told me that "diabetes was all I seemed to do with my life" but that is another story.
Yup.....all us overweight type 1's just bring it on ourselves right....I guess when I was 1, I should have been working out more....Peace, Bob
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