Dear ABC,

I was happy to see that you’ve printed “Ten Myths About Autism” on the Health section of your website this morning, especially myth #2 (“There is an autism epidemic”) and myth #3 (“Autism can be cured”).

These are, of course, ideas that were disproven by the medical community many years ago. Still, my first instinct is to say “better late than never” and give you a nice pat on the back for finally disseminating the truth to your online readers.

But it’s just too hard for me to forget when your network, via the Oprah Winfrey show (you know, the one with a daily audience of 7.4 million Americans?), allowed pseudo-celebrity Jenny McCarthy to put forth the very myths that you so aptly dispelled in today’s article.

[Update: Since publishing this post I've discovered that the Oprah Winfrey Show is now a syndicated program, not under the production umbrella of ABC.  Still, it's disconcerting that a viewer watching Oprah on ABC would find starkly different information on ABC.com...]

Let’s take a look at exactly what Jenny said…

(Fast forward to 3:28 for the beginning of her rant, which explains first that she learned everything she knows about autism from the “University of Google.”)

“Autism is reversible.”
“Guess what everybody? There are many recovery stories.”

Later in the interview (as she did later on Larry King Live, too), she goes into the whole vaccine nonsense.

I’d like to get the truth on ABC television, and thus support the campaign started by Every Child by Two to get vaccine experts on the Oprah show!

Sincerely,
Ginny Hughes

PS–Love Grey’s!