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Thread: Woman Quite Upset Over Offensive NY Post Headline

  1. #1

    Woman Quite Upset Over Offensive NY Post Headline

    Dear XXXXXXX,

    I opened up the New York Post on Friday and was shocked and appalled to see the headline “Kids Get A Fair Shake” appearing over the story on the launch of the Sarah Jane Brain Project’s National Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury Plan. Pediatric acquired brain injury (PABI) is the #1 cause of death and disability for children in the U.S. and includes all cases of Shaken Baby Syndrome. (Click here for story)

    As a mother of a child who was shaken (my two-year-old son Christopher was shaken when he was seven weeks old) and as the Communications Director for the Sarah Jane Brain Project, the very idea that a newspaper editor would think it was clever to refer to the most devastating form of child abuse in such an offhand, callous way is beyond hurtful and unacceptable. There is no other way to define their actions other than it being an intentional mockery of the trauma children and their families suffer.

    As a former newspaper reporter myself, I know the reporter who wrote the story was not responsible for the offensive headline. However, also as a former reporter, I know the mentality of the people who do come up with newspaper headlines – to capture the audience and sensationalize the piece in order to sell newspapers. While this is of course standard practice, it is not at all acceptable when it comes to child abuse resulting in brain injury!

    I believe the New York Post should not only print an apology to Patrick Donohue, the founder of the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, and to all parents of brain-injured children for making light of such a tragic experience, but they should also devote an entire section of their Sunday edition to the first-ever National Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury Plan. If you feel the same way, please be sure to call, email or send a letter to:

    Mr. Col Allan, Editor-in-Chief
    The New York Post
    1211 Avenue of the Americas
    New York, NY 10036-8790
    Phone: (212) 930-8000
    Fax: (212) 930-8540
    Email: colallan@nypost.com

    You can also send a letter in for publication to: letters@nypost.com

    Below is the letter to the editor sent by Patrick to the New York Post. (Be sure to read it because he also speaks of our conference’s huge success!)

    Thank you all for caring so much about this very important project for the future of children’s health.

    All the best,
    Jennipher

    Jennipher Dickens
    Communications Director
    The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation
    181 Broadway – Suite 300
    New York, NY 10007
    (212) 201-0599


    To the Editor:

    I was horrified to see the headline that appeared over the story in Friday’s paper about the launch of the first-ever National Pediatric Acquired Brain Injury Plan (PABI Plan).

    Pediatric acquired brain injury is the leading cause of death and disability for children in the U.S. and is the result of traumatic causes (like: Shaken Baby Syndrome, auto accidents, sports-related injuries and blast injuries our young veterans receive during war) and non-traumatic causes (like: brain tumors, stroke, meningitis, and pediatric AIDS).

    The mission of the Sarah Jane Brain Foundation is to help the millions of children like Sarah Jane who have an acquired brain injury and the National PABI Plan is the first time a comprehensive continuum of care has been developed. This National PABI Plan was developed by over 50 of our nation’s leading pediatric brain specialists who gathered in New York City last week.

    This conference was a huge success. We have addressed all the problems and gaps existing in the current healthcare and educational system when it comes to children with acquired brain injuries, including those in prevention, acute care treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration, and the legal side of issues families may face.

    I am not certain what part of my three-year-old daughter being shaken when she was only 5 days old, breaking three ribs, both collarbones and causing a severe brain injury the New York Post thought was funny. Joking about children being shaken is not only demeaning to the admirable purpose of the organization but is horribly offensive to parents and others who know first-hand the disastrous and lifelong effects of shaking a baby. Printing “Kids Get A Fair Shake” showed extremely poor taste and inexcusably poor judgment. There are some things in life that you just should not refer to in jest, and child abuse is one of them – particularly when said abuse results in a permanent brain injury.

    I would strongly suggest the New York Post print an apology to our organization and to all parents of brain-injured children for making light of such a tragic experience.

    Furthermore, I feel additional press coverage of what we are doing to revolutionize the way brain-injured children are treated is needed. A newspaper’s purpose and responsibility is to be a portal of information to its readers and your headline was neither “energetic” nor “intelligent,” despite your self-described editorial principles.

    Over the course of the next couple of weeks, we will be posting the first draft of the National PABI Plan on our website (www.TheBrainProject.org) for the world to review and discuss. There will be a section for interested parties to leave comments, so we may integrate valid suggestions or novel ideas into the National PABI Plan.

    The launch of the PABI Plan signifies the beginning of a new era in medical history – one in which parents no longer must struggle through cumbersome bureaucracies and sticky red tape in order to get help for their children.

    Instead, once the PABI Plan is fully implemented across the country, families of children with acquired brain injuries can rest assured their children are receiving the best possible care, are being treated fairly in medical, legal and educational settings, and the most recent research is being done to help these children better rehabilitate.

    Patrick B. Donohue, Esq.
    Father, Sarah Jane Donohue
    Founder, The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation
    ..
    "He's talkin' to his gut like it's a person!!" -me
    "dumpster diving isn't professional." - angelatc
    "You don't need a medical degree to spot obvious bullshit, that's actually a separate skill." -Scott Adams
    "When you are divided, and angry, and controlled, you target those 'different' from you, not those responsible [controllers]" -Q

    "Each of us must choose which course of action we should take: education, conventional political action, or even peaceful civil disobedience to bring about necessary changes. But let it not be said that we did nothing." - Ron Paul

    "Paul said "the wave of the future" is a coalition of anti-authoritarian progressive Democrats and libertarian Republicans in Congress opposed to domestic surveillance, opposed to starting new wars and in favor of ending the so-called War on Drugs."



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  3. #2
    LOL!

    Screw them. They only love me for my wallet.

  4. #3
    I think it is stupid on both parts.

    Stupid to not think when titling the story..stupid to get upset over a title of a story.
    >Fights begin, finger prints are took, days is lost, bail is made, court dates are ignored, cycle is repeated.
    >Dear lord... please allow this dangerous combination of hair spray, bat slobber, and D.O.T. four automatic transmission fluid to excite my mind, occupy my spirits, and enrage my body, provoking me to kick any man or woman in the back of the head regardless of what he or she has or has not done unto me. All my Best, Earlie Cuyler.
    - Earlie Cuyler

  5. #4
    I used to freelance for a small local paper. They used to send me to all the stuff no one else wanted to cover. A huge chicken farm burned down, and there I was with my notebook and trusty Ni-kon camera.... Headline read: Chicken Barbecue in Morris Run.

    Editor no sense of humor. Changed it.
    "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one."
    —Charles Mackay

    "god i fucking wanna rip his balls off and offer them to the gods"
    -Anonymous

  6. #5
    That sucks!

    All of my scholarships were for journalism, broadcast journalism, and speech. Used think I wanted to be a news anchor.lol.

    I hate PC crap.. I wish that things would be written like you would talk to your friends..I swear that the papers would sale more. But, they just don't get it.
    >Fights begin, finger prints are took, days is lost, bail is made, court dates are ignored, cycle is repeated.
    >Dear lord... please allow this dangerous combination of hair spray, bat slobber, and D.O.T. four automatic transmission fluid to excite my mind, occupy my spirits, and enrage my body, provoking me to kick any man or woman in the back of the head regardless of what he or she has or has not done unto me. All my Best, Earlie Cuyler.
    - Earlie Cuyler

  7. #6
    Where in the world did these people get our email addresses?
    If God himself got off his throne, descended from the heavens, trumpetted at my door, and announced that I was wasting my time trying to get Ron Paul into the Whitehouse, I would thank him for his concern and ask him to leave me to my business. I've wasted lots of time on far less noble causes. ~RockEnds

  8. #7
    Someone sending you emails? ::
    >Fights begin, finger prints are took, days is lost, bail is made, court dates are ignored, cycle is repeated.
    >Dear lord... please allow this dangerous combination of hair spray, bat slobber, and D.O.T. four automatic transmission fluid to excite my mind, occupy my spirits, and enrage my body, provoking me to kick any man or woman in the back of the head regardless of what he or she has or has not done unto me. All my Best, Earlie Cuyler.
    - Earlie Cuyler

  9. #8
    I got that email too.
    Shaken baby syndrome is severe though. I learned it from a law & order: svu episode



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  11. #9
    You mean you didn't learn from pure common sense that it was dangerous to shake babies, and that the damages incurred from said shaking would be terrible, possibly fatal?
    >Fights begin, finger prints are took, days is lost, bail is made, court dates are ignored, cycle is repeated.
    >Dear lord... please allow this dangerous combination of hair spray, bat slobber, and D.O.T. four automatic transmission fluid to excite my mind, occupy my spirits, and enrage my body, provoking me to kick any man or woman in the back of the head regardless of what he or she has or has not done unto me. All my Best, Earlie Cuyler.
    - Earlie Cuyler

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by asimplegirl View Post
    You mean you didn't learn from pure common sense that it was dangerous to shake babies, and that the damages incurred from said shaking would be terrible, possibly fatal?
    Well I obviously know not to shake a baby. I wasn't sure of the exact type of internal damage it could inflict though. Don't worry, I have this guide:


  13. #11
    lol
    >Fights begin, finger prints are took, days is lost, bail is made, court dates are ignored, cycle is repeated.
    >Dear lord... please allow this dangerous combination of hair spray, bat slobber, and D.O.T. four automatic transmission fluid to excite my mind, occupy my spirits, and enrage my body, provoking me to kick any man or woman in the back of the head regardless of what he or she has or has not done unto me. All my Best, Earlie Cuyler.
    - Earlie Cuyler

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by MRoCkEd View Post
    Well I obviously know not to shake a baby. I wasn't sure of the exact type of internal damage it could inflict though. Don't worry, I have this guide:
    LMAO! Oh that's the hardest I've laughed all week! Thanks for that!
    "One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." -Plato



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