Better Late than Never? This Week at Baptist Press: On Pollster Bias and Autism

This week, at "Baptist Press" (BP), Kelly Boggs laid out the reasons liberal bias in the media is now, more or less, an accepted and foregone conclusion but, he didn't stop there. Media bias, wasn't the entire point this week. While he pointed to several journalists' admissions about the liberal bias that taints reporting, Boggs pointed out another area that hasn't been so forthcoming in admitting a similar bias. Polling organizations.

In "Pollsters can spin their data too," Boggs pointed out, "...a recent report on a poll conducted by Gallup organization reveals that poll takers can spin their results with the best public relations firms in the land."

After citing Obama's approval rating after his first 100 days, Boggs noted Obama's rating was not compared to past presidents' approval ratings in the same way George W. Bush's approval rating was compared to past presidents after the same time period in office.

"Gallup was careful to put Bush's first 100 days into "perspective" in an obvious attempt to downplay his positive poll numbers by comparing him to all elected presidents since Eisenhower. In fact, Gallup sought to further qualify Bush's positive poll numbers by saying, "In general, the rating a president receives early in the term are quite favorable, but decline over time." No such comparisons or qualifiers were offered for Obama's poll numbers." -Kelly Boggs, BP

Boggs also looked at the headlines after Obama's first 100 days in office, with a 56 percent approval rating, and after Bush's first 100 days in office with a 62 percent approval rating.

Obama headline:

"In First 100 Days, Obama Meets or Exceeds Expectations"

Bush headline:

"After 100 days, Bush's Job Approval Rating on Par With Previous Presidents'."

Boggs made a very good case for his conclusion. Read his conclusion and the whole article, for yourself, by clicking the story link provided above.

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Then, because I know I have at least one avid reader who has an interest in autism research, check out "God's gift of hope in a struggle with autism," written by Richard Nations. It's a heart warming story about one family's expectations of their son, who was diagnosed with asperger's syndrome, and how they got so much more than they expected.

"God promises "For I know the plans I have for you" -- [this is] the Lord's declaration -- "plans for [your] welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11 HCSB)"

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Introducing: JackeHammer's "Bullwinkle" Award

Since this is the first "Bullwinkle" Award JackeHammer has issued I want to explain from whence the term Bullwinkle comes. I'm not referring to the moose.

Furniture Factory Outlet in Springfield used to have a couple who did their commercial spots. "Earl" passed away some years ago but my favorite Earl and Edna commercial was the one in which they were behind some kind of hill, presumably in a flower garden and, I think Edna, had some gardening tools in hand. Earl, who always had trouble with names and the English language and got words confused, identified some unseen flowers as "bullwinkles." He might have meant periwinkles, who knows?

Anyway, my first Bullwinkle Award goes to Michael Savage for inadvertantly raising autism awareness. A lot of folks have spent a great deal of time discussing autism due to some controversial remarks Savage recently made on his nationally syndicated radio program, "The Savage Nation." Many of these people might not have had an opportunity to raise the issue in a public forum if not for Savage's insensitive comments.

The News-Leader has their roses and thorns. I want to stay as positive as possible, here at JackeHammer, so I only have my "bullwinkles."

Related: Apparently, much of this debate was spawned due to a research paper from 2006, written by Paul T. Shattuck, PhD of the Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin: "The Contribution of Diagnostic Substitution to the Growing Administrative Prevalence of Autism in US Special Education

More: An erratum has been published to the above Shattuck, PhD study, in the interest of disclosure I thought the link should be posted here.

More related: RealClearPolitics - Thomas Sowell - Crusades Versus Caution

Recommended Reading 25: Alternative Autism Treatments

Fringe autism treatment could get federal study

The "fringe" treatment, referred to, is chelation.

Interesting read.

Recommended Reading 12

US Autism and Asperger Association newsletter special report 041807

"NEWS RELEASE: For Immediate Release - October 1, 2007
Urine Testing Confirms Autism is Mercury Poisoning"

Hat tip: C.J.

CDC study did not look at links between autism and mercury exposure

A friend of mine sent me a link to this NBC interview of J.B. Handley, whose son was diagnosed with autism.

J.B. Handley Interview Autism & Mercury Poisoning

According to Handley:

"If you line up 100 symptoms of mercury poisoning and 100 symptoms of autism, they are exactly the same."

Handley claimed to know hundreds of children who have completely recovered from autism after undergoing Chelation therapy to remove mercury and other heavy metals from their young systems. He said the process can take up to 2 years. His son had been treated with chelation therapy for a few months and he claimed he was already seeing a lot of improvement.

The reason I think this is noteworthy is because last night I was watching KSPR News and they reported, or gave the impression (I can't remember their exact words maybe someone else who watched the broadcast yesterday at 4:30 p.m. can correct me on the details), that a new CDC study claims there is no link to autism and mercury (or maybe they said thimerosal, not sure), and went on to say something to the effect that mercury/thimerosal can even be beneficial...this is paraphrased because I wasn't able to locate information about it on their website, it might have been there, I just didn't find it.

So, I tracked down this article about the study. Here are some excerpts:

"We found no consistent pattern between increasing mercury exposure from birth to seven months and performance on neuropsychological tests," concluded the study's authors in the Sept. 27 New England Journal of Medicine....

"...the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) maintains there is no scientific evidence of such an association. And this latest CDC study did not specifically look at links between thimerosal exposure and autism. According to the study authors, a separate CDC case-control study focused on autism and mercury exposure, is currently under way."

Read the whole article. It didn't seem very convincing or authoritative to me that there is no link between autism and thimerosal (a vaccine preservative containing mercury). As a matter of fact:

"...the researchers found that boys with the highest levels of thimerosal exposure had about twice the risk of evaluator-observed tics compared to boys with the lowest exposure."

Then, Dr. Anne Schuchat, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, who wasn't involved with the study in the first place, waived it all off as "chance:"

"Each test doesn't tell us as much individually," she said. "Chance alone probably explained these findings. The totality of the results are quite reassuring."

I'd say the verdict is still out on this one folks. I wasn't very reassured after reading the article about the study.

Walk Now for Autism

I know I already posted on this yesterday but that was before Jason Wert and Amy Burnett appeared on KSGF. Listen to this pod cast from the Vincent David Jericho Show this morning and try to get out to the Walk Now for Autism event tomorrow.

From Jason's blog, Walk Now This Saturday:

This Saturday is the Walk Now For Autism event at Jordan Valley Park.Registration begins at 9am with the walk starting at 10. Families from all over the Ozarks who have children with autism will gather to raise awareness of autism and to raise money for research to help find a cure for their children.

Walk Now For Autism

Jason, of Life Of Jason, would like your support for Walk Now For Autism and has written a blog entry all about the event which will take place this Saturday, September 8.

Get all the scoop here.

He will also be on the Vincent David Jericho Show, 104.1 FM, 1260 AM, tomorrow morning (Friday) between 7:15 - 7:30.