UPDATE: National rights organization prepares for boycott, protest

UPDATE 2: Screenings postponed as premiere looms; Boycott, protests planned

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You’ve seen the trailers. Tropic Thunder, a big budget summer comedy by DreamWorks Pictures, is due out August 13. But here’s something the trailers don’t point out: Ben Stiller plays a role that leans heavily on the term “retard.”

There are those who view the word “retard” as offensive and demeaning, and think it fuels social stigma against vulnerable people. And there are others, like perhaps the R-rated film’s star, director and lead writer Ben Stiller (at left in an image from one of the studio’s marketing websites), who may think the word is inoffensive and a good complement to the film’s other gags, stunts, explosions and gross-out jokes.

Already disability advocates are registering dismay about the language on the image above — “Once upon a time … There was a retard” — and conferring about how to address it. Let’s be clear: I haven’t seen the movie, and early reviews are scant. (Click here to see what Variety and the Hollywood Reporter had to say.) Here’s what I have been able to piece together:

Tropic Thunder is a testosterone-pumped action/adventure/comedy featuring mega-stars Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black as self-absorbed actors filming a war movie on location.

Stiller is Tugg Speedman, a fading action star who earlier failed badly in his bid for Oscar glory as “Simple Jack,” a man with an intellectual disability. “Simple Jack” is featured as a film-within-a-film, with Stiller outfitted in a classic institutional bowl haircut and bad teeth. It even has its own marketing website — the slogan is “What he doesn’t have in his head, he makes up for in his heart.” A satirical plot synopsis posted there quotes a critic as saying that Speedman’s Jack was “one of the most retarded performances in cinema history.”

Downey, as the more distinguished actor, gives Speedman advice on maximizing his chance for future Oscars: “Never go full retard.”  When the actors are taken hostage by real guerrillas who turn out to be Jack fans, they force Speedman to re-enact the role for their entertainment.

(more…)

From the [UK] Telegraph, the [UK] Daily Mail, the [UK] Sun, and the [UK] Metro:

Office worker Kelly Knox, 24, who was born without a left forearm, wins the televised competition for Britain’s Missing Top Model on BBC3. Knox was subsequently awarded a Marie Claire magazine photo shoot and a modeling contract.

Promoters for the show said it aimed to change perceptions of beauty by searching for a model with a disability in an industry where people with disabilities are often excluded.

Knox was born with her condition, and decided to stop wearing a prosthetic when she was seven years old. “In my household we don’t use the word disabled. Never have done, never will do,” Knox said. “I don’t feel disabled but society will label me as being disabled.”

Marie Claire editor Marie O’Riordan said: “To get disability discussed on the sofas throughout the land is no mean feat and using a popular format of a reality show was a clever way of seducing viewers into a more complex world.

“We hope this does pave the way for girls with disabilities to get into modeling in the future.”

(Marie Claire photo in the Daily Mail)

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Reporters Alan Judd and Andy Miller of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution have been honored as Journalists of the Year by the Atlanta Press Club for their series, “A Hidden Shame,” documenting severe problems with Georgia’s mental hospitals. They also received a regional first-place investigative award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

The state’s mental hospitals are now the subject of a Justice Department investigation.

Judd and Miller’s investigation began with tips from mental health advocates and family members. Their articles, which began last year, documented a pattern of mismanagement and poor staffing that has resulted in the deaths of more than 100 patients under questionable circumstances and nearly 200 cases of patient abuse since 2002.

From the Columbus [Ohio] Dispatch:

Preparing to anchor the presidential forum on disability issues, broadcaster Judy Woodruff says her 26-year-old son Jeffrey, who has spina bifida, has opened her eyes to the way the world looks from a wheelchair.

Having somebody in the family who is disabled is a lesson every day — in humanity and how much we shouldn’t take for granted.

Jeffrey was only mildly impaired by his condition until a routine surgery at age 16 caused unexpected complications. He emerged with profound disabilities, and cannot walk or use the right side of his body. He’s now a student at a small college in North Carolina.

Woodruff is senior correspondent and 2008 political editor for The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer on PBS.

The country has come a long way since the Americans With Disabilities Act was passed in 1990. Having said that, just look around and you can see we have a long way to go. The disabled still can’t get into some places, some stores and many homes.

Of course, there’s such a wide variety of disabilities — hearing, visual, physical, a cane or a wheelchair, developmental delays. Part of what the disabled community has to do is educate society about the vast differences and that many with disabilities are perfectly capable of holding down a job and learning.

(PBS photo)

Parents see opening in reviled remarks on autism (San Jose Mercury News) Many parents of autistic kids think Savage has opened a huge public-relations door for them. “Rather than just bring attention to Savage and his idiocy, we want to use this as an opportunity to inform people and raise their consciousness about autism,” said one.

Michael Savage loses Home Depot, Sears and Budweiser in autism flap (New York Daily News) Direct Buy, Cisco and Radio Shack have also withdrawn their support, according to Autism United.

Op-ed: Stand up to those who bully the disabled (Teresa Lavinder in the Roanoke, VA, Times)

Savage refers to people with autism as “frauds” and then uses terms for these children that are reserved for the asylum dwellers of the previous centuries. These words are considered hate speech and are words most intelligent people do not allow their children to use … This discrimination occurs because we aren’t stopping it. Why aren’t local listeners standing up for our most vulnerable, sensitive citizens?

Michael Savage, at Odds With the Science (US News and World Report) Health reporter Adam Voiland questions the scientific credibility of Michael Savage’s comments about autism. Where Savage blames fathers for their children’s behavior, Voiland says the condition results from a complex interplay of genetic and environmental factors — not bad parenting.

From the New York Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer:

Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Michael Savage’s program to more than 350 affiliates, said it would not fire or suspend him over his recent comments labeling autism a “fraud.”

In its first statement since Mr. Savage’s remarks on July 16 the company said that it was “satisfied that he did not mean any disrespect to autistic children or their families but was instead reiterating his longstanding concerns on public health issues.”

Meanwhile, in Cleveland, WHK AM/1420 announced it is breaking its contract with Talk Radio Network in order to yank Savage’s show.

“This guy’s a knucklehead, and I want to get rid of him,” said Mark Jaycox, who manages the station.

See also:

• A savage attack: Right-radio wrong (By John Pittman in National Review Online)
• Savaged: A radio talk show host pulls a fast one on fans? (By David Klinghoffer in National Review Online)
• Michael Savage is ignorant about autism (By Ellenmorris Tiegerman in Newsday)

From the Wall Street Journal (registration required), Reuters:

The Wall Street Journal reports that Italian prosecutors are preparing to file charges against four Google executives over a video that showed a teen with disabilities being taunted by peers.

The 191-second video, which was shown on the Internet provider’s Italian-language site, was shot in a classroom in Turin and showed four youths making fun of the teenager and hitting him in the head with a pack of tissues, according to legal documents.

The newspaper reports that prosecutors will press charges of defamation and violation of privacy against the executives for allegedly failing to adequately control the content of the site.

Stefano Hesse, head of corporate communications for Google in southern Europe, told the newspaper there is no basis for legal action aginst the four men because they had no involvement in the video incident. He said Google removed the video within hours of being notified of its existence in September 2006.