Had an interview with a journalist about vaccinations

[TrogL]

Wish I'd recorded it but here's the gist of it.

She posted in the Nextdoor app that she was interested in hearing from parents on their opinions on vaccination. I asked her to phone me.

She opened by saying that she was interested on hearing about "both sides of the issue". I immediately noted that in a fact-based world there is only one side to the issue and that anti-vaxers had "their own set of facts" and again in a fact-based world there's no such concept.

She then complained about the phrase "anti-vaxer" to which I countered with "that's the term they use to describe themselves". I went into the history of the movement, starting with Wakefield in England, whom she'd never heard of. I pointed out that I was an old man and that growing up, my next door neighbour had polio, and we got so many shots and sugar cubes with purple fluid on them (tuberculosis?) that I felt like a pin cushion and still had the crescent shaped scar on my left arm from the smallbox vaccination.

Next I addressed "Bill Gates is injecting you with microchips" again saying that I'm an old man, was involved with chips from the beginning and that they're NOT going to fit down a needle, get over it, it's a fact.

She said she wouldn't be able to include all my comments in article and asked for a summary. I repeated that in a fact-based world, there is no "other side" to the issue based on reality.

I subscribe to the newspaper and know the editor. If the article is as bad as I think it's going to be. I'm going to demand a rebuttal.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I think you scored some important points, my dear TrogL!

She rather sounds like an anti-vaxxer herself.

I'm pretty sure her "article" will be just as bad as you think it will be, and I hope your response will blister her backside!

[nilram]

2. That's awesome. Please post a link to DU when/if the article gets published.

[Karadeniz]

3. You were perfect!!!

[Rhiannon12866]

4. Great job! Thanks so much for taking her on and please get back to us with your follow up!

[LisaM]

5. I've seen those requests.

I always suspected.they were courting right-wing opinion.and now I am sure of it

[ProfessorGAC]

6. Well Done!

And, demand that rebuttal if it comes to it!

[ShazzieB]

7. Please share the link here when the article appears!

No matter how bad (or how good) it is, I definitely want to read it.

Good work, btw. You did your best. If that reporter was too stupid to get it, it won't be your fault.

[SheltieLover]

9. This!👆

[calimary]

8. EXCELLENT!

When I was still working, I found it troublesome that there would inevitably be one reporter in the press junket who'd sit back with a cocky look on his face (it was always a guy), and "play Devil's advocate." Which I always thought of as bullshit posturing. It more often than not meant the "Devil's advocate" was merely grandstanding, trying to dominate the discussion, always trying to provoke, and routinely attempting to gobble up our time with a follow-up question. SO IRRITATING!!! Just another shameless showboater craving attention.

I always suspected the motivation. Somebody starts in on that crap and I'd immediately assume they were showing off for a potential employer or job opening - since most of the participants were part of big stations, networks, and syndicators. I never saw that strategy pay off - at least during the years I was working.

[MLAA]

10. Can't wait for you to post the article!

[Maru Kitteh]

11. EXCELLENT work! Keep us apprised please?

I really am looking forward to hearing how this turns out.

[Ford_Prefect]

12. I wouldn't hire 1/2 the "journalists" I've heard and seen in the era since W.

Many of them are incompetent writers, have no background beyond several acting classes, and appear to think that reporting involves essentially parroting whatever is handed out in the press release, or the prepared video, or the cued sound bites provided by the speaker.
They have no awareness of historical or cultural context, let alone a grasp of the reality most Americans actually live with (rather like much of Congress). They also seem to possess no idea how to ask follow-up questions or hold an interview of substance (not one dictated by the subject's handlers).
It is a clichéd cheap shot that many of them seem to have no more depth than the haircuts and make-up, but then far too many of them manage to live up to that characterization, both A-list network stars and lesser lights.
I can only imagine what manner of creature I would find at the editorial desk.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. The sugar cube was the Sabin polio vaccine.

NOT tuberculosis, which is strictly an injection. As is every other vaccine, other than the Sabin polio one, which is the sugar cube.

We really did not get that many shots growing up, not compared to today. We had smallpox, polio, DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, and tetanus) I believe, remembering various posts, you are a bit older than I am, and I'm 73. We all got chickenpox, measles, mumps, rubella, and in rare cases fifth disease. Well, maybe not so rare, but I'd never heard of it until my son got it in about 1984.

It is concerning that the journalist had never heard of Wakefield. I wonder what kind of a journalist she really is.

[erronis]

15. My grandfather worked with Sabin on that vaccine (Rockefeller I.)

Travel to many countries south of the equator and expect to get a bunch of additional shots.

Wakefield is a model for the anti-vaxxers nowadays. It took a tremendous effort by real scientists to debunk his shit.

But still the ignorant will flock to the preachers....

[AZ8theist]

18. Plus:

You have to be some kind of stupid to get your medical advice from a former Playboy Bunny:

https://www.jennymccarthybodycount.com/

(Too bad this site was not maintained....)

[erronis]

14. Just wondering how you knew this "reporter" was legit. There's an awful lot of phishing going on.

A gent from my local town's police department phoned asking for a donation.

I explained that my town doesn't have any police. Pivoted to the county sheriff's department. Nope, not in my state.

As we age (not you dear TrogL) we can get suckered.

My father lost a very valuable signed book because someone sweet-talked him into letting him have it for scanning - never to be returned.

We are all vulnerable. And they keep on coming.

Damn repuglicons!

[TrogL]

25. Her original request was in a public forum

The editor is a member. If it was bogus it would have been shut down.

[Evolve Dammit]

16. Nicely done! Hear hear. They can't handle the truth.

[AZ8theist]

17. You are ABSOLUTELY WRONG about microchips!!

They ARE BEING INSTALLED!!

They just use a different needle:

[grantcart]

19. The informed debate over the efficacy of vaccines is over.

Now the only debate is whether someone understands what numbers represent and mean.

[Meowmee]

20. Good job

I hope the paper lets you write and prints a rebuttal.

[Lasher]

21. This reminds me of a push poll.

[live love laugh]

22. "Journalist"???!!!!! That's no journalist.

[Moebym]

23. Good on you for pushing back on that nonsense.

One mind at a time.

[Tommymac]

24. Sounds like she is a propagandist, not a journalist. nt

[halfulglas]

26. Sounds like this reporter thinks she's already "done her own research"

And was just going to you for some quotes. It will be interesting how she frames your facts. Yes, definitely stay on top of this to see what she does with this.

[TrogL]

27. The paper showed up today. No article.

I'm wondering if saner heads prevailed.