Confessions of an autism mother: On MTV’s “How’s Your News?” the disabled test celebrities’ humanity

by Kathleen Byrne, NY School Examiner

As the mother of a daughter on the autism spectrum, I cringed when I heard about How's Your News?--a new MTV show in which a team of disabled reporters travels the country interviewing celebrities, minor and major, along the way. I was even more disheartened when I found out it was produced by the same people who brought us South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker.

There are some cringe-worthy moments, when, for instance, John Stamos talks with Reporter Jeremy Vest, a larger than life personality with Williams syndrome whose unbridled enthusiasm for music charms even the coolest of rock musicians. Mr. Stamos invites Mr. Vest “to chase some girls” with him one night. Mr. Vest quips that he can see himself with Cindy Crawford, but his manner is so guileless that you know viewers won’t get the joke, or that they’ll misunderstand, thinking the joke is on Mr. Vest.

That’s the real shame of How’s Your News?—a lot of the nincompoop MTV viewers out there will watch the show and laugh at disabled people. Despite this unavoidable exploitation, I believe the show depicts disabled people as in control. It cleverly exposes un-disabled people in situations where they feel out of place and alienated by having to adjust to the disabled interviewer’s point of view. Instead of the disabled person being the curiosity, the interviewee, usually a pampered and coddled celebrity, is the curiosity.

We’ve never seen a show featuring unscripted disabled people calling the shots and asking the questions. Another reporter, Bobby Bird, a 50ish man with Down syndrome, is completely incoherent while asking questions with a microphone on the red carpet at the Grammy’s. He’s definitely asking something of Will.I.am of the Black Eyed Peas, but only he and God know what. Mr. am’s handler had to break off the interview, fearing an international disabled person’s incident, but Mr. Bird was so ecstatic about getting a few words of out of the performer, the handler needn’t have feared a thing.

How’s Your News? allows mainstream America to see developmentally disabled people in a new light, one that shines on their insightful, gifted qualities of acuteness. By the end of the show, we see the reporters’ gameness and enthusiasm for whatever life brings them, a character trait surely developed and honed by the adversity of their disabilities. I confess, it’s fun to see the tables turned on celebrities--usually quite comfortable basking in the spotlight--looking out of their element in front of the camera, having no idea if they are going to be able to relate to the person asking questions of them.

In essence, the show forces celebrities to feel like a disabled person by making them take a disabled person’s point of view, and in the process, How’s Your News? exposes everyone’s humanity—ours, theirs, and the disabled reporters’.



How's Your News? airs Sunday night at 10:30pm on MTV.

Source: http://www.examiner.com/x-949-NY-School-Examiner~y2009m2d9-Confessions-of-an-autism-mother-On-MTVs-Hows-Your-News-the-disabled-test-celebrities-humanity

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