When I taught journalism at a community college, my final assignment was to write a piece of investigative journalism. The students had to clear the topic with me, and they had all semester to think about it.
One year one student, a mom, said she wanted to do an article on vaccines and autism.
No, I said. There is no science that supports that. ...
She insisted. So I finally said, OK, you can do it, but you have to cite credible sources. You can't base it on conspiracy websites on the Internet.
So. The end of the term came and she read her paper in class, like everyone else. When she was done, I asked her, kindly, about her sources.
Did you talk to any medical doctors?
Did you talk to the Centers for Disease Control or the American Medical Association?...
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Where did you get all this information?
From the Internet. ...
"That's not research," I said. "I told you that before you started."
She was on the verge of tears, so I stopped and called on the next student.
When class ended, I asked the mom to see me for a few minutes.
When everyone else had cleared out, I said: Pardon me for asking, but do you have an autistic child?
Of course she did. We talked for quite a while. I sympathized with her - how could I not?
I used about 30 seconds of our time to remind her that I had told her that searching the Internet for people who agree with you is not research. It's not investigation. It's something else.
People who are suffering hurt. When the suffering is great, and prolonged, they look for a reason - all right, I'll say it: They look for someone to blame.
But life's not that simple.
It's natural for parents to look for an explanation if their child is suffering. There is nothing wrong with that - even if they come up with an explanation that is wrong, and cling to it.
But there is something wrong indeed about politicians who wield immense power, and who want to wield even more, who use children's suffering, and parents' ignorance, to try to claw their way a little higher over all of us.