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RETURN
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OF CONTENTS
March - April
1999
Media
Watch
Thanks to those who have been working
with the media to increase
awareness of CFIDS. This update shows the success we’re having, and responses by the CFIDS Public Relations
(CPR) Team to particularly positive or troublesome reports. Please clip articles about CFIDS, note
the name and date of the publication, and send to CPR Team, PO Box 220398, Charlotte NC 28222-0398.
Send a note to that address or E-mail to kphopkins@cfids.org
to join the team.
CPR Team Impact! January 1999, "Today" on NBC TV, "The
Late Show with David Letterman" on CBS TV. In promotional appearances for his new book, Why Not Me?,
comedian Al Franken joked about CFIDS as a euphemism for depression. Following a great CPR Team response,
Franken apologized and improved his public statements. Here’s an excerpt from a response he sent to a
number of letter writers:
"Thank you for your E-mail regarding my regrettably confusing and misleading statements
about chronic
fatigue syndrome. ... I have received a tremendous number of E-mail’s and faxes from hurt and angry people.
I’m very sorry and embarrassed. Since my mistake, I have learned more about CFS and understand better
than ever that CFS is a very real and often incapacitating disease. In subsequent recountings of the book’s
storyline I have made it clear that CFS and depression are not the same thing."
CPR Team Impact! Thanks for all your letters in response to the recent
Wall Street
Journal editorial. Your letters have been powerful testimony to the reality of CFIDS; ultimately,
they will help change opinions.
Feb. 23, 1999, Los Angeles Times. Prominent feature
on pianist Keith Jarrett, nominated for a Grammy Award, on the eve of his second performance since becoming
sick with CFIDS. The article focuses on his illness, which it portrays very seriously. A similarly sensitive
review followed the concert, and on Feb. 28, the San Francisco Chronicle published a feature
story on Jarrett, again forcusing on his illness. In that article, Jarrett is quoted saying, "No one knows
how debilitating this sickness is unless they have it. It’s stupid to call it chronic fatigue syndrome.
It should be called the forever dead syndrome."
Feb. 22-24, 1999, CNN and numerous television,
radio and newspaper reports. National news coverage of encouraging results from a study of NADH at Georgetown
University (see article this issue).
Feb. 8 and 9, 1999, WCBS
TV in New York. Two-part evening news report featured a New Jersey teen-ager’s struggle with CFIDS and
an interview about Ampligen.
January, 1999, Australian television. Advertisement for Shell Shops,
convenience stores at Shell gas stations, made light of CFS. Activists quickly pointed out the offensive
nature of the ad to the Shell public affairs office, which killed the advertisement and issued an apology.
Way to go, Aussie PWCs!
Jan. 27, 1999, "Extra," FOX TV. Brief report highlighted CFIDS in children,
focusing on a high school student being treated by Dr. Michael Goldberg, who presented the view that a
virus causes the illness and poses the threat of brain damage. Dr. Goldberg’s web site is www.neuroimmunedr.com,
where a bulletin board accepts questions.
Jan. 16, 1999, "Today, Weekend Edition," NBC TV. Report
by Donnica L. Moore MD on women’s health and the post-holiday blues included a mention of CFIDS as being
among the serious conditions that are too often overlooked.
Nov. 17, 1998, WCBS-TV, New York, "CBS
This Morning." Local report on Dr. Richard Bruno at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey, who treats children
with CFIDS.
Nov. 10, 1998, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. "Silent Suffering," by Robin Hodson.
Describing CFIDS and fibromylagia through the stories of Alaska residents with the illnesses.
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