[Stitcher]

Making Stem Cell Issue Personal, and Political
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY
Published: October 25, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/25/ar...ch.html?ref=us

The plea is as disturbing — and arresting — as a hostage video from Iraq. In a navy blazer and preppy Oxford shirt, the actor Michael J. Fox calmly asks viewers to support stem cell research by voting for several Democratic candidates in Maryland, Missouri and Wisconsin, while his body sways back and forth uncontrollably like a sailor being tossed around in a full-force gale.

In short, Mr. Fox's display of the toll Parkinson's disease has taken on him turned into one of the most powerful and talked about political advertisements in years.

Republican strategists who saw how quickly the commercial was downloaded, e-mailed and reshown on news broadcasts certainly thought so. Rush Limbaugh rushed in to discredit Mr. Fox, though he mostly hurt himself. Mr. Limbaugh, the conservative radio talk show host, told his listeners that the actor either "didn't take his medication or was acting." Mr. Limbaugh later apologized for accusing Mr. Fox of exaggerating his symptoms, but said that "Michael J. Fox is allowing his illness to be exploited and in the process is shilling for a Democrat politician."

Republicans cobbled together a response ad that did not mention Mr. Fox but attacked the ethics of embryonic stem cell research. It included testimonials by the actress Patricia Heaton ("Everybody Loves Raymond") and James Caviezel, who played Jesus in Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ." At least in the advance version shown on YouTube last night, Mr. Caviezel's introduction seemed either garbled or to be in Aramaic.

The issue of embryonic stem cell research is divisive, but Mr. Fox is not. And that is one reason his advertisement had such resonance. He is a popular actor who played a young conservative Republican on the sitcom "Family Ties." His illness was diagnosed in 1991, but he kept it secret until 1998. In 2000, he told his fans that because of his illness, he had to quit the hit sitcom "Spin City." He founded the Michael J. Fox Foundation to advance stem cell research, lobbied Congress and made commercials to rally support for his cause.

But he has rarely looked quite as infirm. Mr. Fox was recently a guest star on several episodes of the ABC drama "Boston Legal," and, presumably thanks to medication, his symptoms there were less noticeable.

If Mr. Fox did forgo medication for the advertisement as Mr. Limbaugh suggested, it could hardly be considered fraudulent: if anything, masking the extent of the disease's ravages is the deception, not revealing them. (A spokesman for Mr. Fox said his tremors were caused by his medication.) It was certainly the most dramatic way Mr. Fox has to personalize the issue; he used his infirmity much the way the late Christopher Reeve did when he lobbied for stem cell research to seek a cure for spinal injuries.

Debate over stem cell research is especially intense in Missouri, where voters are considering a measure that would amend the state's Constitution to protect all federally allowed forms of the research, including embryonic stem cell research. Mr. Fox's words in support of the Democratic Senate candidate, Claire McCaskill, were not nearly as forceful as his condemnation of her Republican opponent.

"Unfortunately, Senator Jim Talent opposes expanding stem cell research," Mr. Fox says in the 30-second spot. "Senator Talent even wanted to criminalize the science that gives us a chance for hope."

The Talent campaign protested Mr. Fox's wording as misleading. "Senator Talent supports medical research including stem cell research that doesn't involve cloning or destroying a human embryo," said the candidate's spokesman, Rich Chrismer.

But one reason candidates rely so heavily on 30-second spots is that they appeal to visceral emotion, not reason. In the recent past, it has been the Republican advertisements that have tended to be more bold and more memorable: the Willie Horton advertisements that George Bush used against Michael S. Dukakis in 1988 or the specter of stalking wolves that his son, George W. Bush, used to make Senator John Kerry seem weak on terrorism. Democrats usually have to go back to 1964 and Lyndon B. Johnson's "Daisy" attack on Barry Goldwater to find comparably vivid ads. Until now, that is.

These are times in which most actors seem prepared to do anything, and pay any price, to disguise flaws that could harm their careers. So when a famous one exposes the full, frightening extent of his infirmity in the name of saving lives, it tends to get noticed.

[Thelma]

You know I was not a fan of Everybody loves Raymond but I did like the show till I was watching a talk show one day and they were interviewing the actor who played Raymond. I think it was Larry King and the whole cast was there as well.

Larry asked Ray if he supported the Stem Cell Research effort and Ray said the following that to this day still sticks in my mind every time I see him on the tube.

He said words to this effect. I really am not following this debate but If I have any questions I always ask my wife here pointing to his co star she knows all there is to know on this,

You should ask her not me.

I see him today and I think of all those out there who are saying the same thing. Ask someone else I don't know.

Well like our duh tv star they should take the time and learn.

[Stitcher]

The following was sent to PAN Coordinators and Representative today:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Coordinators,

The following is an article that I would encourage you to read if you have not already done so. I’m sure many of you have been following some of this on the news in recent days. I have provided the link to the article below as well as the article in full…

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15408508/

Limbaugh mocks Michael J. Fox political ad
Conservative talk show host accuses actor of faking Parkinson's disease

By David Montgomery
The Washington Post

Possibly worse than making fun of someone's disability is saying that it's imaginary. That is not to mock someone's body, but to challenge a person's guts, integrity, sanity.

To Rush Limbaugh on Monday, Michael J. Fox looked like a faker. The actor, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, has done a series of political ads supporting candidates who favor stem cell research, including Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin, who is running against Republican Michael Steele for the Senate seat being vacated by Paul Sarbanes.

"He is exaggerating the effects of the disease," Limbaugh told listeners. "He's moving all around and shaking and it's purely an act. . . . This is really shameless of Michael J. Fox. Either he didn't take his medication or he's acting."

Limbaugh, whose syndicated radio program has a weekly audience of about 10 million, was reacting to Fox's appearance in another one of the spots, for Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill, running against Republican Sen. James M. Talent.

But the Cardin ad is similar. It is hard to watch, unless, for some reason, you don't believe it. As he speaks, Fox's restless torso weaves and writhes in a private dance. His head bobs from side to side, almost leaving the video frame.

"This is the only time I've ever seen Michael J. Fox portray any of the symptoms of the disease he has," Limbaugh said. "He can barely control himself."

'A shameless statement'
Later Monday, still on the air, Limbaugh would apologize, but reaction to his statements from Parkinson's experts and Fox's supporters was swift and angry.

"It's a shameless statement," John Rogers said yesterday. Rogers, Fox's political adviser, who also serves on the board of the Parkinson's Action Network, added: "It's insulting. It's appallingly sad, at best."

"Anyone who knows the disease well would regard his movement as classic severe Parkinson's disease," said Elaine Richman, a neuroscientist in Baltimore who co-wrote "Parkinson's Disease and the Family." "Any other interpretation is misinformed."

Fox was campaigning yesterday for Tammy Duckworth, a congressional candidate, outside Chicago, when he alluded to Limbaugh's remarks. "It's ironic, given some of the things that have been said in the last couple of days, that my pills are working really well right now," he said, according to a report on the CBS2 Web site.

After his apology, Limbaugh shifted his ground and renewed his attack on Fox.

"Now people are telling me they have seen Michael J. Fox in interviews and he does appear the same way in the interviews as he does in this commercial," Limbaugh said, according to a transcript on his Web site. "All right then, I stand corrected. . . . So I will bigly, hugely admit that I was wrong, and I will apologize to Michael J. Fox, if I am wrong in characterizing his behavior on this commercial as an act."

Then Limbaugh pivoted to a different critique: "Michael J. Fox is allowing his illness to be exploited and in the process is shilling for a Democratic politician."

'Hope to millions of Americans'
Limbaugh's shock at Fox's appearance is a measure of the disease's devastation, advocates say. Contrary to the charge that Fox might not take his medicine to enhance his symptoms, the medicine produces some of the uncontrolled body movements.

"Stem cell research offers hope to millions of Americans with diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's," Fox says in the Cardin ad. "But George Bush and Michael Steele would put limits on the most promising stem cell research."

Fox has appeared in ABC's "Boston Legal" this season. In his scenes, taped over the summer, Fox does not shake or loll his head as he does in the Cardin commercial, but does appear to be restraining himself, appearing almost rigid at times.

A source with direct knowledge of Fox's illness who viewed the Cardin ad said Fox is not acting to exaggerate the effects of the disease. The source said Fox's scenes in "Boston Legal" had to be taped around his illness, as he worked to control the tremors associated with Parkinson's for limited periods of time.

Staff writer Frank Ahrens contributed to this report.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

Monica Billger
Director of Outreach
Parkinson's Action Network
1025 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite1120
Phone: (202) 638-4101 x105 or (800) 850-4726
Fax: 202-638-7257
mbillger@parkinsonsaction.org

[Stitcher]

Washington Post Cartoon today.

See "Other Syndicated Editorial Cartoons"
Click on "Carlson"...second row...left end

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...deos/?nav=left

[boann]

why ONE journalist out there hasn't either done some homework and figured out, or had someone tell them, or why, say, PAN hasn't come out and said, loud and clear:

HEY!!

first, what you are seeing is a side effect and is therefore evidence that he DID take his medication;

and second (this part is really just in my dreams), YES, what you see looks pretty harsh, and guess what - that is a side effect of the medication that is considered to be the BEST medication there is for PD, and has been considered so for 36 years - there is something wrong with this picture, right?

i simply cannot comprehend the apparent comfort with the mass misunderstanding that is currently being cemented in people's minds about what PD really looks like - cannot comprehend.

boann