Krauthammer's Put-Down of Christopher Reeve

It's no news to Kosmopolitans that Charles Krauthammer raises douchebaggery to new and exquisite heights.  What may be new is his snipe at Christopher Reeve in this New Yorker profile of Reeve from last year:

"Some critics attribute his words to a state of denial; others have been more caustic, calling him a spoiled celebrity who raises false hopes. The columnist Charles Krauthammer, who is wheelchair-bound and has a medical degree, wrote an angry appraisal of Reeve after the actor appeared in a television commercial touting advances in spinal-cord research; the ad used computer imagery to make it appear as if Reeve could walk again. Calling the ad 'disgracefully misleading,' Krauthammer wrote, 'In Reeve's view, reality is a psychological crutch. His propaganda to that effect undermines those--particularly the young and newly injured--who are struggling to face reality, master it and make a life for themselves from their wheelchairs.'"

Douche.  Bag.

Good night, Mr. Reeve.  Thanks for being super.

•  aoeu

  The man is clearly full of hatred and vitriol.  He should be released from his jobs until he can get a handle.

  by TealVeal on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 03:07:33 AM PDT

•  nothin but

  a right wing extremist nutcase that have been bashing dems for years. a-hole!!!

  by terrond on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 03:09:54 AM PDT

•  Charles Krauthammer

  Wields his psychological degree with 0% integrity.  None.  

  by daria g on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 03:36:33 AM PDT

•  Krauthammer's Time editorial on stem cell

  research was disgusting.  He apparently, would rather spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, rather than cede to the immoral stem cell possibilities.  

  How is it moral to create life, for assisted fertilization purposes, only to leave some embroyos to be frozen forever?  As long as you don't use them for humanitarian purposes, you're on high moral ground?  He disgusts me.

  by 2lucky on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 03:38:58 AM PDT

  •  And

    If what I remember from a google search a while back still holds true -

    Krauthammer is a Bush appointee to his council on bioethics!

    I remember thinking this odd, since bioethics is a narrow field of ethics.  And a psychiatrist (even non-practicing) who 'diagnoses' political figures, namely Al Gore, in public without any personal knowledge is not just a bitter partisan hack - he is also violating medical ethics of the American Psychiatric Assoc.  So the guy gets general medical ethics wrong, yet he is the president's go to guy on bioethics?

    by Mod Cur on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 04:16:22 AM PDT

    •  Bush's bioethics committee

      Is a collection of uber-partisan hacks, some considered "bioethicists" and others not.  No surprise at all that Krauthammer is on there.  What, and you thought that a bioethics committee might respect science over psuedo-religious ethical fiat?  Nah, not in Bushworld.

      by Categorically Imperative on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 06:01:36 AM PDT

•  Krauthammer's Time editorial on stem cell

  research was disgusting.  He apparently, would rather spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, rather than cede to the immoral stem cell possibilities.  

  How is it moral to create life, for assisted fertilization purposes, only to leave some embroyos to be frozen forever?  As long as you don't use them for humanitarian purposes, you're on high moral ground?  He disgusts me.

  by 2lucky on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 03:39:07 AM PDT

•  i don't agree.

  i don't care for krauthammer's point of view in general, but i think as someone who is wheelchair bound he was probably quite sincere and speaking out based on his own experience. does that make him right? not necessarily. but it's possible to have two divergent points of view in a situation like this and for both of them to have merit. too bad krauthammer, who is supposed to be a psychiatrist, is apparently so caught up in his own struggle with his disability that he was unable to realize that.

  by yankeedoodler on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 03:39:41 AM PDT

•  News

  Didn't realize Krauthammer is in a wheelchair.

  Suddenly I imagine the fate of O.J. Simpson at the end of Naked Gun.

  by lennywick on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 03:49:01 AM PDT

  •  Took me a minute, but, funny. n/t

    by 2lucky on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 03:54:43 AM PDT

•  So...

  Krauthammer is basically saying, "Stop hoping for a cure and deal with it." Nice. People can master and make a life for themselves from their wheelchairs AND still hope for a cure one day. Either Krauthammer is heartless or just not good at multi-tasking with his brain.

  Maybe we should of said that to all those people dying of smallpox..."Stop hoping...deal with it."

  and POOF! what do you know the invention of the small pox vaccine.  

  by Modest Mouse on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 04:08:12 AM PDT

•  I dunno

  You're totally correct that Krauthammer is a total douchebag.  The fact that he still has a job despite all sorts of lapses in both his career as a psychiatrist and a pundit speaks eloquently to how fucked up our media is.

  But I can see his point when it comes to that commercial.  Hope is a beautiful thing, but false hope can be incredibly corrosive.  That's particularly true after a major life-changing event like paralysis.  99% of Reeve's work focused on moderate advances in his own condition and investment in technologies (like stem cells) which promised the hope for great results at some far-off date.  These were very important efforts and really provided hope for many, many people.

  But the commercial that showed Reeve walking again and implied that treatments for spine damage were just around the corner could be seen as very cruel.  Reeve himself obviously knew that was an exaggeration at best; any technology that could really produce a "cure" for his condition was still years, if not decades, away.  But can't you just see some recently paralyzed kid watching that commercial and rekindling hopes which dashed his ability to come to terms with his new condition?

  I know it sounds heartless, but in a situation like that it's far more important to help a person accept their condition than to hold out some false hope for a far-off cure.  I think most physicians and medical ethicists would agree with me.  So in this case I don't think the Krauthammer was being quite the douchebag he usually is.

  by ChicagoDem on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 04:15:47 AM PDT

  •  By the way...

    Here's a very moving article by Reeve himself about his struggle to regain some limited function.  It's a great article and I hope you all read it.  But even Reeve, the sunniest optimist on this issue, admitted this:

    You don't want to give anyone false hope, though. If it's a terminal case, it may be appropriate to prepare the family by saying the patient won't live more than six months. But doctors should be very judicious when they make these sorts of statements. There are a lot of people who prove them wrong.

    Sometimes telling a person that they're likely to get better when it's actually very unlikely is the cruelest thing you can do.

    by ChicagoDem on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 04:21:08 AM PDT

  •  Krauthamer, douchebag, but with a valid point

    I agree with ChicagoDem.

    I know that there are many disability activists who were not pleased with Reeves' activism for a future cure instead of fighting for disability rights in the here and now.
    Here is a quite from a new web site for the disability community...

    
    http://newswatch.sfsu.edu/journal/winter2002/110402top10.html
       ""When people listen to what Christopher Reeve is saying, instead of getting on with their lives, they wait for something that may never happen," Denver disability activist Carolyn Linnell told Rocky Mountain News reporter Bill Scanlon. Medical experts pretty much insist that while Reeve regained some movement it does not signal much more than increased fitness; it's not a prelude to walking. In any case, the therapy equipment Reeve gets -- much of it free to the celebrity -- is far beyond the budgets of most people with spinal cord injuries. Insurance usually won't pay for motorized wheelchairs, much less the $15,000 electrical stimulators or therapy sessions Reeve's regimen requires. "

    
    Reeves' is not Superman to many disability rights activists although he played a damn good one in the movies.
    Here is a google page with lots more about the view of Reeves from the disability rights community.
    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=christopher+reeve+%2B+disability+rights+activists&spell =1
    Krauthamer has more of a leg to stand on (excuse the pun) with this than his usual pundidiocy.

    My 2¢.

    by TexasVegan on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 04:52:41 AM PDT

    •  I dunno

      If you read that New Yorker piece, it makes it clear that Reeve's pig-headedness allowed him to bug the crap out of the research community to quit dithering around with bench research and coordinate their efforts toward real treatments.

      Deborah Norville's show was devoted to Reeves tonight, and the neurologist from Rutgers said Reeves had changed his thinking to where he could actually start to consider the word "cure."

      Another guy mentioned in the New Yorker had some ideas about exercise, and Reeve nudged him into opening a clinic, where he's now working with 40 patients, and is starting a pediatric program.

      Look, it takes all kinds. I don't see how it's anybody's business what another person does with his time and energy. Everybody has their windmill to tilt at. Reeve did a lot of important work toward finding a cure for spinal cord injury, and that work will one day bear fruit.

      by hamletta on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 05:25:55 AM PDT

      •  Let's not fall into...

        ...a false dichotomy. Disability activism includes "acceptance" issues as well as aggressive medical research and trial treatments. You can before strongly for both, as I'm sure Reeve was.

        His death touched my cynical heart much more than I expected. What a courageous, admirable soul.

        by Tropicana on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 06:07:49 AM PDT

    •  Disagree

      As someone with three friends in chairs, I take exception to that.   Chris Reeve was fighting for the sort of support that people with less life-limiting injuries badly need, but do not always get.  Reeve's very high spinal fracture always made his outcome problematic, at best.  That he enjoyed the quality of life that he did, and used the last nine years of his life so productively, is a testament to his character, and importantly, to that of his family.  My respect for his wife is enormous.  That said, within their means, and as their circumstances permit, the families of all spinal cord victims are equally heroic.  In Reeve's case, they took the injunction that, "To whom much is given, much is expected", and God do I honor them for that!

      In regard to Krauthammer's call for resignation, acceptance, moving on and learning to love the chair...   we did not need another spokesperson for that point of view.  THAT is conventional wisdom.  What was needed was someone to shake things up, to speak about subjects that medical science had lost the will to pursue aggressively.  What Reeve asked them to do was to take on the challenge, as surely as the US took on the task of putting a man on the moon;  that is, to set a seemingly impossible goal, then to work to make the impossible possible.

      I cannot comment on the agony of Charles Krauthammer's life, or how he feels about "what might have been" in his life.  Given the rage and anguish he must feel, indeed that we would feel in his place, his response to Reeve is understandable.  I can understand that to Krauthammer it seemed like to much hot air, so much a personality-cult response to disability.  Those are fair points, but that is often how life is:  the right things get done for the wrong reasons.

      by arthura on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 10:55:43 AM PDT

•  If Reeves Had Been A Republican,

  Or had he been an enthusiastic war supporter and/or Likudnik, Krauthammer would have showered him with praise for being such an inspiring figure, who gave him hope he might one day walk again.

  He's a partisan hack with no credibility.

  "L'enfer, c'est le GOP!" - JJB, from an idea by oratorio

  by JJB on Tue Oct 12, 2004 at 06:54:27 AM PDT