'Hannah Montana' diabetes episode is yanked

With juvenile diabetes an ever-rising threat to our nation's kids, it's good to know the Disney Channel this week yanked an episode of Hannah Montana slated to run Sunday that dealt with the disease, thanks to comments from parents who watched an on-demand version.

The New York Daily News says the show dealt with Miley Cyrus' pal Oliver, played by Mitchel Musso, being diagnosed with diabetes. Despite the show having an upbeat message, a spokeswoman told the paper the storyline was of concern to some parents, without specifying exactly what they said about it.

"During the scriptwriting stage of the Hannah Montana episode in question (entitled No Sugar, Sugar), the matter of depicting a character with diabetes was reviewed by our Standards and Practices executives who consulted with medical experts to inform the story and ensure that it was told responsibly," the source said. "Notwithstanding the measures we took, and based on the episode's preview and early feedback from parents (who saw it on SVOD and/or mobile platforms), we removed the episode from Sunday's schedule and are now reevaluating it."

While the corn syrup lobbyists no doubt found some way to get this killed, we absolutely cannot see what could have happened that would cause overprotective parents to want the episode booted. Maybe they were too busy destroying their children's little pancreases with soda pop and fast food to live in the real world.

[Photo: AP]

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Comments

[Kaylee aka avril5wood2]

i dont think they should have yanked the episode it was very helpful to younger children who would have watched it

[Modern Mom]

O.K. Dan, you deserve this. The next time you have a thought...keep it to yourself. Or at least before you open your mouth educate yourself before you spew ignorance.

My daughter has Type 1 diabetes. She was diagnosed 6 years ago at the age of 7 and she weighed a whopping 40 pounds. Since then she has had over 24,000 pokes to her skin between her checking her blood sugar and received 4 shots a day....all to stay alive. This is a grueling disease and it is a result of an auto-immune response. To simplify for you, somewhere in my daughter's young life she got a cold or flu and when her body's defense system tried to fight it it killed the cells in her pancreas that are responsible for creating insulin. She nor I did anything to cause it. If the show depicted otherwise then shame on them and for the sake of the children with this incurable and unpreventable disease I'm glad they pulled it. It sounds as if it had nothing to do with kids being too pampered to see it. It sounds more like ignorant people like you wrote it.

Where is Mr. Rogers when we need him? I'll bet he did a show on diabetes. Maybe it can be rescued.

[G.I. Joe]

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

[AC]

Parents who previewed it tell the real reason Disney yanked Hannah Montana’s episode about diabetes

http://www.examiner.com/x-264-Celebrity-News-Examiner~y2008m11d7-Parents-who-previewed-it-tell-the-real-reason-Disney-yanked-Hannah-Montanas-episode-about-diabetes

When you’re wrong, you’re wrong. In an earlier report, we told you that Miley Cyrus objected to the Disney Channel pulling a Hannah Montana episode about diabetes that was to air this Sunday.

Disney did not reveal the specific objections of the parents who previewed the show.

Thankfully one of our readers was among those parents and she was gracious enough to explain why they objected. Here is her full comment:

The parents objected to the following:

1) Misinformation about Type 1 Diabetes. The entire show focused on Miley stopping Oliver from eating sugar. Children and adults with type 1 diabetes CAN eat candy — they simply take insulin to match what they eat. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, MS. Children with type 1 have done nothing to cause this — their bodies have simply attacked themselves.

2) Eating a lot of sugar does not cause type 1 diabetes. Oliver, the character with diabetes, was portrayed as a sugar loving fiend — at one point falling into a garbage barrel to get a half eaten and discarded candy bar.

3) Miley called Oliver “sugar boy.”Imagine a character in a wheelchair being called “wheelie boy” or ‘cripple boy”. It just isn’t funny, is it?

4) The show never mentioned Oliver checking blood sugar (children with type 1 typically check blood sugar by finger stick up to 10 times per day) or injecting insulin (children usually need 4 or more shots a day — every time they eat — or wear insulin pumps which continuously give them insulin throughout the day).

Type 1 diabetes is a serious medical condition. The parents who objected to this episode applauded Disney for their attempt to bring Diabetes education to the forefront but completely rejected the message that they served up. Considering that Hannah Montana is seen by many school children every day, we felt that this message was a dangerous one to promote. I certainly would not be happy if a fellow classmate of my young child called him “sugar boy”.

We thank Disney for pulling this episode. We also were in touch with the medical expert who consulted on this episode and his feeling was that his “consultation” was not reflected accurately in the script.

I’m sure my statements do not mean much to most people, but to the millions of children who have Type 1 diabetes it means the world that this hateful and damaging misinformation will not be aired.

Your statements mean the world to us, Michelle. Thank you so much for informing us about the true nature of this disease that affects so many of our children.

[Cara]

The complaint from the parents wasn't the fact that the show was about diabetes. On the contrary, most of us with diabets or that have children with diabetes, are thrilled at the thought of awareness for the disease. However, if you had seen the previewed episode (like many of us did), and you know someone with Type 1 diabetes, you would have seen the misinformation the show was presenting.
The show never addressed the fact that children with diabetes need to check their blood sugar levels (sometimes upwards of 12 times per day), and spent most of the episode trying to keep all forms of sugar away from Oliver. Diabetic children can have sugar in moderation (as any child should have sugar) as part of a healthy meal plan.
Also, at one point, Oliver is refered to as "Sugar-boy". As an adult who grew up with, and still lives with type 1 diabetes, I can assure you that the taunts of "Sugar-girl" would have hurt my feelings. I got called "druggie" many times.
The show could, and should, be presented in an informative and knowledgeable way.
They could start by following around a kid with diabetes for a day. And then let them write the show.

[AR]

It's amazing how ignorant people are about things. Most parents of children with type 1 diabetes do all that can be done to educate and work toward finding a cure. Our children are just as unfortunate in this diagnosis as those who get cancer or other similar horrific diseases, except there is no cure like there is with most childhood cancers. There wasn't anything that could be done to prevent it, stop it or change it. We hope someday we will be able to change that and even be able to have a cure for it.

My son was 2.5 years old when he was diagnosed and takes 5 insulin shots a day and has his blood sugar levels checked 10-12 times a day - just to survive and hopefully live to see tomorrow. Everyday is a risk that something might go wrong, every shot could be either too much or not enough insulin depending on some many other factors like growth, weather, exercise, illness, etc. His little fingers look like they have been used as a seamstress' pin cushion, because they basically have without the seamstress. He was nursed for at least a year, didn't eat solids before the doctor said he could, ate healthy and still does as his favorite snacks are fruits and his favorite foods at meals are vegetables. He plays sports, exercises daily, and is all around a good kid. He even finds a way to be a friend to someone else who may be less fortunate than him or just bullied by others.

Dan - I guess you are the definition of what pathetic really is. When Disney aired the show done by Nick Jonas telling the world how he gets through his life dealing with diabetes, we made sure to watch it at home. It was really great for my son, now 6, to feel less alone in dealing with this disease.

Get the facts or shut your pie hole. And, just in case you didn't know, eating pie or drinking soda DO NOT cause type 1 diabetes. But, opening that same hole where the pie and soda go can show sheer stupidity.

[CrazyIvan]

Jodie -- What you're saying is all true. BUT -- We are seeing a significant upswing of type 2 in children and, as you know type 2 IS mostly related to lifestyle.

[jodie]

In your relentless pursuit of good snark, you illuminate your own ignorance.

Maybe, just maybe, parents of kids with diabetes had a problem with the episode's depiction of the disease as a consequence of too much "soda pop and fast food." Type 1 diabetes IS NOT CAUSED BY OVER-EATING!! It is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system kills the insulin producing beta cells in the pancreas. We don't really know what causes it, but it is partially genetic. Unfortunately, many ignorant people assume all diabetes is of the Type 2 variety, in which the insulin producing beta cells die off as a result of working too hard to overcome insulin resistance in the body, which is also genetically inherited. While there may be a lot of hand wringing currently about an increase in juvenile Type 2 diabetes, Type 1 is still the more common variety in children.

Many parents of Type 1 children face a daily struggle against assumptions and blame from others who know nothing about the nature of diabetes. As a result of these never-ending insults, they (we) tend to get pretty offended when they see yet another completely inaccurate depiction of their child's disease in the popular media. (for example, your column.)

Thanks for contributing yet again to the ongoing stigma incorrectly associated with both forms of this chronic disease.

[Dan]

Ha, in the 1970s and 80s we had "very special" episodes of kids' shows dealing with everything from AIDS to cancer.

Today's kids are too pampered and isolated to even hear about DIABETES?!

Pretty pathetic, modern moms and dads.