Comments on: U.S. News and World Report article on bed bugs

By: letter from Bedbugger reader Adam Voiland

letter from Bedbugger reader Adam Voiland — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:56:37 +0000

[…] I checked Bedbugger.com tonight to see if you had picked up the story about Fox News and bedbugs. In doing that I happened to run across your post titled “Bed bugs in almost all 58 states” that was published on June 4, 2007. It’s an interesting post, and I found the stream of comments from Lt. Dan in response particularly fascinating to read. The discussion about immigrants and bedbugs cuts to the heart of one of the dilemmas I faced in covering the bedbug story–which has received a fair amount of criticism on this blog from some of its readers–for U.S. News & World Report. [Editor’s note: Adam’s original U.S. News and World Report story on bed bugs is here, and our commentary on it is here.] […]

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 23:18:35 +0000

Just thought I’d point to a couple of extensions of this conversation in the forums, which Voiland has responded to today (one of them, anyway):

http://bedbugger.com/forum/topic/455?replies=27

and
http://bedbugger.com/forum/topic/496?replies=12

By: James Buggles

James Buggles — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:33:52 +0000

Pollack should spend a day with a PCO on bedbug jobs in Boston. That might change his outlook. And shame on Adam Voiland (or his editor) for not listing this blog despite pumping NB for information.

By: hopelessnomo

hopelessnomo — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:04:51 +0000

Yes, Nobugs, I think your interview might be represented in the advice side article. I think Bugalina has a point about the emotional stress arising from bedbugs proving to be an unwieldy subject for those who want to write about it. And Blow and Parakeets get it right about what’s wrong here. So then, why not write about the financial angle? That could be very promising and interesting and useful to the larger issues. The financial burdens and difficult issues of responsibility for landlords, tenants, hoteliers, homeowners and cities and public housing administrators would make a good story. If you can’t write about people’s suffering with compassion, why even make the attempt?

This article also suffers from “both sides” balance affliction. Come on, bedbugs are not Morgellon’s. There is no factual dispute. What on earth was George Rambo referring to? Could not Mr. Voiland have asked? One little follow-up question was beyond the precarious balance of his article? Why even set up this dull and useless conflict between those who what? think bedbugs are serious and the “no big deal” camp? True, there are people, both PCOs and entomologists, who have demonstrated contempt for bedbug sufferers, but need their crankiness be elevated in this way? This is what I meant when I said he didn’t really exert himself. He interviewed a lot of people but seems to have learned little, and imparted even less to his readers.

Luckily, a lot of what his sources said is eloquent enough. Dini Miller and Stephen Kells, for example.

Oh, and making bedbugs cute in that bloopers sidebar? Not very!

By: parakeets

parakeets — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:12:35 +0000

I think we here are vanguards in a movement of truth about bedbugs. Those who aren’t on the front lines like we are have absolutely no idea what we are facing, even if they are reporters in national magazines. I know because before I had bedbugs I espoused many of the views on bedbugs that I find abhorrent in others now. Adam Voiland’s article reflects that, even though he spent time researching and writing the article, he just “didn’t get it.” In his case I think his “not getting it” also clues us in on the current level of his journalistic skills. He posted a Boston area code. I guarantee if Mr. Voiland lives in Boston or has friends here, he will come to know this issue personally. I don’t think an author could have written the article that way if he or anyone he knew well had bedbugs.

By: BBsBlow

BBsBlow — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:42:41 +0000

I found these articles to have an obnoxious tone- almost like it’s no big deal and you’ll get great stories out of it! Hardly! Barely touched upon is the upheaval to one’s life, the cost of getting rid of one’s belongings, and the lasting psycological effects of having gone through this experience.

By: nobugsonme

nobugsonme — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:37:41 +0000

Hi Nomo,
Just to clarfiy– I did not regret talking to Adam Voiland. He was very pleasant and seemed genuinely interested and concerned about the issue.
I do imagine he got something from our conversation, I just wish the article had taken another route. I don’t doubt that the attitudes and impressions of researchers a journalist speaks to has a huge effect on the tone of these articles.
I just looked at the forum conversation you were referring to, and indeed, the anecdote he shared there was much more poignant and would have conveyed the psychological trauma of bed bugs well. I know he wanted one of us in the US to provide similar but attach a real name. That unwillingness to use pseudonyms is going to hinder research amongst many of us, unfortunately. Especially since so many bed bug articles have described bed bug sufferers as such strange creatures.

By: Bugalina

Bugalina — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:34:24 +0000

Typical of our Western thought to disconnect emotional stress from Health and well being. Dr. Pollack has never had bed bugs living in his home. This article I am afraid is yet another one that refuses to examine what devastation bed bugs are reeking on the lives of people. Until people experience bed bugs in their home. Until they feel what it is like to not be able to get into your bed because when you go into rem sleep bugs will be crawling on you, sucking your lifesblood, Until they see how Grandmothers cannot visit the homes of their grandchildren because either one is infested and there is fear of spread. Until they know that exterminations can run into the thousands of dollars, Until they know that bed bugs are costing us emotionally, physically, socially and financlally..Until they “get them” they will remain clueless. When this reporter gave the example on our blog that he was going to tell of a woman who ripped her sheets apart , I knew that his article was going to be yet another clueless one, going for the ‘cartoonishness”….We are at them mercy of extreme ignorance and extreme apathy…Dr.Pollack and others like him may have paper degrees but they are clueless…We here know the truth… For the most part this article is yet another frivolous reportage, imo.

By: hopelessnomo

hopelessnomo — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 16:23:31 +0000

Hi Nobugs-

I’m so sorry you spent so much time talking to this journalist! I also noticed the mention of the lack of allergic reaction to the bites as a plus! What inanity.

I wonder at journalists sometimes. They are totally missing the larger story. Is it a failure of imagination and empathy or something worse? This particular journalist came to the bedbugger forums to ask people to contact him with their real names. I am glad that, as far as is possible to tell, no one we know was foolish enough to share their personal stories with this guy for the record. I remember, when he came here, in support of his plea, he provided an excerpt of a personal story that he acknowledged he would not use but that was intended to encourage us to talk to him. There was nothing in the article even remotely close in tone.

Well, then. Overall, a pretty useless article, conceived of and executed with an apparent lack of mental exertion.

In some instances, like the allergic bites reference, it actually does harm.

As for Richard Pollack, I could say a lot about him (self-regarding kettle, meet grandstanding pot), but I think I’m being impolitic enough for one comment!