Letter from Clive Dorman to Channel 4 about Bringing Up Baby

I have this elsewhere on the site as an original letter in pdf form. This is the text of that letter...

Hamish Mykura
Head of History, Science & Religion
Channel Four Television
124 Horseferry Road
London
SW1P 2TX

17th May 2007

Dear Hamish
BRINGING UP BABY / CLAIRE VERITY
You may recall our having email correspondence about the above show (22.11.06), and sending me reassurances that safeguards are in place to protect both babies and the families of those involved.

In view of Corinne Abrams feature in May 12’s Sun Newspaper, and reports that Claire Verity is involved with the show, I must formally ask for further reassurances.

I do need something more detailed than you have so far offered. We and our colleagues count amongst some of the world’s most widely respected researchers and experts in child development and welfare. I don’t believe it can be acceptable for you to dismiss us simply because you have either not heard about, or do not agree with, the concerns being expressed. Would you, for example, commission a show in which a group of teenagers were offered a range of drugs to try, from coffee and cola through to heroin and crack cocaine? The research on attachment, brain development, and the importance of early emotional health are universally conclusive. There can few other research areas that in their hundreds, produce such conclusive evidence.

There is an endemic problem in this country which is; many people believe that somehow all babies are born inherently evil and that unless they are controlled from the beginning they will grow to become awful children. The roots of this belief are set in the work of King, Ferber, Ezzo, and are now being perpetuated by Claire Verity (and certain other notables), non of whom base their practice on evidence or research. The work of King and others has been universally discredited for decades. As society progresses, many things that were once deemed acceptable, cease to be. Sadly, this fails to be the case for parenting TV shows, and so-called parenting Gurus. Almost without exception they are based on outdated ideas that share nothing with current research, practice or government policy. I find it sad that a forward-looking company such as Channel Four can subscribe to such discredited ideas, when you could be commissioning people such as ourselves to create highly worthy, and far more shocking series on the same subject that accurately reflects modern thinking. That would certainly start a controversy!

Did you know that babies left as you plan to show in Bringing up Baby don’t stop crying because they learn, they simply give up? A permanent emotional wound that effects their entire life. Please be serious about this.

With best wishes
Clive Dorman
Director and Co-founder
The Children’s Project Ltd
A copy of this letter is being sent to Tanya Shaw, Silver River and may be published elsewhere.