Haley Airs Tonight

The package that introduces Dr. Haley airs tonight. The trip to Lexington, Kentucky was the first trip that the team took for the series, and it's nice to finally see the story air. We decided to include Dr. Boyd Haley in our series because we are addressing the vaccine debate and quite a bit of his research is regarding mercury toxicity, so he is a source for one side of the vaccine debate.

Check out Dr. Haley on the KOMU website to see what we've already posted and check back after the show tonight for more KOMU.com extras as well as a slideshow and a behind the scenes look at the trip.

And this isn't the only time you will see Dr. Haley. We feature him in our investigation portion of the series next week.

Kentucky-First View

Our bloggers get a sneak peek of our Kentucky Trip thanks to Research Assistants Robert and Meredith. This was all shot by our web camera. Thanks to Robert for editing this.

Kentucky--AR

Whoa...what a ride...literally. We got so much done in a short amount of time. Scott and I divided driving duties. Meredith and Robert did web duties of slide shows and video.

Kentucky is a beautiful area. I have never been there before. I have never seen so many horses in one place.

I went off adrenaline the entire trip. I spent a lot of time preparing questions for Dr. Haley. During the interview I challenged him. I asked him really tough questions...let's face it, he is not mainstream...he doesn't agree with the CDC in vax areas....you don't find a person like that everyday. I read straight off of studies...I tried to understand why a man with no one with autism in his family would care....why would he be so passionate? Why would he continue his fight with no financial benefit?

You will just have to wait to find out!

Kentucky--Robert

I agreed to help Ashley in August when she said that she was working on a series for KOMU and that she need research assistants. I thought it would be a pretty easy gig and that maybe I would learn a little. I couldn't have been more wrong.

I started this project with little to no knowledge about autism; I have learned so much about the subject, and it's been anything but easy. I found that out after my first meeting with Ashley where she immediately assigned me to begin research on chelation therapy and its usefullness as a treatment for autism. I have spent many hours working on research for this series and got to hear many of your stories about your experiences with chelation and autism. I also got familiar with many of the big players in the world of autism; not surprisingly Dr. Boyd Haley was among these names. Imagine my excitement when I found out that I'd be able to go with Ashley to Lexington, Kentucky to interview him.

The trip was absolutely incredible. We left at six in the morning on Sunday from KOMU and just about the first thing we did once we arrived was meet up with Dr. Haley at his lab off the UK campus. We did the interview there, which lasted a little over hour. Then we shot some footage of him working in his lab and we agreed to meet him again the next day. Monday morning we met Dr. Haley again and he took us to his lab on campus where we got some more footage of him. After we shot some promo shots and stand-ups we left for Missouri.

I can't wait for you all to see this series, it's going to be great.

Kentucky--Meredith

I never thought that just offering a little bit of help around the KOMU station would lead to anything like this. The Kentucky team got back from Lexington last night, and it was such a great experience overall.

Back in August I started to help out Ashley Reynolds with a story that she was planning to do on autism after she received a lot of feedback from a story that aired over the summer. I started my research with basic information about the vaccines that children receive from infancy to the start of school along with the documented amounts of thimerosal in those vaccines. Later on in my research, I looked over all of Dr. Boyd Haley's research along with many other documents that he sent to me to back up his argument. I found a lot of his research about mercury toxicity interesting and that is why it was so exciting to be able to go to Kentucky to do a formal interview with him.

Being able to meet with Dr. Haley was an amazing experience considering how well known he is for his research relating to mercury toxicity and autism. I thought that during the interview Dr. Haley had quite a bit to say and he was very passionate about the issue and he provided evidence to back up his claims. Off camera I had the chance to ask Dr. Haley what he would do if he were in the situation of having to vaccinate an infant family member today, his answer was a little bit of what I expected since he stated he was not anti-vaccines, he said he would vaccinate the child after their first birthday and he would use research to decide which vaccines the child would receive.

I am excited to see how this story turns out after our other interviews with three other doctors with differing viewpoints and families.

Pictures from Kentucky

We will have much more on the website once we air the series but this is a preview for our blog readers....
This is the Kentucky group
From Left-Scott (photog), Robert (research assistant), me, and Meredith (research assistant)
Scott will be shooting most of the series. All the assistants are in charge of research and the website for the series...They will have extra video, slide shows, and blogs.

Leaving at 6am

Pretty cool huh? We had a great time...can't wait to share the rest with you!