Andrea Dunlop

I come at this work from a certain angle, of course.

And, you know, we all, everyone, every journalist does.

Any journalist that pretends they're not is being disingenuous.

But like, I'm always trying to account for that.

And I don't want to sort of build this argument of like, child abuse pediatricians are perfect.

And there's nothing you could ever tell me about a child abuse pediatrician that would convince me that they're doing a bad job or that there are there are problems with their work.

So

help me understand, like, how should we be better consumers, being better consumers of this media?

Like, how should we evaluate whether or not there is a problem with not just child abuse pediatricians, but any doctor who's in, because most places don't have them.

Most places are not lucky enough to have someone that knowledgeable on staff.

How should we be evaluating this role and whether or not a doctor is doing it well?

Yeah.

And that's I think that's one of my that's one of the other real fears I have about this kind of reporting is that it makes parents afraid to bring their children to the hospital completely unnecessarily, in my opinion.

And I would say, like, if I'm a parent that brings my child in with an injury that might look suspicious and I'm innocent, I want a child abuse pediatrician to evaluate it.

They're the best person to make that evaluation.

Yeah.

I asked Randy about the Amanda Cernofsky case featured in Serial's third episode, which Neary positions as being, quote, obscured by a giant question mark, end quote.

There was a history of abuse in this household and positive abuse findings by doctors and child welfare services.

Not to mention that Dr. Jensen wasn't the one who even made this diagnosis, but rather the doctor who confirmed it.

Yeah, and the stories were markedly different.