My letter to Slate about the Auerbach article

Dear Slate Editorial Team,

I was interviewed by reporter David Auerbach on October 18th for an article for Slate Magazine. In an email exchange on that date I wrote "I'm not an expert. I'm the sister of an FC user." In Auerbach's slate article, he mentioned me in a single sentence in which there are 3 egregious errors. Here is the sentence: (begin quote) As FC facilitator and advocate Pamela Block told me, “There are a lot of people very loudly detracting but a lot of people very quietly implementing it in schools,” including in New Hampshire, Maryland, Oregon, and Mississippi. (end quote)

• Error #1: I am not an have never been an FC facilitator. I have never received training and have no experience with the technique other than watching my sister use it. I suppose I am an advocate and I suppose I am also grateful that he does not give my university affiliation.

• Error #2: He quotes me out of context. One of my OT students did tell me in class that she sees AAC (not specifically just FC but including FC) being regularly implemented in schools. I am not sure I or my student should be considered experts however as I personally have no experience or first hand knowledge of what is going on in schools and my student was...well a student.

• Error #3: And then the rest of the sentence mentions "New Hampshire, Maryland, Oregon and Mississippi." These are not states that I ever mentioned. I know nothing about what is going on in those state, yet the sentence implies that I am giving Auerbach information about those states.

These errors were not central to the arguments that Auerbach makes in his article. They are just careless sloppy errors but I believe they are indicative of the shoddy stream of distorted misinformation that is present throughout the entire article, including many of his key points. I know others have addressed the core central errors, but I wanted to focus on the single sentence where I am mentioned because it implicates not just Auerbach but also Slate's lack of fact checking. Clearly I cannot trust the information Slate provides me. Slate is apparently not a trustworthy source of information.
Slate, is this an article and a type of journalism that you stand behind? How will you respond to the very reasonable calls for revision or retraction? Slate, I know you can do better.