Anyone doubting the impact of anti-adoption rhetoric on public perceptions need look no further than the comment section on the YouTube page airing an Al Jazeera piece on international adoption, titled with no little bias, "Guatemala Adoption Scandal".

An "Inside Story" segment that consisted partly of a discussion between Tom DiFilipo, President and CEO of the Joint Council on International Children’s Services (JCICS), and Louise Melville, a Care and Protection Adviser for Save The Children, two people with very different opinions, it has stoked the fires of some who see adoption as an evil beyond redemption, and I'm guessing that probably is somewhere in the neighborhood of the point to the whole thing.

Like many in the "aid" field, Ms. Melville's take stresses the importance of children remaining in their country of birth, and sees international adoption as a to-be-avoided-at-almost-all-costs last resort. In her view, apparently, life in an institution comes higher on the good-for-a-kid hit parade than being adopted by a loving family living somewhere other than the grindingly poor land of no options where a child started out.

As regular readers of my blogs will guess, Melville gets no points from me, and when when she brings up the ban on adoption from Romania as an example of a good thing I'm turning a few shades of purple. Mr. DiFilipo counters this load of pap with good information, but I'd have more to say.

I am far beyond the sheltered little point in my life where I assumed that aid organizations, especially those with the word "children" on their expensive letterhead, actually had the good of children in mind, or any practical grasp of what helping the world would really look like, so Melville's position comes as no surprise.

What does bring a stomach lurch and gasp, however, is the venom inspired by the story in viewers and how freely it is spewed, and the disinformation that has obviously taken firm root.

Here are a few direct quotes:

" your so right taking the children as hitler did for many of the same reasons go beyond belief. safe homes??? in time they might not be so safe".

and

"guatemalan families are very close and they dont give their children in adoption in guatemala the children sre being kidnap and then sold to people from other countries god only knows what people want these children for maids or something else."

and

"Tom DiFilipo of the JCICS is one lousy mouthpiece for international adoption. How dare he LIE about corruption in Russian and Chinese adoption! It's RIFE in both countries.

A former JCICS agency - ROTIA brokered Mathew Mancuso's Russian adoption of a 5 year old girl who he sexually abused - and sold photos of on the internet.

After watching DiFlipo put the agency spin on the international "adoption" industry, it is obvious the JCICS does not care about anybody in the triad."

Hitler? Maids? Mancuso? Frightening as it is, these are the thoughts that have been plunged into the collective mind like a spike to a brain, and many people aren't able to pop the poker out for a good gaze.

So, once again, the divisions are apparent, and reasonable and pragmatic stand toe-to-toe with haughty and dogmatic, and the uninformed line up behind the simple and dramatic.

Keeping real information in front of the public is not easy.