The city of Palo Alto was the unfortunate site of a string of teen suicides last year, all by the same gruesome means. The city government, school officials, parents and other community members struggled to deal with the emotional impact of these events and discussed ways to prevent future incidents. One of the common themes repeated by the many psychologists interviewed by the local media was the role of the media themselves in this effort. The media, we were told, must be careful not to glorify or romanticize suicide in any way. Pictures of graves or memorials were mentioned in particular as something to avoid.
So, allow me to describe the front page of the Mercury News for January 24. Half the page is taken up by a feature article about a woman who committed suicide three years after the death of her (adult) son. The article features a lovely, romantic picture of her headstone, which features the same epitaph emblazoned above the article itself: "She died of a broken heart." (You can see the article, without the graphics, at the Mercury News website).
Perhaps it's just me, but describing a self-inflicted gunshot as dying of a broken heart seems like it might be glorifying or romanticizing suicide. In fact, it seems to me like pretty much the height of journalistic irresponsibility. Oh, did I mention the woman lived in Palo Alto?
Now for the part that defies description. I actually hadn't heard the news when I saw that front page, but apparently the editors of the Mercury News had, because they had this story on the first page of the local section of the same edition of the paper.
That's right. They ran a story romanticizing suicide on the same day that they ran a story about another teen suicide.
1 comment:
Damn, Joe. What a terrible editorial failure. Make sure you tell them, too.
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