As Terri Schindler Schiavo’s situation enters into danger again, keep an eye out for errors in news reporting about her. This morning the local news-radio station in Boston reported incorrectly that Terri was on life support “machines” and had been so for years. This was of course incorrect; she gets food through a tube, but it’s nothing high-tech.
Fortunately, it was easy enough to call the news department and report the mistake. The staffer who took the call was familiar with Terri’s story, and expressed her puzzlement that one of the news writers would get it wrong. All in all, I was glad to find somebody in the news biz acknowledging a mistake and promising to correct it.
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Good work, RC.
To many, many people I think it’s vital to know Terri is not on life support without which she’d die naturally but on a feeding tube, without which she’d die a slow, painful death by starvation.
Yes, good work RC. I would encourage all St. Blog’s members to blog about Terri’s struggle and perhaps to display the Terris’ Fight link prominently.
Call me cynical and media-paranoid…but I think that these mistakes are in many cases not simply the result of sloppy journalism…
One positive change in coverage that I have noticed is that NOT ONE article I’ve read or radio report I’ve heard has said she is either “in a come” or a “permanent vegetative state.” They all say she is “seriously”) “brain damaged.” That’s about right from what I understand.
Nat Hentoff rakes the press over the coals for its sloppy, ignorant coverage.