Is it inappropriate for a news outlet to report that the first lady recently was tested for skin cancer? Is it appropriate for news outlet to wonder if such reporting is appropriate?
ABC News has brought both questions into focus recently with a news story that U.S. first lady Laura Bush had been treated for skin cancer. A reporter noticed that Bush had had surgery on her leg, asked her about it, and discovered that the surgery had been to remove a cancerous mole.
This is not a particularly big story, and apparently not one that the first lady had pushed, since it's a fairly personal issue and not everyone likes to draw everyone in the world into their personal battles with cancer.
Still, she's first lady and therefore highly public, she got the treatment, and someone wrote a story on it. No big deal.
What was unusual was that ABC News then did a story exploring whether that initial report had made a private matter too public. The news desk even took a poll of its online readers about whether the reporter had turned a personal matter into a public story needlessly.
If you have to ask ...
A friend of mine who likes to snark at the media predictably complained that ABC News was being idiotic and too concerned with itself. How soon we forget. This was nothing.
The ultimate in media narcissism came back during Clinton's infamous Zippergate scandal with his intern.
First came the tidal wave of coverage over the details of the scandal. Then came the surge of stories on how many media outlets were reporting all the salacious details. Lastly came an Associated Press story on how many media outlets were reporting on the oversaturation of news stories about the scandal.
The media can overdo their job, but that one really took the cake. I wish I were making it up.
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1 comment:
"since it's a fairly personal issue and not everyone (ahem) like to draw everyone in the world into their personal battles with cancer. Imagine that."
Oh, do you mean by that capitalizing on the sympathy of apathetic waitresses?
I think that you should get a t shirt printed that says.... "New thyroid free formula"....And, hey, you can always get sympathy for not having a thyroid...I mean most people have one, so that makes you a minority.
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