ASTHMATIC MAN BEATS WIFE TO DEATH

Why It's Important To Beat Up On The Media For The Right
Reasons

A local media counterpart and I squirmed uncomfortably in our seats
last week as a local Mental Health and Addictions worker vigorously
lambasted the media during a meeting of the Dryden Regional Health
Centre board of directors.

Nothing specific, of course - but in an exploration of the stigmas and
perceptions facing persons suffering from addictions and mental
illness, she stated that the media is in large part responsible for
the ongoing usage use of words like 'crackhead'.

"You'd never see the headline - 'Asthmatic man beats wife to death' -
now would you?" she asked the room.

Her statement aimed to illustrate how us media types make a faulty
association between a person's actions and the symptoms of their
addiction or mental illness.

As she continued on about the dangers of making sweeping
generalizations, my comrade and I sat marginalized, jaws clenched on
the butt ends of our pens.

Oh, Calgon, take me away....

Far be it from me to try and defend the media. You see, I hate me too.
But I'm compelled to come to my people's defense in the face of such
kindergarten logic. I'm weary of such bad reasoning, especially when
there are so many valid reasons to hate the media.

This annoyance certainly doesn't begin and end with this recent
occurrence.

Almost every week we get a phone call from an advocacy group or lobby
organization who've embraced the Orwellian notion of 'newspeak' - a
push to eradicate specific words and ideas from the English language
by keeping them out of print media.

For example, every time a newspaper prints the word 'accident', klaxon
horns begin to sound in an office somewhere in Ottawa. Editor
Bloomfield can look forward to a voicemail or two from health/safety
and insurance industry lobbyists registering their extreme
disappointment at our need to uphold such archaic concepts. According
to them, there is no such thing as an 'accident'.

It appears the Dryden Observer's own experiment in social engineering
was a terrible failure. Oh, we've tried our best to get you all to
start calling it 'The Centre' - but all I hear out there on the street
is 'Community Auditorium'.

It is important that newspapers speak the same language as their
readers. The ideal we struggle to achieve is to hold a mirror up to
the community, for better or worse. It is neither our role nor
responsibility to advance a group's agenda by restricting language, or
purposely omitting 'unenlightened' viewpoints. This kind of thing
warps our mirror. An inaccurate reflection of the community is the
very thing people should fear, hate and suspect of the news media in
these messed-up times.

When agendas get through unchallenged with the goal of shaping public
opinion instead of reflecting it - that is cause for concern.

Instead, people blame the news media for not advancing their evolving
viewpoints because it's easier than hitting the streets to actually
try to change the way people think on a meaningful scale. It's a
cop-out that is all too often validated by a roomful of nodding heads.
Until new ways of thinking are tried, tested and passed on by the
public, I believe the media is wise to stay out of the business of
telling people how they should think.

Stigma and prejudice are not a modern phenomenon. I don't think
persons suffering from mental illness had it any easier prior to the
invention of the printing press in 1440.

That said, the word 'crackhead' will likely endure as long as people
keep smoking crack and others keep calling them 'crackheads'. This is
not our fault.

'Accidents' will happen, and will continue to happen as long as people
believe in the idea of accidents. I not only believe in them, I happen
to be one - just ask my parents.

And no, you probably won't see the headline 'Asthmatic man beats wife
to death', ever again.