Lack of Information or Lack of Respect?

By: Katie Anthony

In today's society, it seems that hearing about certain deaths become more and more common in any form of media that's available to the public. However, while it is so common, it seems that a few newspapers aren't finding it necessary to print about a local "violent death." The New York Times, The New York Post, and the New York Daily News remained absolutely silent about a death of a man who was found stabbed in his apartment. There was only a brief statement on The New York Sun website with a title that read "Man Found Dead in Bathtub." At the crime scene, it was noted that they found knives, but the police quoted that there was "no criminality suspected."

Though it was thought to be a suicide, the fact that it was very poorly reported, I find to be extremely disrespectful. A professor of journalism at Ohio University says that the reason it was so poorly reported was due to the fact that suicide is a "touchy subject." However, when it was thought that Heath Ledger's death was an appararent suicide, it was all over news mediums, both printed and online.

Virginia Heffernan, a noted New York Times blogger, went on to Google News and typed in the deceased man's name. Only five articles were found. Most of them vague about the cause of death (and any details), due to the fact that nothing "official" had been determined. One of the articles closed with their condolences to the man's friends and family, but the article was found to be so brief that the closing seemed to be the most important part of their article. There was hardly a body to this supposed story.

So, how is the media prioritizing stories? If there was a suicide of anyone in the "public eye," it would make the front page of any major papers. If there was a suicide bomber, who, only ended up killing himselves overseas, I'm sure that that would be in the major papers as well. I believe it to be sad that a death that was noted as "violent" without a true cause of death, got hardly no attention at all.

I believe it to be a sad day once one person is allowed to choose which stories, based on death, they will or will not publish.