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malasadas.livejournal.comRepresentative Gabrielle Giffords' family and staff have finally released the first photographs of her since she blessedly survived a gunshot wound to the head in January of this year. For space considerations, I am putting the photos behind a cut, but I urge you to look -- if you do not smile upon seeing them there is something wrong with you:
( Read more... )
The photographs were preceded by her staff offering a candid assessment of the Congresswoman's remarkable progress for her near fatal injury and the struggles she still faces less than 7 months after being wounded by a bullet through her brain. There is no indication about when she is expected to return to Congress if ever, but everyone surrounding her seems mostly pleased beyond all reckoning that she has survived and recovered to this point so far.
But that's not what I am interested in discussing. What I am interested in is a matter of some astonishment to me: namely, the media and decency.
It is no secret that American's hold our national media in disdain (even while we continue to consume vast amounts of it always blaming the "other" people's media consumption habits for the knee deep sludge in our popular media lanscape). A 2009 survey by the Pew Center showed public opinion of the media at a two decade low. Ten years after her death in a car crash fueled by an effort to avoid relentless paparazzi, the editors of Britains three largest tabloids admitted that they felt responsibility for the atmosphere that led to Princess Diana's death. Despite those briefly sobering assessments, there is no real lack of American and international media pursuing sensational stories at the expense of privacy and personal tragedy.
( And yet, in Congresswoman Giffords' case, DECENCY seems to have actually prevailed. )
( Read more... )
The photographs were preceded by her staff offering a candid assessment of the Congresswoman's remarkable progress for her near fatal injury and the struggles she still faces less than 7 months after being wounded by a bullet through her brain. There is no indication about when she is expected to return to Congress if ever, but everyone surrounding her seems mostly pleased beyond all reckoning that she has survived and recovered to this point so far.
But that's not what I am interested in discussing. What I am interested in is a matter of some astonishment to me: namely, the media and decency.
It is no secret that American's hold our national media in disdain (even while we continue to consume vast amounts of it always blaming the "other" people's media consumption habits for the knee deep sludge in our popular media lanscape). A 2009 survey by the Pew Center showed public opinion of the media at a two decade low. Ten years after her death in a car crash fueled by an effort to avoid relentless paparazzi, the editors of Britains three largest tabloids admitted that they felt responsibility for the atmosphere that led to Princess Diana's death. Despite those briefly sobering assessments, there is no real lack of American and international media pursuing sensational stories at the expense of privacy and personal tragedy.
( And yet, in Congresswoman Giffords' case, DECENCY seems to have actually prevailed. )
