Propaganda

Posted by John B. Kelly
(This post deals exclusively with the Terri Schiavo case)

We are accustomed to reports that the media in another country, for example Russia under Vladimir Putin , is simply a propaganda organ. And we occasionally hear, such as after the American-led invasion of Iraq, that US media made mistakes or were "too trusting" of government sources. But in other matters, the American media is generally credited with objectivity.

Terri Schiavo is now starving to death, there is no question about that. But now that her demise is all but certain, people want to hear about what her experience of starvation/dehydration will be like. To learn about what we should expect for Terri's death experience, news broadcasts naturally turn to journalist doctors, such as Dr. Timothy Johnson on ABC or Dr. Sanjay Gupta on CNN. But these doctors only have one source regarding starvation, and that is hospice and palliative care professionals. So when Johnson or Gupta or any other TV doctor begins to speak about Terri Schiavo's death experience , they start by saying something like "In end-of-life situations..." or "hospice doctors tell us...." And what they go on to say is that after a feeding tube is removed, "cancer patients report a peaceful end," that endorphins are released into the body, that there is peace and even euphoria.

One problem. Terri Schiavo is not in "an end of life situation." Her organs have not already begun to fail because of cancer or heart disease. She is not on massive amounts of morphine to control unbearable pain -- amounts of morphine that accelerate the dying process. She did not, like most of those dying cancer patients, choose to remove her own feeding tube because she felt death was near from other causes. No. Terri Schiavo is dying of only one cause, and that is starvation/dehydration itself. But neither the doctors nor the journalists report on this simple distinction. Her death will not be peaceful or euphoric, except perhaps in the minds of certain people. Her starvation will be like any other healthy person's starvation, that is excruciatingly horrible.

To learn what her starvation would be like, journalists need to talk to people who have almost starved to death themselves and somehow survived. See if they say anything about "euphoria."

Another current media talking point is that Terri Schiavo cannot feel anything. So regardless of what is done to her, it is implied, she will not suffer. Sounds like more propaganda to me. Any living organism in a healthy state resists an imposed death and suffers as a result.

Believing that despised others "don't feel pain like we do" is an old psychological trick to avoid taking responsibility for dastardly actions. Seventy five, eighty years ago, "expert doctors" informed the public that the "feeble minded" (that era's grabbag term for intellectual disabilities) did not feel pain like "normal" people. Similar things were said about African-Americans.

Next I will talk about the new media definition of "husband."

Meanwhile, please also see the excellent essay by Harriet Johnson on Slate.