Deconstructing the Kennedy Coverage
The talking heads have already buried Ted Kennedy and are delivering their eulogies.
I’m offended by their prematurity – I mean, the guy is still figuring out his treatment plan – but I recognize that this is what the media does. I’m really not that critical of all these proclamations of love and friendship and praise for his principled actions. It is characteristic of the media to shamelessly force to the surface the emotional drama that underlies an event.
The media coverage of Senator Kennedy’s devastating diagnosis reminds me of two uncomfortable truths: First, that when someone we love receives such a diagnosis, we want to fix it, even though we know that our efforts cannot change the enormity of the facts. Most of us do this on a less grand scale than the public commentators. Sometimes we offer reassurance about the outcome – “I’m sure everything will be OK.” This is a risky strategy, since we have no reason to know whether it is true.
| |
Jessie
Gruman
President
Center for the
Advancement of Health |
Sometimes we propose to help – “Please let me know what I can do” – a reasonable strategy but only if we are willing to follow through on it. And sometimes we, too, praise the bravery and fighting spirit of the person, an approach that is often met with some skepticism, since bravery and hope and fighting spirit ebb and flow as she tries to take in the full meaning of the bad news.
Our words are often all we have to offer someone who has just received a devastating diagnosis, and we extend them in the vain hope that they will soften the shock and the loss it implies, both to her and to ourselves.
The second uncomfortable truth is that the media’s response to Ted Kennedy’s diagnosis reminds us that despite the tremendous progress in understanding and treating cancer, it is still a deadly disease for many, killing more than half a million Americans a year. Hearing the constant drumbeat of cancer survivorship – the heroic media portrayals of feisty patients, the omnipresent pink ribbons and yellow wristbands – reading reports from the battlefront of cancer research claiming victory at each small step forward; and witnessing the successful treatment of so many friends, family members and celebrities lulls us into believing that maybe a cancer diagnosis is not so bad. Maybe it just means the loss of a little time and a little hair and a little of one’s sense of invulnerability before it becomes a chronic condition to be managed.
And now, suddenly, glioma has become a household word, with its stark, cruel meaning spelled out again and again. We are reminded that cancer is many diseases and that even among brain tumors, even among gliomas, some are amenable to treatment but many more are not.
Despite the media plaudits and praise for Senator Kennedy, a cancer diagnosis – almost any cancer diagnosis – still strikes fear in our hearts. It does so for good reason.
|
