Patterico's Pontifications

4/9/2005

Some Good News at Last

Filed under: General — See Dubya @ 7:55 pm



Blogs for Terri reports that Mae Magouirk has had her feeding tube reinstated, and is being airlifted from the hospice to Atlanta-Birmingham Medical Center. She’s 81 and has been without food or water for ten days. The nephew thanks bloggers for helping to raise awareness of the issue, but points out that the granddaughter who had the tube removed (contrary to Ms. Magouirk’s living will) is still her legal guardian. Still, what a welcome change after a month of death and defeat.

Here’s a WorldNetDaily article with more information, as well as proper spacing between the rest of the words. (That’s almost as bad a title as “TechCentral Station“.)

H/t to the Petite Powerhouse, again.

ADDENDUM: This may be one of the biggest victories for blogs and electronic media like WorldNetDaily so far. The rapid reaction and publication of this story–well ahead of the mainstream media, as far as I can tell–may have actually helped to save someone’s life. Had we waited on the MSM to pick up this story, instead of just ten days, Ms. Magourik may have been deprived of nutrition until it was too late.

I’m not one for triumphalism, and it is as yet impossible to measure the impact of this publicity upon the decision to reinstate Ms. Magouirk’s care, if there was any impact at all. This could be a case of the rooster deciding the sun rose because he’d crowed at it. Nonetheless, the facts of this case are so egregious that I believe the little bit of sunshine we had started to shine on it may have made a difference in the outcome.

Let’s remember also that this coverage would not have happened without the massive interest and conviction generated by Terri Schiavo’s state-directed destruction. Terri’s death was not in vain.

And finally: I have seen (in a different site’s comments, especially) cynical critics of the “Right to Lifers” insisting that Terri Schaivo was cynically elevated to the national stage because she was young, pretty, and female. The generous reaction to Ms. Magouirk’s peril disproves that. There would have been a similar concern about this state-approved murder regardless of the victim’s age, sex, or race.

TRIUMPHALISM UPDATE: (10:13 PM PDT) Dafydd ab Hugh is deeply suspicious of WorldNetDaily’s reporting on this matter, and points us to this WXIA-TV article indicating the judge in this case disagrees with Magouirk’s nephew Ken Mullinax’s characterization of events. My addendum above uses the subjunctive voice for a reason; the story certainly requires further sourcing and confirmation. I should point out that I was relying primarily on Fr. Rob Johansen’s reports and also Blogs for Terri up till now–the WND link was an afterthought. But WXIA confirms my thesis about the role of blogs in this particular case:

Just a few years ago, the most that would normally happen would be a few letters to the local paper and that would be as far as it went. But now, bloggers can get hold of a story, and instantly galvanize opinion worldwide.

Bloggers from the Schiavo case heated up the Internet and swamped the judge’s phones and computer with what he said are wildly false charges.

“I’ve even been accused several times of murder and I’ve had, I would say, close to a hundred e-mails,” Boyd said.

I’ll respond further to Dafydd’s points in the comments section.

The Real Meaning of GM’s Decision to Pull Its LAT Advertising

Filed under: Dog Trainer — Patterico @ 2:06 pm



I have updated my post about GM’s decision to pull its advertising from the Los Angeles Times. The update explains more clearly what I believe to be the real significance of GM’s decision.

UPDATE: My commenters still appear to misunderstand my position.

GM is upset that its ox got gored, and pulled its ads. Apparently I am supposed to be concerned about that because it threatens the newspaper’s independence.

That’s the newspaper’s problem, not mine — and not even GM’S. GM, a company I couldn’t care less about, runs several risks here — including drawing more attention to its own shortcomings, and being seen as a bully that doesn’t care about the truth.

But many of us see the Times itself as an institution that frequently resembles a bully who doesn’t care about the truth. Accordingly, it doesn’t bother us much to see another bully try to push it around.

And I think GM knows that.

See what I’m getting at?


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