Sometimes, as decrepit as our traditional media corporations are, they suffer from an outbreak of human decency. Kudos to the St. Petersburg Times for this obituary about a hit-and-run victim. Here's why they ran it:
Shortly after the St. Petersburg Times announced Mr. Smith's death on its website, a reader posted a comment stating the following: A man who is working as a dishwasher at the Crab Shack at the age of 48 is surely better off dead.
Web editors removed the comment, deeming it an offensive and insensitive insult to a dead man's friends and family. Though hardly unusual -- check out the comments beneath stories about any recent tragedy -- this one spurred the Times to make Mr. Smith the subject of this story, as a reminder that every life matters.This much is certain about Mr. Smith: A number of people miss him.
Read why here. As someone once said, "all labor has worth."
- Log in to post comments
More like this
You may recall that on Friday afternoon, I posted a bit of a rant about how a certain liberal blogger named Matt Stoller had disparagingly and contemptuously referred to Presidential Candidate John McCain as a "crazy, cancer-ridden dishonest madman." It turns out that Mr. Stoller was displeased by…
Is Sharyl Attkisson feeling the heat over her irresponsible reporting of the Alex Spourdalakis case?
Yesterday, I did a bit of navel gazing about how cranks, quacks, and antivaccinationists have a penchant for attacking skeptics at work in order to try to intimidate them into silence. Reading the post over again, I realize that it came across perhaps more whiny than it should have, but I guess I…
Brittany Maynard died this weekend. If you are not familiar with her story, she tells it here, in her own words.
On New Year's Day, after months of suffering from debilitating headaches, I learned that I had brain cancer.
I was 29 years old. I'd been married for just over a year. My husband and I…
The anthrax story just gets weirder and weirder. More than weird, some of it reeks. A circumstantial public case first via media leaks and now via a press conference by the Justice Department is being built against Bruce Ivins, the Army scientist who reportedly committed suicide as federal…
In this economy, I would propose that Mr. Smith was doing rather well.
In addition, I'd rather be a dishwasher than Bernie Madoff. Integrity, intrinsic character, and social altruism depend on it.
Washing dishes sure as hell is important work.
This story is going to stay with me for a long time. Thank you, Mike, for pointing me to it. Quality of life is a subjective thing, and we owe it to each other to remember that. In the end, we also owe each other dignity and respect as human beings. I'd like to know this reporter.