Tuesday 15 August 2017

A new trend in the Western media

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/aug/15/stephen-wooldridge-australian-olympic-cycling-champion-dies-aged-39
http://www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/40934545

For some reason, media in the West appear to increasingly consider it taboo to mention if someone kills himself.

Any ideas why? I've only recently begun to notice this, and not read any comment on it before. You have to guess it from the phoneline of mental health charities that might - or might not - be tacked on the bottom of the article. And then Google until you find out either way. I found a few more like the above two articles, before finding the implication in the phrase "he gave his life away" in the death announcement, reported at
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/95814549/olympic-cycling-champ-stephen-wooldridge-dies-aged-39. To not refer to the death announcement takes deliberate, self-conscious action, so it can't just be that reporters missed it out without thinking about it.

The Independent is less coy:
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cycling/steve-wooldridge-dead-suicide-dies-olympic-cyclist-gold-medallist-australian-a7893736.html

This must be telling us something about something. But as I say, I've only recently begun to notice this trend, and not yet puzzled it out.

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