Why Words Still Matter
As a journalist, surviving in the modern world of journalism with your sanity intact comes with a few rules:
- Accept that there are idiots, readers and writers alike, and do not let them on your newsfeed.
- Accept that there are idiots, readers and writers alike, and do not reply to their comments.
- Accept that there is idiocy, with readers and writers alike, in general.
I’ve gotten pretty adept at navigating my way around trolls and Fox News, and have learned to ignore them when we do clash. Yet today I was riled enough to hit the ‘reply’ button and type my thoughts into the void. The offending post was an article by a little startup called Newsy, which, until now, I’d been watching with cautious, but happy interest.
This cropped up in my newsfeed:
The horror of the story itself is difficult to swallow. But a Newsy writer saw fit to state, “Her son was reportedly battling depression…” as a lead-in to the article, as if it explained anything at all. This is a casual, common, and cruel assumption the media often makes.
After Lubitz crashed into the Alps, the press was quick to mention finding his anti-depressants as if each tablet were a tiny admission of guilt.
After Robin Williams was found, commenters rushed to lambaste him for his complete selfishness.
After a news anchor is murdered by her son, the run-in to the breaking news isn’t where she was found, when it happened or where her son is now (also deceased, having killed himself after).
Rather, it’s, “her son was reportedly battling depression,” implying that that is the most relevant fact.
Reading the article, there is no solid evidence to link his actions to depression. It is undoubtedly a plausible theory that what he did was related to an altered mental state, but a traumatic brain injury can cause any number of complications.
As journalists, our job is to dispassionately present facts. Our job is to ignore whatever culture has constructed out of fear, excitement or simple misinformation, and present reality as best we can.
To immediately assume depression is anything other than it is — a painful disorder which robs people of energy, hope and happiness — falls into a harmful cultural trap, breathing life into a stigma that keeps scores of people in profound pain from seeking help.
Anyone who has been depressed knows it is as crippling a disability as any other. It hurts to move. It hurts to breathe. If you’ve ever seen a depressed loved one lie in bed for days, struggling to work up the energy to shower or eat, only to retreat slowly back to their bedroom in tears, you’d know that the last thing you have to worry about is them brandishing a knife at you.
The dangerous thing about stories like this is that they come from news sources who pledge themselves to fair and unbiased journalism. It shows how deeply embedded the stigma against mental illness is, and how the institutions we depend on for the information that shapes our worldview so easily propagate it.
As maligned as journalism is, the fact remains that we are privileged to create work and publications people read, and platforms people use. Our voices are heard, and with that power comes responsibility. Words are our weapons, and we must wield them carefully.
I sent this article to a friend, also a journalist. She’s a tough, bright, funny, spunky and empathetic woman who fights her own depression, tooth and nail, every day.
Just as frustrated, she replied immediately.
“You know who depressed people kill?” she wrote. “Themselves.”
