Owen Wilson & Media Sensitivity
Not business or tech related, but I am amazed at the MSM/tabloid coverage of Owen Wilson’s suicide attempt. The metro today paper yesterday in the celebrity BUZZ (buzz in huge letters) section, the headline read along the lines of Owen Wilson SUICIDE attempt confirmed. With the word SUICIDE called out in giant pink letters complete with drop shadow. Like a children’s birthday party invitation.
While Metro is not oft esteemed for journalistic integrity, this is the first time I have actually seen the tabloid sink to the depth of grossly insulting individuals [comma, anyone with sentient intelligence and any functioning sense of empathy etc.] purely through the expedient of typeface selection. Meanwhile…
Frontpage headline of the Sun today “TEARS OF THE CLOWN”
Man, if the guy wasn’t suicidal before…
Speaking of dead media, except in exceptional circumstance mainstream media, as rule, doesn’t report on suicides. This due to the both unusual and unsettling fact that suicide is socially contagious.
I don’t know that there is legitimate evidence that teenage pregnancy is contagious.
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Thomas Purves
is an Entrepreneur and futurist for hire, lives in the great city of Toronto.

Malcolm Gladwell explains the contagion of suicide and other behaviors very well in The Tipping Point. Worth a read for anybody interested.