This article, about a 5-year-old girl who cannot feel pain, is one of CNN.com's "Top Stories" this morning, and I'm not sure why. Her name is Ashlyn Blocker, and her condition is an extremely rare genetic disorder -- perhaps less than 20 people suffer from it nationwide. That's pretty rare, so I'll grant that her prognosis might have been news when she was diagnosed, but that was 4 years ago. If that's the news here, it's not exactly hot off the presses.

Like so much of the bullshit that passes for news these day, the article is really just an anecdote about some freaky little girl. Again and again the author returns to the fact that cafeteria workers at her school put ice cubes in Ashlyn's chili. This is done because, as she cannot feel heat or cold, she could burn herself by eating hot food too quickly. There's nothing newsworthy about ice in the chili -- it's just a convenient shorthand for saying to us: "Aren't you glad you don't have ice in your chili?"

I ask you this: Shouldn't we demand that our news be actual news, not cloying anecdotes that make a freak of a 5-year-old girl?

I also ask you this: Isn't there a way to cool down chili without putting ice cubes in it? Like, waiting to serve it until steam is no longer visible or putting it in the fridge for a few seconds? She might not be able to tell hot chili from cold, but I'm sure she knows watery chili when she tastes it.

Analogcabin @ 9:06 AM
Permalink |