The Vile Media

[Halx]

Pay attention to how this article is introduced... the full version is found here..

A Godsend, Till a Life Unravels
Fri Apr 2, 7:55 AM ET

By Alan Zarembo and Benedict Carey Times Staff Writers

INDIANAPOLIS — Traci Johnson believed it was God's plan for her to leave home to attend a tiny Bible college here — and she prayed every day for the Lord to provide for her tuition.

Then an unusual opportunity presented itself.

Eli Lilly & Co., the pharmaceutical giant headquartered a few miles from Indiana Bible College, was seeking healthy subjects for a live-in clinical drug trial. The 19-year-old freshman told her friends back home in Pennsylvania that the study was her best hope to stay in school.

"Trace, that don't sound right," her friend Colleen Jacoby told her. "I never heard of a human guinea pig."

But the students at the Bible college knew all about the trials. They made perfect subjects for studies requiring healthy people — and they were used often, receiving hundreds, even thousands of dollars for a few weeks work.

If accepted into the study, she could make $150 a day for 49 days — more than a year's worth of her school expenses — for taking a drug known as duloxetine, an antidepressant that had already been given to thousands of people and was on the verge of approval by the Food and Drug Administration.

She had faith that God would find a way. "It was in his hands," she wrote in her diary.

Just before the new semester, a Lilly representative called. Her prayers were answered.

A month later, she was dead.

This is horrible journalism. It's hard to explain the complexity with which it is so nasty...

Turning consumers into innocent victims, as if they can't take any responsibility for themselves. This type of journalism inspires people to sue McDonalds for their child's obesity.

[denim]

If that's the one about the girl who committed suicide as a result of withdrawl from an antidepressant being tested, yeah it's poorly written.

[moonstrucksoul]

story eludes too quickly, that the drug company is to blame, and most people only read half the article anyways. and guess what, you got to read through 80% of it to find out she killed herself, not that the drug killed her. that's bullshit.

[mingusfingers]

Ah, totally misleading. Who wrote that piece of crap.

[bermuDa]

using her faith to enhance her innocence is an obnoxious attempt at sensationalism. This belongs in the tabloids, not the LA Times.

[flamingdog]

Is this a piece of current affairs reporting as in hard as it happens news? That's a disgraceful way to present facts. If it's opinion, it's not so bad.

[analog]

Fuckin disgusting.

[StormBerlin]

I read the entire article, and it doesn't get much better.

[djtestudo]

When I was in a journalism class, my professor used stories liek this to show different styles of writing, instead of the same boring "inverted pyramid" stuff. But, I'm sure that if he read this article, he'd go beat the crap out of whomever wrote it for shaming the journalism proffession

[Aladdin Sane]

This article shows why on national polls of the most respected professions, journalists frequently fall below politicians, lawyers, and used car salesmen.

The media, far from being unbias observers of events, are just another interest group spastically flailing about for attention, special rights, and cash.

[Strange Famous]

While I do agree that the story is jarringly sentimental, I think I would reserve my disgust for the corporation that gave this woman drugs which lead to her death. It is true that she had attempted suicide 4 years before, but certainly from the article she seemed like she had everything to live for - she was desperate for an education and this corporation obviously exploits the desperate for its own profit and dangerous drug trials.

And I also dont think the girls religious feelings really are related to the story.

[Cynthetiq]

Is it news or a press release?

What's the motive behind publishing the piece?

all questions that lead up to being able to make a value judgement about all "news" since there seems to be too much "fluf" journalism out there.

[Fearless_Hyena]

That's totally irresponsible journalism, I'd even consider writing the editor to bring to their attention that these writers are complete and utter jackasses.

Does anyone remember Brill's Content? Unfortunately it is no more, but it was a great magazine that focused on journalistic integrity.