If CNN is searching for reasons why its ratings are at an all-time low, it doesn't need to look any further than one entry in its group of "11 extraordinary people of 2014" published on December 5.
Aside from the inanity of publishing such an annual list almost four weeks before year's end — as if no extraordinary people or extraordinary acts ever take place in December — the network's fourth selection was patently offensive, and had no substantive basis for being considered "extraordinary."
The article introducing the "extraordinary people" montage tagged her as:
A woman whose dignified death gave us a lesson in how to live.
I can think of someone else, still alive, who has genuinely given us "a lesson in how to live" (more on that later), but it's not Brittany Maynard, described as follows in the montage itself (bolds are mine throughout this post):
Terminal cancer patient Brittany Maynard touched people around the world when she announced in October that she would soon end her own life legally under Oregon's "Death with Dignity" law. Her example sparked a widespread debate about the rights of people with incurable illnesses to determine how and when they will die. Maynard followed through on her plans in November, dying on her own terms.
Longtime pro-life advocate and Wesley J. Smith reacted at Life News, reminding readers that only days earlier, Maynard appeared to at least temporarily have changed her mind (bolds are mine):
The media’s worship of the euthanasia movement is really becoming evident.
... Her death comes despite her decision last week to postpone her suicide — with Maynard telling CBS that it “doesn’t seem like the right time now” to end her life.
“I still feel good enough and I still have enough joy and I still laugh and smile with my family and friends enough that it doesn’t seem like the right time right now,” Maynard said late last week in that interview. “But it will come, because I feel myself getting sicker. It’s happening each week.”
That scenario leads one to wonder if someone didn't actively try to talk Maynard out of delaying her death. (If so, that would be what CNN used to consider "news.")
Smith suspects the same thing:
... one woman with the same diagnosis desperately urged Maynard to reconsider.
Although cancer patients and pro-life groups tried to talk her out of the decision, it now appears that Maynard may have either been used by assisted suicide advocates to promote their agenda or may have been a part of a plan working in concert with them to attempt to legalize assisted suicide in additional states.
Some assisted suicide opponents say Maynard’s case has been used by euthanasia activists to promote assisted suicide. Case in point: the video Maynard released last week saying she would postpone her death was released by the pro-assisted suicide group Compassion & Choices, which has pushed to legalize assisted suicide in numerous states.
Maynard herself pushed assisted suicide in a statement accompanying the video ...
Supreme irony: The Clueless New Network's montage appears in its web site's "CNN Living" section.
I find it especially offensive that Maynard is on such a list with a genuinely extraordinary and inspiring person from Greater Cincinnati who is making the most of what remains of her life. Her description, at Number 7 in the CNN montage:
Lauren Hill may not be the best player on her college basketball team. But she's likely the most inspirational. Hill, a freshman at Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, has terminal brain cancer and feared she would never achieve her dream of playing in a college game. But the NCAA granted her a special waiver and let her team move up its home opener by several weeks. Hill's poignant story drew a sold-out crowd, an outpouring of nationwide support and a flood of donations to cancer research.
Here's part of the positive story CNN published on November 2:
College athlete achieves dying wish to play basketball season opener
Basketball might be a team sport, but Mount St. Joseph University freshman Lauren Hill was clearly the star of the court Sunday in Ohio's Cintas Center in Cincinnati.
Her name was plastered on posters and signs waving in the stands. Much of the sold-out crowd of more than 10,000 fans wore T-shirts and sweatshirts bearing her name and the slogan "Never Give Up." Some had her jersey number, 22, painted on their faces.
Mount St. Joseph already had a 64-55 lead over Hiram College when Hill came off the bench in response to chants of "we want Lauren." When she hit the final layup in the last nine seconds of the game, thunderous cheers underscored the significance of the shot, which could be the last of Hill's collegiate career and her life.
The 19-year-old freshman is dying from a rare form of brain cancer called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma. When doctors told her she did not have much time left, her school asked the NCAA if it could move up its season opener by two weeks so Hill could play her first collegiate basketball game.
Here's raw footage of Lauren Hill's layup found at the CNN story:
Here is a well-done CNN interview of Hill days later:
Truly extraordinary.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
