Monday, March 30, 2015

Is a self-described reporter/editor troubled in our City of Lake Worth?

Why the fascination with the subject of suicide?
Note these facts about Margaret Menge's newspaper:
  • Her first paper, Vol. 1/Issue 1 was delivered to the unsuspecting public on Friday, January 16, 2015
  • Issues 4 (February 6th), 9 (March 13th), and 11 (March 27th) prominently featured stories on the front page about a suicide and a recent purported suicide
  • Issue 10 (March 20th) featured an editorial mostly referring to a recent purported suicide
One of the reasons responsible news outlets don't sensationalize suicide is due to the very real phenomena of "suicide contagion". Here is a reference site for journalists who report on incidents of, or suspected incidents, of suicide; there are many others. Any story published about a suicide (or if a suicide is suspected) should have information such as this for the public:

Note that Margaret Menge, self-described reporter/editor, included no such valuable information for the public in any issue of her 'newspaper'. She claims her newspaper is a 'community newspaper'; I've already bebunked that ridiculous notion, you can read about that here