When my computer was down, I didn't get to weigh in on a lot of issues, but one drove me the craziest. In the last days of Terri Schiavo, I didn't see ANY balanced reporting. Every lead story on TV, every lead article in the paper was a variation on "Terri Schiavo's parents continue to fight to keep their daughter alive" or "Terri Schiavo's parents fail in their latest attempt to fight for their daughter." CNN Headline News was reduced to airing the years-old doctored footage of Terri edited to mislead people and backed with New Age guitar music. There wasn't ONE story I saw -- and I started looking obsessively -- that began "Michael Schiavo continues to fight to fulfill his dying wife's wishes" or "Michael Schiavo continues the fight to let his wife die with dignity." Drove me bonkers. Couldn't one news outlet at least have pretended to do balanced coverage?
So now that the MSM has moved on, we get a quiet news item on A-7 of The Washington Post that, by the way, all those baseless absurd charges against Michael Schiavo about abusing his wife were absolutely without merit. Per the Washington Post:
In the four years after Michael Schiavo won the right to remove his wife's feeding tube, the state's social welfare agency investigated 89 complaints of abuse but never found that he or anybody else harmed Terri Schiavo, records released late Friday show.
The state Department of Children and Families repeatedly concluded that Michael Schiavo ensured his wife's physical and medical needs were met, provided proper therapy for her and had no control over her money. They also found no evidence that he beat or strangled her, as his detractors have repeatedly charged.
The 45 pages of confidential abuse reports made public by court order show that despite the litany of complaints, investigators never found that Terri Schiavo had been abused.
The records show that DCF took seriously its duty to investigate abuse allegations, which became familiar fodder on the Internet: Terri Schiavo was dirty and unkempt. She did not receive proper dental care or rehabilitative therapy. She was kept in isolation. Her husband beat her and broke her bones. He wanted her dead for her money or to remarry. He pumped her full of insulin, hoping to kill her. He often asked, "When will (she) die?" Her lips were cracked and dry.
But DCF investigators looked into the charges and closed them as unfounded with such comments as "the spouse has always been courteous and very compassionate toward his wife" and "all her needs being met."
