SOUND OFF: Katherine McParland deserved better than media’s treatment of coroner’s report
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ON MARCH 26, MEL ROTHENBURGER WROTE AN ARTICLE defending the media’s release of Katherine McParland’s death. Perhaps if Mel would have been so polite to reach out to her family prior to publishing his article, he would have been able to gain a better understanding as to why her loved ones were furious at the release without consent or approval. It needs to be known that there is no shame when it comes to Katherine’s cause of death; the only shame is the disrespect from the media that has come from articles claiming to be uncovering a stigma, all whilst producing articles with little to no substance.
Mel’s claim of this being necessary in order to break a stigma falls short. If that was truly the reason, where were the interviews with professionals for mental health, addiction, domestic violence, etc.? Where were the resources (websites, phone numbers, pertinent articles, etc.) that people could better educate themselves with? Where were the statistics that could potentially bring to light shortcomings of our society? I ask you these questions, as THIS is how a stigma could be broken.
Katherine’s family did not receive her physical report until hours after the media released it — just another disturbing fact contributing to the disgust for the media. Respect was warranted, but regrettably not given. An opportunity to request revision and clarification to ensure fact vs. opinion was missed. There were inaccuracies in her report — irrelevant information, critical missing information and a bias that screamed off the page. Opinions from keyboard warriors have now been formed with little to no knowledge of the events that had been transpiring, let alone precautions and plans that Katherine had in motion to prioritize her wellbeing — yet another discrepancy with her report. Katherine deserved an unbiased accuracy in not only the report, but with every single article that has been written about her.
Because of the “urgency” to post this over a year after Katherine’s death, numerous people and youth are now having to relive a traumatic experience and loss of their loved one all over again without any mental preparation or coping tools at hand. Where is the decency? Or does that not fall into the plan of being the first to break this story? Given the opportunity, her family would have been more than willing to contribute to a story with substance and truth.
