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September 27, 2006
Memo to Media: Do Your Job!
This morning, sports fans were greeted with the news that Dallas Cowboy receiver, Terrell Owens had attempted suicide. Apparently, Owens arrived at Baylor Medical Center suffering from an adverse reaction to painkillers; a problem he has reportedly had before.
Okay, this is what we know for sure:
1) Owens has a documented allergic reaction to painkillers.
2) He arrived at the hospital pretty sick.
3) He had a bottle of painkillers that are now empty.
Here are the "facts" that have turned this story into a story about a suicide attempt:
1) Some unknown source claims she knows how many pills Owens ingested since Sept. 18th.
2) This same source says she saw him ingest two pills.
3) A worker in the hospital claims Owens said that he had only ingested 5 pills previously, which somehow means Owen ingested the rest before arriving at the hospital.
4) The same worker or the friend (news sources 'report' both) are reported to have pryed pills from Owens fingers.
5) A hospital workers claims Owens replied, "Yes." when asked if he was trying to harm himself.
First of all the range of "facts" about this story are amazing. We got a guy with a history of allergic reactions to pain medication, who probably doesn't know where he is, answering "yes" to every question asked of him. We've got some unidentified person claiming she knows what's going on ( I wouldn't be surprised if Owens' pills are now making the rounds on the black market), amazingly no one has asked the simple question, "Terrell, did you try to kill yourself?"; and we've got every newspaper in America either reporting Owens attempted suicide or reporting that others have reported Owens' attempted suicide.
Come on now! The facts just aren't there, why are newspapers reporting as if they were? These are pretty serious accusations. It is irresponsible to just toss them around. The media really needs to do its job!
Posted by Jason at September 27, 2006 9:58 AM
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Terrell Owens tried to commit suicide last night by an overdose of pain pills.... [Read More]
Tracked on September 27, 2006 11:03 AM