When it comes to the media, it’s often what you don’t see that is the most telling.
This week’s Beachcomber includes a story about Washington’s recent passage into law of the bill formerly known as House Bill 2793, now the Suicide Awareness and Prevention Education for Safer Homes Act. And while it might be a bit of a mouthful, it is also an extremely important piece of legislation.
You wouldn’t know that, though, searching for media coverage of the story. You’ll find but a few small stories here and there, mainly in smaller-market publications similar to The Beachcomber, a couple of lesser-known online outlets and publications from the University of Washington, where the suicide prevention group Forefront is based.
The usual suspects representing major news media locally have been disappointingly silent. Aside from an op-ed written by Rep. Tina Orwall, (D-Des Moines) you won’t find anything about the new law or the bipartisan support it received in The Seattle Times, nor The Stranger, the Times’ supposed watchdog, despite a piece written in January by former islander Dan Savage about how dangerous it can be to have guns in the home — talk about a missed opportunity.
It’s a TV outlet that wins the day here. KING 5 has broadcast a few segments on the law. Bravo to them, particularly for featuring Kathleen Gilligan and helping her tell Palmer’s story.
As the Centers for Disease Control’s statistics show, suicide is the second leading cause of death for people ages 10 through 34 in this country, fourth for ages 35 through 54, with firearms being used in over half. Washington’s suicide rate is 14 percent higher than the national average, again with firearms being the most frequent means (51 percent). Last year alone, 1,111 people took their own lives in this state, which means 567 of them used guns to do so. Is major media so focused on its own political agendas that the work being done to save these lives doesn’t matter?
Regardless of how you feel about guns and gun rights, this law brought all sides together to address what is essentially a public health emergency. Putting away the politics allowed this law to happen, yet that, apparently, isn’t newsworthy.
We don’t agree. The Seattle-based media that have ignored this need to do better. Suicide prevention activists and gun rights groups working together to try to save lives is something the public should know about. Not talking about suicide as a mainstream issue only serves to perpetuate society’s blind spot to it that Gilligan has so poignantly and heartbreakingly described.
To drive an agenda of silence that appears to be aimed at either maintaining an atmosphere of confrontation, or not wanting to publicize the positive efforts of a group or groups to support one’s own narrative, is the media’s way of showing its ugly underbelly. Unfortunately, that is what the people of this state have been offered. In this era of constant conflict and stalemates in the political arena, we (the media) should be championing cooperation. Kudos to outlets like the Kent Reporter, Crosscut.com and Spokane’s Spokesman-Review, as well as the Second Amendment Foundation’s GunMag.com for reporting on this story.
