Ugh, the media!

Sorry muggles! I’ve been absent for a few days. No major news has been announced in the past week regarding Harry Potter. The HP Lexicon trial is set to being on the 14th, so I’m sure that will make news next week. I’ll be sure to post the most up-to-date info on the case here.

What did make news is an interview with JK Rowling, in which she discussed her severe bouts with depression while living as a single mom on welfare. Rowling has talked about her depression before, but this was the first time she mentioned having suicidal thoughts. She finally sought professional help of course. She said, “Mid-twenties life circumstances were poor and I really plummeted...the thing that made me go for help . . . was probably my daughter. She was something that earthed me, grounded me, and I thought, this isn’t right, this can’t be right, she cannot grow up with me in this state.” It was around this time that she began writing the Potter books.

Now, this is a really serious story and I don’t want to spend too much time on the details. All the major media outlets covered this, and that, unfortunately, is what this post is about. I was TERRIBLY outraged by how the media handled this news. Every media outlet in print, on TV, or on the web that covered this story totally over dramatized it in a fashion that was hurtful and uninformative - something our media has become an expert at doing. They sensationalized it with headlines like “JK Rowling: SUICIDAL,” or “Potter author depressed and suicidal” with big huge letters and uncompromising sound bytes. This was a total insult to Rowling, who was discussing an incredibly difficult issue from her past, one that affected her, her family, and her children deeply. How about giving the woman a little bit more respect?!