# Poll: Should the media report on HOW a celebrity committed suicide? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 10, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829 "2018-06-10T17:17:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/21 "2018-06-11T14:24:25Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I don’t see a problem with reporting that a person committed suicide. > > The way it’s performed should be reported. If, it can be stated without exploiting the person. > > Jack shoved his head in the toilet and drowned. TMI and exploitive. > > Jack - cause of death, suicide by drowning would be more respectful. Works for me. Just a word or two about the method used will satisfy most people’s curiosity without being ghoulish or exploitive. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/22 "2018-06-11T14:42:20Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > David Carradine was exploited. Imho > > Death by hanging would have be sufficient. > > The other details didn’t need to come out. That’s an unfortunate example - Carradine didn’t commit suicide; he died accidentally while engaging in incredibly risky behavior. If anything, there was a public interest in reporting what he was doing at the time of death in order to highlight the significant dangers of it and warn off other people from taking similar risks (or at least without additional precautions). That said, the prurient nature of it automatically meant that the press and public would charge immediately off into inappropriate territory on the story, but the fact remains that in this instance more details could potentially save lives. Were it an actual suicide, however, increased discretion is probably better. In either case the objective is to do whatever keeps more people from following his example. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/23 "2018-06-11T16:56:04Z")
If you don’t report the facts, the gossips will spread rumors far worse than the reality. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2018, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/24 "2018-06-11T17:50:13Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Works for me. Just a word or two about the method used will satisfy most people’s curiosity without being ghoulish or exploitive. Why should other peoples’ curiosity be of concern? Suicide has got to be the most intensely personal and isolated moment in a person’s life, why should anyone be privy, by default, to any part of that moment? Does celebrity status strip a person of ALL right to privacy? (this sounds WAY harsher than I intended it) SO…I voted No. “it be better not to state the suicide method at all” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/25 "2018-06-12T14:05:40Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > Why should other peoples’ curiosity be of concern?.. For the reason **mbh** stated just above you. And it’s the job of the media to inform the public and, to some extent open to debate, satisfy their curiosity. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/26 "2018-06-12T14:14:03Z")
Tilting at windmills here, I’ll admit it, but…didn’t we used to publicly humiliate gossips & dirtbags? Why yes. [Yes we did](https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/learning/teachers/featured_articles/19981005monday.html). Seems like a better solution would be: leave what dignity the deceased has intact, and fuck up the liars & gossips. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2018, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/27 "2018-06-12T19:37:30Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > There’s concern that sensationalistic reporting on these deaths can have a “contagious” effect on vulnerable people. It is possible that, somewhere out there, there is an Anthony Bourdain fan who is teetering on the brink, and Bourdain’s death may push him over the edge. But there are a lot of other things that could just as easily push him over the edge. Depressed people do irrational things. Depressed people do self-destructive things. Sometimes there is an external event that makes a convenient scapegoat. But sometimes it’s just because their medications stopped working that day. So I still say, too much information is better than not enough information. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/28 "2018-06-13T07:55:34Z")
People tend to make up worse when they don’t know. We should presume truth is best the same way we presume innocence ---
**Author:** ![Delicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delicious)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/29 "2018-06-13T10:36:49Z")
Let their next of kin report what they want. If they think that it will serve the public good, or net them a nice bit of money for the juicy details, to tell all then go for that, if they just want to say ‘They’re dead, that’s all’ then that’s good too. It’s not like there aren’t a million other real and fake things that people gossip about constantly, it’s pretty shitty to badger a traumatised family for details then plaster them all over the internet and newspapers (assuming they still exist) So, no. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/30 "2018-06-13T11:38:40Z")
As long as they are sure it was deliberate, no more details are needed. Motivation (illness, depression, life circumstances) may matter, that is worth sharing if they have permision to do so, but method of death, why tell us that? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/31 "2018-06-13T11:52:21Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > As long as they are sure it was deliberate, no more details are needed. Motivation (illness, depression, life circumstances) may matter, that is worth sharing if they have permision to do so, but method of death, why tell us that? Because people who consume news want to know. If News Outlet “A” isn’t reporting it, then consumers will flock to News Outlet “B”, which is. “B” wins the battle to stay in business. Whether gruesome details of any news story are “needed” is determined by a vote from the aggregated viewing public. It doesn’t matter that _you_, or any other single individual, feel that such details aren’t needed in order to be fully informed, or do public harm when reported. It only stops when a critical mass of people express disapproval in a way that affects advertising revenue. [We all know that crap is king.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Laundry_(Don_Henley_song)) > [@Wikipedia](#): > > The song is about the callousness (and callowness) of TV news reporting as well as the tabloidization of all news. Henley sings from the standpoint of a news anchorman who “could have been an actor, but I wound up here”, and thus is not a real journalist. The song’s theme is that TV news coverage focuses too much on negative and sensationalist news; in particular, deaths, disasters, and scandals, with little regard to the consequences or for what is important (“We all know that crap is king”). The song was inspired by the intrusive press coverage surrounding the deaths of John Belushi and Natalie Wood, and Henley’s own arrest in 1980 when he was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and possession of marijuana, cocaine, and Quaaludes after paramedics treated a 16-year-old girl who subsequently died suffering from drug intoxication at his Los Angeles home. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/32 "2018-06-13T12:08:17Z")
Knowing how they do it tends to increase copycats. Preventing that is more important than any other reason given. It’s also important to not make grieving worse for people. They are the ones who matter, not people who want to know for no reason but curiosity. Yes, practically it may not be doable, at least, not unless society agrees it’s wrong. But that’s not the question in the OP. It is what should be done. I honestly didn’t even know how Robin Williams committed suicide, since it didn’t come up in the reporting I originally read, nor when I read about the disease he had that led to it. (I know now because I looked up to see if anyone actually reported how he did it. Seems they did.) I would never think to ask how someone committed suicide (or even if it was suicide) with friends. Why should we do it with strangers? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2018, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/33 "2018-06-13T12:26:35Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I think presenting the facts always is a better default option, unless there’s a clear reason not to. And I’m not going to trust any authority that’s deciding ahead of time for me that all suicides need to have their method of suicide concealed ‘for the general good’. I strongly agree with the first part – that presenting the facts is always a better default option. But I don’t particularly have a big problem with trusting a competent authority to adjudicate matters of privacy, something that happens all the time, and by saying “… unless there’s a clear reason not to” you’re acknowledging that sometimes we have to trust such an authority to make that judgment. But in general there is something vaguely disconcerting about hiding information, and in many cases all it does is lead to rumors that may be false or exaggerated and more damaging than the truth to whatever one is trying to protect. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829/34 "2018-06-14T16:53:31Z")
One difficulty is that the method is often known before the cause. The first news is “celebrity dead of an apparent heart attack”, then toxicology confirms that the apparent heart attack was a drug overdose, then folks find out whether that overdose was accidental or deliberate. Or someone found at the bottom of a cliff: Did they jump, or did they get too close to the edge while admiring the view? In some cases, it might never be known if it was intentional. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poll-should-the-media-report-on-how-a-celebrity-committed-suicide/815829.md?page=1)