THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

GOOD NEWS IS NOT BAD NEWS | 2001-12-22

As I said, some determined depressives will try to make the Fox exposure of Israeli spying seem like it is nothing. But the fact we are able to get information out despite both a liberal and a conservative blackout is tremendously good news.

This is just one more example of how good people -- including me -- will often work to make a good event seem bad.

We live in such a depressing world that it is a real effort to stop being depressed.

Some years ago it was announced that aspirin could be a major ally in preventing and minimizing heart attacks. Now plain old aspirin is one of the things the doctor makes me take regularly in my recovery. You are supposed to have it on hand at all times right along with nitroglycerine in case you have an attack.

The finding that aspirin could save so many heart attack victims was revolutionary, a sort of miracle. Right in our medicine cabinets there was a cheap effective pill to take which would cut fatalities from one of America's leading killers by some fifty percent. It was on all the networks.

But what really got to me about all the coverage was how SAD it was!

Not one single newscast announced the discovery of this medical breakthrough as anything but a danger to the public health!

In every case a stone-faced reporter announced the aspirin breakthrough with the same lightheartedness he would have brought to a major assassination.

How, you may ask, can one be sad about a breakthrough that could save lives by the thousands?

In case you ever want to make a happy announcement sound like a state funeral, you will want to know the formula. You present it as something that the public will go crazy with and turn into a disaster. So all the newsmen worried out loud that people would start eating and drinking heavily and ignore all health warnings because they would think aspirin would prevent all heart attacks.

I am not joking. This was the theme of every sad-faced announcement of the breakthrough in dealing with heart attacks.