Kevorkian to be Paroled in June: Media Gets K History Wrong (As Usual)

The murderer Jack Kevorkian is going to be paroled in June. He promises not to assist any more suicides. But that doesn’t mean he won’t be lionized in the press. The media love outlaws of a certain kind. I am sure Barbara Walters, Oprah, and Katie Couric will be tripping over each other to get the first interview.

Also note that once again, the media get it wrong. Kevorkian is described in this AP report, byline Kathy Barks Hoffman, as America’s most vocal “advocate of assisted suicide for the terminally ill.” Kevorkian never wanted to restrict assisted suicide to the terminally ill. Not only were more than 70 percent of his assisted suicide cases not terminally ill, but five weren’t even sick upon autopsy. Moreover, he argued that the disabled and perhaps even the depressed should have access to assisted suicide. (Most papers are carrying the AP report. However, the Detroit Free Press got his history basically right.)

But don’t expect Oprah, Katie, Barbara, or the AP to worry about such trivialities. Nor that Kevorkian saw assisted suicide, as described in his book Prescription Medicide, as a means to gain access to conducting medical experiments on people being euthanized. The truth gets in the way of the “compassion” narrative the media love. And so we will be treated to story after story of the myth of Jack the Compassionate, instead of the truth of Jack the Ghoul.