Grow up, media. The guy was not DEPRESSED. He's PSYCHOTIC:

[Deja Q]

'Smiling' driver runs over 3 toddlers, 2 adults

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/23/mcdonalds.crash.ap/index.html

"He's been suffering with depression for years," she said, her voice shaking after being told by a reporter what happened. "Lord have mercy."

:mad:

Get the fuckin' diagnoses right. Depressed people are only in danger of suicide so let them do it.

Psychotics and sociopaths go around smiling when killing people, you sonsoffuckinbitches you.

"He came with the intent to hurt somebody," Boldman-Snyder said.

Well, most politicians are the same way. And your "food" isn't anything remotely healthy either, so what's the problem?

[Oeditpus Rex]

1. The 'media' can't make such a pronouncement

Dammit, Hyp! They're reporters, not psychiatrists!

[Deja Q]

2. Well, miscommunication leads to problems...

And the mentally ill have enough problems.

Making scapegoats out of the depressed isn't nice.

Indeed. What next, the guy is a loner too?

[Left Is Write]

3. However, if they are quoting someone...

they have to quote what the person actually said, not what they think the person should have said.

[Oeditpus Rex]

4. And it'd be unethical

and time-consuming* to go source-hunting until you found a shrink or something to corroborate your suspicions or a story slant.




*Consciously lifted from a Monty Python sketch, "Frontiers of Surgery," on the album "Matching Tie and Handkerchief," in which "Dr." Graham Chapman is discussing the problems getting body parts for grafts and says, "There just aren't enough road accidents. It's unethical, and time-consuming, to go out and cause them..."

But now that I've had to explain that, it isn't fucking funny anymore.

[Generic Brad]

5. Where's Tom Cruise when you need him?

He knows the history of psychiatry and is eminently qualified to accurately diagnose the smiling driver. My diagnosis would just be a string of swear words.

[blondeatlast]

6. It was clearly indicated that it was a direct quote from his mother.

Changing anything would have been (don't laugh, i know it's CNN) unethical.

[Giant Robot]

7. Technically some types of major depressive disorder

have psychotic features so that the diagnosis could be correct. Since it was a quote from this person, however, it would not have been right to change that. It would have been a nice opportunity to talk openly about mental illness to try to alleviate some of the stigma attached to it, so I can appreciate the frustration there.

[Redstone]

8. Excellent differentiation. Good post.

Redstone