Orlando, Florida Newspaper Still Misreports Terri Schiavo as "Brain Dead"

Orlando, FL (LifeNews.com) -- Terri Schiavo died from a painful starvation and dehydration euthanasia death at the hands of her former husband over three years ago. Yet, Terri's family is still having problems getting the mainstream media to report the story of her life and death accurately.

In the most recent case, the Orlando Sentinel newspaper is under fire for a news article that wrongly referenced Terri Schiavo as "brain dead."

On Saturday, May 24, 2008, Aaron Deslatte, a reporter from the newspaper, published the story with the erroneous claim.

Terri's brother Bobby Schindler called and left repeated messages for Deslatte to contact him about the language.

On Wednesday, Orlando Sentinel representatives told Schindler to speak with Dana Eagles.

'Bobby kindly informed Mr. Eagles that using the phrase 'brain dead' to depict Terri's condition was patently false, explaining that the term 'brain death' is an authentic medical diagnosis and not an accurate term to describe a person in Terri's condition," the family told LifeNews.com in a statement.

Schindler offered to send Eagles Terri's medical documents proving no doctor, including those paid by Michael Schiavo, ever diagnosed Terri as "brain dead."

The next day, Eagles sent Schindler an email saying he reviewed the complaint with the editor of the state news section of the newspaper, Bob Shaw.

"We've considered the arguments you made in our phone conversation, but we've consistently used the term 'brain dead' in connection with the Terry Schiavo case, and we see it as a valid brief description," he wrote.

Schindler responded and indicated that the Orlando Sentinel has therefore been consistently wrong in describing Terri's condition.

He also told Eagles that portraying Terri this way was not simply a "point of view" - his or anyone else's.

"Medical facts remain medical facts and, as such, are not open to the interpretation of an individual reporter or newspaper," the family said.

The Schindler family asked pro-life attorney Michael Gibbs, who helped the Schindlers in their battle to stop Michael Schiavo from taking Terri's life, for help to resolve the matter.

Gibbs wrote to the Sentinel asking for a correction and the family finally received it as an additional comment posted at the bottom of the original story.

"Because of an editing error, an article about the resignation of Florida Supreme Court Justice Kenneth B. Bell misstated the medical condition of Terri Schiavo, a Pinellas County woman who died in 2005 after the removal of her feeding tube," the paper claimed.

"Schiavo, whose case was considered by the court, was severely brain-damaged but was not brain-dead," it said.

The Schindler family said it is not surprised that there is a "growing disdain" for the mainstream media because of misreporting like this.

"The often slanted and erroneous reporting not only taint their coverage, but with examples like this, expose just how biased and unwilling they are to make corrections even when it comes to the integrity of reporting the truth," the family concluded.

ACTION: Contact the Orlando Sentinel and tell it what you think of its biased coverage of Terri Schiavo. Contact Dana Eagles at deagles@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5427 and contact Bob Shaw at 407-420-5196 or bshaw@orlandosentinel.com.

Related web sites:
Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation - http://www.terrisfight.org

Yes, I’ve read this nonsense before. It is full of “we don’t know how she was hurt,” allegations that the Schindlers missed filing deadlines and the overall presumption that, when in doubt, the state should always err on the side of death.

What it DOES NOT address is by what authority the State of Florida was allowed to put a person to death without a grand jury indictment or trial by jury, nor does it explain by what authority a probate judge was authorized to ignore Congressional subpoenas.

Perhaps you might answer this question, if Terri was “incapable” of eating and drinking orally, why was it necessary to prevent, with armed officers, her family from trying?

It was the sentence of the state not the husband. The state alone has the power of death.

You are wrong. The State found the evidence to be "clear and compelling" that Michael Schiavo was following his wife's wishes not to to be kept alive using ex-ordinary means. Feeding tubes fall into such s category under the Fl. Constitution. You may not like Greers ruling but it was upheld up all the way to the USSC, which also slapped down the Bush administration for passing a "Terri's law" that was clearly a bill of attainder. The people of FL. voted every politician that thought he would profit from this hyper emotional media created event out of office...Charlie Crist who defied J. Bush on this circus while he was State Atty. General then went on to win election as Governor by a 70% margin. Judge Greer was re-elected to his office by an even larger margin against a candidate who ran on nothing but his opposition to Greer's handling og the Schiavo.

Lesson for all you moral nannies...keep your collective noses out of personal family affairs concerning end of life or death with dignity issues. You have done irreparable damage to conservatism and the GOP with your dogmatic ignorance...

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