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

My personal experiences with The Orlando “Slantinel” and it’s coverage of local issues, tell me that it is a leftist rag.
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I’ve been in Orlando for 30+ years ,, this rag has always been nicknamed the Slantinel and for good reason... thankfully they are losing readership and advertising dollars at a furious pace ... the scam where they provided free papers to almost 100,000 hotel rooms daily to boost their circulation numbers (and therefore ad rates) was caught onto and discontinued about a year ago.

Funny how these leftist rags hide their own problems ,, they pumped chemicals (primarily TCE) into the groundwater through a secret well in their basement for decades... but they have expunged all mention of it from any Orlando Sentinel online data...

SITE_ID,EPA_FACIL_ID,SITE_NAME,COUNTY,STATE,SITE_ALIAS_NAME,ALIAS_ID,ALIAS_ADDRESS,ALIAS_CITY,ALIAS_ZIP

0406240,FLD004081964,”ORLANDO SENTINEL”,ORANGE,FL,”SENTINEL COMMUNICATIONS COMPANY”,101,””,FL,

I am really glad this is a separate thread. It exposes well enough the manipulation of words by the far left and their grunts in the death battles, and invites good discussion and turns on some lights.

Further to my obsession with things Terri Schiavo and with victims the death crews are lining up for the next killing, like Lauren Richardson, I just pondered how the candidates stack up these days. With Grouchy and Karl remaining of the Marx brothers and Harpy gone, who else might there be as an antidote?

The name, Bob Barr, comes up. Hmmm, how did that happen? I stumbled across an interesting interview. Problem is I would rather hear fingernails scratching on a blackboard than suffer through any interview by John Lofton, but found the tail end of this twenty two minute clip quite telling. It is why we must persevere with our "obsession".

Exclusive Interview: Libertarian Presidential Candidate Bob Barr On God, Government, His Atheist Mentor Ayn Rand, Abortion, Homosexuality, Terri Schiavo — Not His Favorite Subjects

8mm

No. This is entirely an issue of the state. Private citizens do not have these powers. Personal wishes have nothing to do with it.

The Legislature recognizes that for some the administration of life-prolonging medical procedures may result in only a precarious and burdensome existence. In order to ensure that the rights and intentions of a person may be respected even after he or she is no longer able to participate actively in decisions concerning himself or herself, and to encourage communication among such patient, his or her family, and his or her physician, the Legislature declares that the laws of this state recognize the right of a competent adult to make an advance directive instructing his or her physician to provide, withhold, or withdraw life-prolonging procedures, or to designate another to make the treatment decision for him or her in the event that such person should become incapacitated and unable to personally direct his or her medical care. § 765.102(3), Florida Statutes.

Why did Terri’s husband get to make the decision about whether she should live or die?

Michael Schiavo did not make the decision to discontinue life-prolonging measures for Terri. As Terri's husband, Michael has been her guardian and her surrogate decision-maker. By 1998, though -- eight years after the trauma that produced Terri's situation -- Michael and Terri's parents disagreed over the proper course for her.

Rather than make the decision himself(which he could have done thereby negating all the idiocy that followed), Michael followed a procedure permitted(key word being "permitted",...not "required") by Florida courts by which a surrogate such as Michael can petition a court, asking the court to act as the ward's surrogate and determine what the ward would decide to do. Michael did this, and based on statements Terri made to him and others, he took the position that Terri would not wish to continue life-prolonging measures. The Schindlers took the position that Terri would continue life-prolonging measures.

Under this procedure, the trial court becomes the surrogate decision-maker, and that is what happened in this case. The trial court in this case held a trial on the dispute. Both sides were given opportunities to present their views and the evidence supporting those views. Afterwords, the trial court determined that, even applying the "clear and convincing evidence" standard -- the highest burden of proof used in civil cases -- the evidence showed that Terri would not wish to continue life-prolonging measures.

Terri did not have an advance directive.

Michael did not have the legal authority to kill Terri. He did not forfeit that nonexistent right and voluntarily petition the court to exercise his rights for him. The court did not have the legal authority to become Terri’s surrogate. That is expressly forbidden by law. The court did rule that Terri would want to be deprived of her rights and tortured to death, and that the clear and convincing requirement had been met. The evidence did not support such a ruling. All of the witnesses on Terri’s side provided clear and convincing evidence that she was a pro-life Catholic who opposed killing and being killed. Even Michael testified that she wanted to live for the next fifty years being taken care of by him. How does that translate into a desire to be tortured to death?

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