Next article in NY Times campaign to push old people into the crematoriums
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/magazine/20pacemaker-t.html?hp
I don’t disagree with a lot of points being made in this story, but it is interesting to watch how the Times is attempting to influence public opinion. This article is not “news”, it is advocacy journalism.
After thinking about it a bit more, I doubt the story is even factual – especially the bit about finding wires in her father’s ashes. Advocacy journalism has a long history of fabricating tear jerking stories about something sad to promote s political cause (in this story, it’s pretty clear that cause is assisted suicide and/or right to die). Some of those stories even win Pulitzer prizes. What editor is going to demand fact checking and corroboration of a woman describing the death of her parents?