The premature death of actress Brittany Murphy at the age of 32 continues to give the British media something to write about.
Actually, there isn’t so much to write about, but that isn’t stopping the media trying.
“Brittany Murphy Died After Drugs Cocktail”
- shouted Sky News after the coroner’s report was issued this week. The sub-head was:
“Actress Brittany Murphy died after taking a cocktail of prescription drugs, a US coroner has said”
- and the first line of the main article again reiterated the cause of death as being drugs:
“The star had taken ‘multiple’ prescription medications before collapsing…”
But this wasn’t the main cause of death. That was the far less salacious pneumonia. And drugs weren’t the only secondary cause. That honour went also to iron-deficiency anaemia.
But this was not the emphasis of the Sky News piece. Only in the second paragraph did the other causes get whispered:
“The primary cause of death was pneumonia, with iron-deficiency anaemia being a secondary factor, along with drug intoxication.”
Sky then focused again on the drugs – what were they? When will we be told?
This was in sharp contrast to BBC News’ coverage of the coroner’s report. This clearly said in the headline that the cause of death was pneumonia, and focused on the coroner stating his belief that the actress could have survived if she had gone to a doctor.
(An aside, though – the BBC also thought to explain that iron-deficiency anaemia is a form of anaemia “when a person’s diet contains an insufficient amount of iron” – you don’t say?!)
The media loves it if a Hollywood star – or a jobbing actress which, in Murphy’s case, is more accurately the case – dies young. But it also loves to ascribe a sinister cause of death, one that it can use as a lesson to its readers or viewers. The media often likes to think of itself as our moral guardian.
But some parts of the media don’t seem to be able to cope with a more “ordinary” cause of death. Murphy had pneumonia. She thought it was flu, and tried to treat it herself with a variety of prescription medicines. It’s not a conspiracy.
Sadly, this type of coverage is nothing new. When Hollywood star Jean Harlow died suddenly in 1937, aged 26, media commentators were quick to purse their lips and assume her early death was due to what was seen as a fast-living lifestyle involving multiple marriages and affairs. Her image was that of a man-eating siren, and when she died, rumours abounded.
Her actual cause of death was renal failure.
Some parts of today’s media are still unable to see an early death as newsworthy in itself – there must be scandal somewhere. Take Jan Moir’s now infamous Daily Mail article on the death of Stephen Gately, nudging the reader into speculating about his lifestyle, when he died from a pulmonary oedema.
What’s the real moral of the story? That some people will die younger than others, regardless of their fame or status. If they’re famous, their early deaths should be news enough – but some of the media will always think that isn’t the case.
