Not the news

There are just some things that shouldn't make it to the news. I was listening today to a podcast about suicide and I learned that the media stopped reporting on the number of suicides by the general public some time ago. There are, at least, two schools of thought about this - that if you publicise the method of the suicide you can fuel people's ability to commit suicide; but that if you talk about why people commit suicide and what help could have been available you may be helping people who are themselves contemplating suicide. This explains in part the policy of publicising helping organisations when there is a television program about suicide or depression. More of concern was the news today that the father and step-mother of a murdered girl may have participated in an online game involving murder around the time of her disappearance. No-one needs to know this or the details of the game.