I wonder if Natasha Richardson had an aneurysm — and what this says about the media *UPDATED*

As you know, Natasha Richardson, who is the mother of two young children, is in critical condition.  The story is that, because of a fall on the bunny slope at a ski resort, she suffered a brain injury and is now near death’s door.  Reading the various reports, however, which have witnesses describe a little fall that saw no contact between head and ground, I’m wondering if the actual story is different from that being reported:  Did Richardson suffer some sort of brain aneurysm that then caused her to fall?  That would certainly be more consistent with the accident being now described.

I’m not deeply invested in Natasha Richardson, finding the story tragic only insofar as I’d find tragic any story about a loved wife and mother in critical condition.  The story bothers me from another angle altogether, which is the media’s passionate attachment to a story line, even when additional information reveals that the story line may be illogical.

Here, when first reports came in, the only information was “fall, sickness, hospitalization.”  That logically led to a conclusion that the fall led to the hospitalization.  With more data — fall on the bunny slopes, no sign that she struck her head at all — one would think that the media would back of its original conclusion.  Maybe the fall did cause the injury but, on the new facts, it’s just as likely that an organic problem caused the fall.  I don’t know which is true, but I loath the media’s unwavering support for its original theory despite an increasing amount of evidence showing that their original conclusion is, at the very least, suspect.

And if you think this bears some relationship to the media’s sick commitment to global warming, despite a growing body of evidence that should cause them to question that commitment, you’re right.

UPDATERichardson has died.  R.I.P.

The NY Times obit is already using her death as a platform for mandating helmets.  As for me, I happen to love my ski helmet.  My head and ears are always comfortable, which was never the case with hats, which made my head too hot and left my ears too cold.

Because of celebrity death stories, such as Sonny Bono and whats-his-name Kennedy, my husband I decided long ago that our family would wear helmets.  But the important thing is we decided.  The number of deaths is not so high that any government should be forcing skiers into helmets.  And, as I said, I wonder if an autopsy (assuming they have one), will reveal that Richardson had a predisposition to bleeding that would take only a mild injury to trigger, or if death was from something other than a head injury.