When the News Causes You Heartache

Mediaite founder/MSNBC host Dan Abrams has delivered his fair share of heartbreaking news, but found the shoe shoved painfully on the other foot this week after reading that one of his "few and truest loves" died by falling—or jumping—off a cliff over the weekend. In a touching piece on Mediaite, Abrams picks apart and reflects on the article written, in a nuts-and-bolts fashion, by the Daily Breeze's Sandy Mazza that reported Julia Rolle's death.

Mazza wrote that Julia was devastated by her mother's death from cancer two month's prior. "It was difficult—no, maddening—to see a story that depicted her as little more than a troubled soul who may have taken her own life," writes Abrams. "Tears welled up at the antiseptic nature of the description" of her body being retrieved by a lifeguard vessel. "We all should feel the emotions, frustration, rage and powerlessness of hearing frightening words about a loved one for the first time, written or uttered by people to whom we have no emotional connection. That doesn’t change the fact that we have to do it—and can do so responsibly, as Mazza did here," he concludes. "But it’s a heck of a way to get some important perspective." Click here to read the entire piece.
(More Dan Abrams stories.)