Even Good Reporters Make Mistakes

Kelly Turner from b5’s Grounded Fitness sent me a fabulous link to a Newsweek article entitled “It’s Not Just White Girls“. 

I really liked the way the article set about debunking (the word they use, and it’s a good one) the commonly accepted “rich white girl” definition of anorexics.

However, I would like to make one critical comment about the article:  The author committed a grave sin.  She gave sizes and weights.  That’s a no-no in the world of eating disorders reporting and smacks of sensationalism. 

Now, I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt; she probably didn’t realize she was making a faux pas.  After all, to the untrained writer of EDs, the following sentences probably seem harmless:

As a teen, the once chubby boy became so thin, his vision often blurred. He guzzled gallons of Lipton diet iced tea, and jogged five miles each day, dropping-at 17 years old and 5 feet 6 inches-to 104 pounds.

However, to those of us who have been anorexic or bulimic, we immediately start wondering if that is really too thin.  We ask ourselves if we ever became thinner than the boy being described.  And if the answer is “no”, we start wondering if we were really “good” anorexics or bulimics after all.  Maybe we didn’t exercise or starve enough.  Maybe we were gluttons.  Maybe ana was right all along!  Maybe…

In the end, this numbers game can lead to major triggers.

If you think I’m being overly sensitive, feel free to say so.  But even NEDA recommends that reporters not give out numbers in their “Tips for Responsible Media Coverage.”  So it’s not something I made up — promise!