Don't We All Love a Good Story?

Meghan Daum on how the media spins real people's tragedies into stories we love:

"[Jaycee] Dugard and [Elizabeth] Smart seem to have successfully made the transition to survivor, but to turn them into generic symbols of hope or, worse, to saddle them with the job of being publicly loving, forgiving and grateful despite what they endured minimizes their trauma and panders to audiences by creating a false sense of closure."

I've made this observation to myself before. It always makes me feel a little queasy when victims of horrific crimes are paraded in front of us masses for our entertainment and edification ... even though those victims seem perfectly willing themselves to undergo all the exposure.