Miss Manners

I don’t think I will ever read The Hook again.  Nor will I ever read anything by Courteney Stuart, published in The Hook or anywhere else.  Her callous disregard for a grieving human being is beyond comprehension.

This evening, in an effort to understand what types of psychiatric illness could manifest themselves in violence in young people, I did a google search that turned up an article written by Ms. Iceberg (aka, Courteney Stuart).  In the article she attempted to demonize two members of the Romando family, Noah and Lily.  Her journalistic skills boggle the mind.  I guess that is why she writes for The Hook, and not the New Yorker.  Bottom dwellers need to eat too.

In the article she draws conclusions that Noah, in particular, was interested in a website known as Satanic International Network.  She goes on to draw a similarity between “many modern Satanists” and Noah, with no proof or support, and, implies that if you are a Satanist, you are a murderer as well.  Great detective work, Ms. Iceberg.

She then goes on to Lily, who was a paid photographer and had her own photography company.  Apparently she didn’t like what she saw with her work, which admittedly had some edgy components to it.  Again, I hardly think you can draw a line between violence and darkness–especially with artists.

Not once does she consider other possibilities, such as a first time psychotic break, which oddly enough occurs between the ages of 19 and 25.  No, she just has to try to lead everyone to believe that it was pure evil and deliberate intent.

But the thing that incensed me the most was that she tried to contact the father within 48 hours of the incident.  REALLY?????  His three children haven’t even had a service yet, and she needs her fix of notoriety in the shambles she calls a paper at the expense of his grief.  She seems to have missed the finer points on lessons in tact where she would have learned that this might be a sensitive time, and that selling papers should take a moral backseat to “getting the interview.”  Absolutely shameful.  She should resign.

If there is any doubt that I am alone in these thoughts, I can put that to rest.  The response to her article proves that I’m not the only one with thinking along these lines.  What has happened to news these days?  It’s disgusting the way sensationalism takes over.  I’m respectfully asking for people to write to stuart@readthehook.com and protest her reporting on this article.

Thank you.