TOW #27 - Child with Brain Tumor Article

Fox News had a very difficult task before them when they set out to write this article. Brain tumor patient Danny Nickerson, 6, went viral a short time ago with a video request for birthday letters, as he loved receiving mail. However, this article did not even get the chance to report on this bittersweet story. Fox did that a while ago. This article was a follow up. Nickerson died of his rare tumor after an 18 month battle. Fox had to bear this news in a light that would tug on heart strings, without tugging them out. A little sadness can be powerful in a news story, but no one reads Fox News to get depressed.

Reporting a story like this is easy to make sad. Through bluntness of language and intense candor, this article easily establishes its emotional punch. Calling it an "inoperable and chemotherapy resistant brain tumor" and stating that "less than 10 percent of patients live 18 months past the diagnosis" gives readers just enough emotional content to construct their own depressing images of young Nickerson. Still, this was the easy part. It would be difficult not to report on this story in a way that tells Nickerson's tale woefully. The hard part was not to overload readers.

Readers need closure in a story like this, and Fox News knows it. Two strategies used here were the reflection of the family's comfort into the audience and the arrangement of the facts. Infused throughout the article are references to God and Nickerson's place with him, in the form of quotes from his apparently religious family. These are used expertly to cushion the information, but not as effectively as the structure of the article itself. The depressing and clinical candor of the beginning of the article dissolves into sepia toned reports on the literal truckloads of birthday cards his video generated, along with general background that attempts to turn a death-report into a life-celebration.

Yes, the challenge was great. It is not easy to walk the line between emotional baggage and emotional fulfillment. However, Fox was up to it and without loading their article in distracting rhetorical devices or colorful language, they manage to solemnly and warmly report on the death of Danny Nickerson. They are effective in the most difficult to achieve way.