Angelina Jolie Has Double Masectomy

[RicoGregg]

Wasn't sure where to place this one, but it's worth posting. Details:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/14/double-masectomy-angelina-jolie-_n_3270390.html

 

[Mario500]

I would have posted the link in the "Off the Air" section if I were in your position since that section was reserved for topics and discussions unrelated to radio and television.

 

[Mark Giardina]

Question for all of you.

Do you think this merits news coverage or not?

I know some networks are going to go bats over this, but I just wondered if this story rates up there with the AP-Benghazi-IRS stories that are currently being reported.

 

[LKellerIII]

Question for all of you.

Do you think this merits news coverage or not?

I know some networks are going to go bats over this, but I just wondered if this story rates up there with the AP-Benghazi-IRS stories that are currently being reported.

It would be ridiculous to say that it rates with the top news stories (Benghazi, etc.), but it is newsworthy for 2 reasons:

1. Like it or not, Americans are fascinated by their celebrities, and want to know what they're doing. I would bet that the Jolie mastectomy story is all over the internet new sites, and even in the New York Times.

2. Jolie did not have breast cancer - she had a "preventive mastectomy," which is a fairly new and controversial thing. It is elective surgery women choose to have when genetic testing demonstrates that they carry the gene that will make future breast cancer more likely than not. This subject is getting a lot of press lately, so a celebrity doing it is double news.

 

[Morgan Wick]

Also, I don't know what a mastectomy actually involves, but a big part of Jolie's celebrity (as with most female celebrities) is boobs.

 

[KeithE4]

Also, I don't know what a mastectomy actually involves, but a big part of Jolie's celebrity (as with most female celebrities) is boobs.

Her health is more important. Besides, I'm sure that the doctors were able to make everything look as she was before the surgery.

 

[landtuna]

What hasn't been reported, AFAIK, is the type of surgery she had. There are several kinds of mastectomies:

Subcutaneous - removal of the breast tissue (basically a sweat gland) itself but leaving the skin, nipple and underlying muscle tissue intact. This is probably what she had as it lends itself to reconstruction easily.

Radical - this is the removal of the breast and underlying lymph system (the lymph system is very active in breast cancer and is the main source of the disease spreading). Because of the location of the lymph glands (underneath and underarm) nerves have to be cut and this is the reason this type of surgery requires a fairly length recovery time and also why women frequently have after effects such as tingling in the arm affected. Reconstruction is much more complicated in this type of surgery because it is so disfiguring.

Preventive mastectomy has been around since the early 80's but there was no definitive test to identify women at risk (except for family history) so it wasn't very frequent. A number of "DES babies" from the early 50's were identified as having elevated risk but now there is a gene that supposedly can predict an elevated chance of breast and ovarian cancer.

 

[LKellerIII]

Also, I don't know what a mastectomy actually involves, but a big part of Jolie's celebrity (as with most female celebrities) is boobs.

I don't think that's particularly true. Jolie is arguably very beautiful, but I don't think breasts are part of the attraction, in this case. I don't even think that's true of "most" female celebrities.

There are other anatomical features, you know - face, legs, tushy, etc. I think the theory that regular folks - men in particular - are obsessed with breasts - is overblown (sorry!)

To throw out some names of women who are considered beautiful - Sandra Bullock, Emma Stone, Gwyneth Paltrow, Olivia Wilde. When you think of these women, are breasts the first thing you think of?

And breasts can be reconstructed. Aside from whatever time off Jolie will need for reconstuctive surgery or recuperation, I doubt this will make a dent in her career.

 

[RicoGregg]

I would have posted the link in the "Off the Air" section if I were in your position since that section was reserved for topics and discussions unrelated to radio and television.

Well excuse me for not being as perfect as you apparently are.

 

[Rollo-Smokes]

Tonight's ABC evening newscast led off with the Jolie story -- with a good deal of fluff followed by medical analysis -- and did a full six minutes on it. CBS ran a 2 1/2-minute piece at the end of the first segment, and focused it on the medical specifics. I'm not sure what NBC did on it, but it did not lead off Nightly News. Both CBS and NBC started with other relevant stories, namely the IRS and AP bombshells.

 

[LKellerIII]

FYI - there were not one, but TWO articles this morning in the San Francisco Chronicle on this story. The longest story only mentioned Jolie's name in passing, but profiled a few women who had gone through the same preventive mastectomy and/or hysterectomy procedures following genetic testing that indicated that had a high risk of breast or ovarian cancer.

Jolie's high-profile operation - due to her celebrity status, surely - has brought attention to this story.

 

[SixtiesGuy]

Jolie's high-profile operation - due to her celebrity status, surely - has brought attention to this story.

That, plus the urgent need for something to divert attention from the administration's recent good news about the Benghazi attacks, IRS harassment of political opponents, and the Justice Department's unconstitutional review of AP phone records.

 

[MarcB]

It certainly shouldn't have led off the news (as it did here in Hartford on Channel 3 Eyewitness News), but it's important. Other woman who are thinking about having it done will now say "If Angelina did it, then I should do it." Much like the whole thing a couple weeks ago where the professional basketball player came out as gay.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I look at six newspapers online. One of them had this positioned as if it was a major story like the retirement of Pope Benedict. Ridiculous.

 

[vchimpanzee]

To throw out some names of women who are considered beautiful - Sandra Bullock, Emma Stone, Gwyneth Paltrow, Olivia Wilde. When you think of these women, are breasts the first thing you think of?

And breasts can be reconstructed. Aside from whatever time off Jolie will need for reconstuctive surgery or recuperation, I doubt this will make a dent in her career.

In the case of Bullock and Paltrow, they both have beautiful hair and a beautiful face. I wouldn't even think first of boobs.

I saw "Girl: Interrupted" several weeks ago. She was fantastic.

 

[SixtiesGuy]

I look at six newspapers online. One of them had this positioned as if it was a major story like the retirement of Pope Benedict. Ridiculous.

Helping make America what it is today:fatally uninformed about our government, which affects everyone who lives here, not just a subset.

 

[landtuna]

I look at six newspapers online. One of them had this positioned as if it was a major story like the retirement of Pope Benedict. Ridiculous.

The retirement of the Pope affects primarily Catholics and does not directly affect a majority of those. Conversely, breast and ovarian cancer is a huge concern to half the adult population of this country. Had I been news director I would have put the story as a leading medical news/human interest story and the pope would be consigned to the religion pages.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I look at six newspapers online. One of them had this positioned as if it was a major story like the retirement of Pope Benedict. Ridiculous.

The retirement of the Pope affects primarily Catholics and does not directly affect a majority of those. Conversely, breast and ovarian cancer is a huge concern to half the adult population of this country. Had I been news director I would have put the story as a leading medical news/human interest story and the pope would be consigned to the religion pages.

You are correct about the Pope. Where I live there are only a few Catholics but the number is growing as people move here from elsewhere. I was trying to think of something less terrible than, say, the Boston Marathon or the Oklahoma tornadoes. But those stories would have gotten even more visibility.