|
Mediha Fejzagic DiMartino, dailybulletin.com
Neurologist Bhupat Desai measures current in the muscles of writer Leo Greene's back. Greene is blogging his struggle with ALS. |
It's never easy to read about someone who's dying, but one of the great things about online news is that you can find interesting and valuable stories anywhere. More importantly, stories that might once have been told only in a small corner of the world can now be read by anyone.
Such is the case with Leo Greene, a reporter and videographer with the (Ontario, Calif.) Inland Valley Daily Sun and Bulletin. This month he was diagnosed with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's Disease.
Greene writes poignantly about his illness in a the new blog Leo's Story set up by his paper. It'll have a sad ending -- ALS stories always do (unless something changes in the next few years). Nonetheless, this looks to be a touching and meaningful story.
How did I find out about Greene's blog? I receive Shoptalk, a television news industry newsletter (that has in some ways been eclipsed by TVNewser, a much newer newsletter/site/blog from MediaBistro). Shoptalk excerpted Greene's piece -- and it was so compelling, I clicked through to continue.
"Building community" takes many forms. Kudos to the Inland Valley Daily Sun and Bulletin for giving Greene a (now global) forum to talk about his illness; to Greene himself for writing such a moving piece; and to the new world of interactive media for allowing Greene's writing to reach more people than ever before possible.
