Do You See What I See?

On the news this morning, they ran a short segment about how gaining a pound or two a year increases a woman's risk of breast cancer. OK.  That's a valid warning.  Not new (if you Google it you can find reports going back to 2007), but certainly newsworthy.  

But the footage that they ran in the background was of all (anonymous) obese women as they walked down the street.  And when I say obese, I'm not referring to "having a BMI over 25" obese.  I'm talking "over 300 lbs, candidates for gastric bypass" obese.  

The average woman watching that broadcast wouldn't see herself in that risk group at all.  So what did the news report accomplish?  Aside from pissing me off?  Nothing.  

It seems that whenever weight is a factor in a news story, the visual is always excessive.  Overweight doesn't always mean obese.  And until people realize that, and see themselves in the category of being at risk for health issues, these stories will become increasingly relevant.

In choosing to run stock footage that provided some shock value, the morning news missed out on actually reporting.