October 21, 2003

I e-mailed the Florida Times-Union this morning. They had a front page article headlined, "Lawmakers take up fight for woman in coma."

There just seems be a pitiful apathy on the part of the media to get the story straight -- or get information from someone other than Felos.

Tony

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Forwarded Message:

Subj: RE: Reporting on Terri Schiavo story Date: 10/21/03 11:55:20 AM Eastern Daylight Time From: bortz@j.... (Bill Bortzfield) To: asalva1526@.... CC: kclark@j....

Dear Mr. Salvatore,

Thank you for the clarification. I am passing your e-mail along to one of our Metro editors.

Sincerely,

Bill Bortzfield Online News Editor Jacksonville.com 1 Riverside Avenue Jacksonville, FL 32202

-----Original Message-----

From: asalva1526@... Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2003 9:39 AM To: bortz@j... Subject: Reporting on Terri Schiavo story

On 10/21/03 at 10:38 a.m., Tony Salvatore asalva1526@... sent this message to you:

I am very pleased to see your news coverage of Ms. Schaivo's tragic plight.

However, I have noted significant inaccuracies in the stories, the latest being this morning's story by J. Taylor Rushing.

Terri Schiavo is not in a coma (although by now after 6 days without food or water, and morphine, she could well be) nor is she in a persistent vegetative state.

This is one of the key contentions by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Schindler.

They have video tapes, as well as testimony from medical professionals to support this.

The videos show her to be awake, looking around her, reacting to stimuli, smiling at her mother and making sounds as if to communicate with her family.

Nurses who cared for her at the nursing home have testified they were able to spoon feed her on occasion.

Her disputed condition is one part of the outcry against her husband's wishes to terminate her life -- and Judge Greer's ruling, to allow it.

Your reporter's headline and story do a great disservice and is grossly misleading.

I think this may be a case of lazy journalism and what is needed is thorough investigative reporting.

Thank you.

Tony Salvatore Captain USN (Ret.) 1526 Copeland Street Jacksonville, Florida 32204 904-381-9803