The headlines are sensational. In New York City, a couple committed suicide by jumping from their apartment building. Furthermore, the initial reports eagerly pushed the narrative that they killed themselves over rising health care costs. After all, this was just hours after the Senate scuttled the newest health insurance bill.

Here is what the New York Post reported on their Facebook page:

Here’s how BET reported it on YouTube:

And here is how Fox News is still reporting the story, at least at the time of this writing:

However, health care didn’t seem to be an issue in the suicide at all.

Here’s the clincher from the original New York Post article:

A law enforcement source at the scene told The Post that authorities at first believed that the couple struggled with health care costs. But an NYPD spokesman said later that there was no mention of medical-cost struggles in the notes. (boldface mine)

But, never mind the facts — the media looked at the original NYP headline, said “Ooh! Shiny object! Hot take! Clicks!” and went charging down that road.

Fox News also posted this nugget — a tweet from someone who claimed to have seen the entire suicide note:

Funny thing, though, if you click on the link to the tweet, you get this:

And here is the only published picture of the note. As you can see, it is partial, and obviously contains no apparent mention of health care costs:

Now some of the media are singing a different tune. Remember the original headline from the NYP article above? Here’s what it looks like now:

Furthermore, check out how the British Daily Mail first reported the story, as seen on their Facebook page:

And. . . here’s the update:

Do you notice something missing? Like a reference to health care costs, perhaps?

In any case, this is a terrible story about a couple who became so entangled in debt that they thought they needed to take their lives. According to the Daily Mail, which quotes public records, chiropractor Dr. Glenn Scarpelli and his wife Patricia owed $213K in taxes to the federal government. They also owed $42K to the state. Moreover, these debts had been piling up since 2003. On top of that, the devoutly Catholic Scarpelli’s sent their two children to an elite Jesuit private school, which now charges nearly $9K per year. Both the children, now 19 and 20 years old, are attending college.

Truly this is a horrendous tale. I think many of us can relate to having financial difficulties, although most of us don’t get to that magnitude. Moreover, I think of those two adult children having to face the self-inflicted deaths of their parents. I don’t care how young or old those two children are — I can’t imagine the shock they’re dealing with right now.

However, I also am infuriated at a media which failed to check out their sources. Why didn’t any of them follow up on the NYPD statement? What would it take to call the NYPD to confirm what was in — or not in — the suicide note? I think we know the answer. The media jumped on this story to play politics. Well, shame on them. And then they get into a huff when the rest of us yokels call them “fake.”