Fair warning: misanthropy alert

At the risk of killing yesterday's cool M&M vibe, I begin today by inviting the wrath of all good-hearted, sympathetic people, of whom there appear to be legions.

What I'm talking about is my weeks-long repulsion by the Seattle Times' coverage of Gloria S., (Seattle Times photo, right) a local girl with brain cancer. One of their sports columnists, Jerry Brewer, somehow stumbled onto this case and wrote many long, maudlin pieces about the girl and her disease, then expanded the coverage by launching a blog in which he chronicled not only her progress and the feelings of her family, but also his own emotions as he wrote about and interacted with them.

In a word, barf already.

There's nothing new about this kind of "journalism." Newspapers and TV have been doing it forever, and it sells. I've always hated these pieces though. And I hate the cliches of the genre: how people "battle" cancer; their x-long "fight" with the disease; the "cancer survivors." The stories themselves always feel so manipulative and cynical and just, well, gross. And I say that knowing that most of the reporters and editors producing them -- and even the patients and families who are their subjects -- are sincerely moved. Even so.

Ask anybody: These hearts and flowers stories have always made me sick, long before I got tumors of my own and became, I guess, a potential subject. That's why Mich famously mocked me by suggesting I get a dog: "Makes for a better picture," she said.

So now poor Gloria has died. I'm not without compassion, really. I feel bad for her family. I'm sure the girl suffered and I gather that she was a strong and gutsy little kid. I'm sorry for them all, really I am.

But the coverage this weekend has made me reach for my nausea meds. For weeks, as Gloria was in and out of the hospital and consciousness, her family and friends (and Brewer, and his prolific e-mailing readers) prayed for "a miracle." When she died Friday the family issued a statement, blogged by Brewer:

"After a four-year battle with cancer, Gloria received her miracle this morning, passing into our Heavenly Father's hands."

OK. Maybe it's because I'm a heartless atheist in addition to being a heartless, cynical journalist, but to my friends who have offered their prayers for my own condition: Please spare me such a "miracle."

This morning, I notice, the most read story on the Seattle Times site is Gloria's obit.