Why does the conservative media insist on referring to her as Terri Schindler-Schiavo? Did she ever use that name herself? I’m aware that the Terri’sFight.org website was run by the Terri Schindler-Schiavo Foundation, but obviously they had a special agenda to present. The media are supposed to be independent of such an agenda, and yet the conservative outlets used Schindler-Schiavo as her last name. I already know why, though - it’s called spin. By saying Schindler, they were taking away some association with Michael Schiavo and focusing more attention on her birth family. They wanted us to feel that tie to her family, and to toss out a slur against Michael Schiavo in the process. But if Terri herself never used that name, then it’s pure bullshit for the media to use it.

Not, of course, that I expected anything different. But I do notice these things.