MSM reporting of Matthew Perry's death screams "Blame the Victim!"

Intentionally steering away from questions about cardiac arrest

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I first heard about the death of Matthew Perry on Sunday morning. It wasn’t long before friends started sending me photos of Matthew declaring his support of, and his participation in COVID-19 vaccination. He even sold T-shirts so his fans could also show how cool it was to be a member of his club.

This should not surprise anyone. Matthew Perry lived in Los Angeles County, and worked in Hollywood, in an industry that mandated the vaccine for everyone. It was simple. Get the shot if you want to work. And in Hollywood, in order to work, everyone else has to get the shot, too. Not just actors. Everyone, from the coffee kids to the directors, to… everyone. Talk about peer pressure…

I didn’t dig in. I didn’t go down the rabbit hole. I loved Chandler Bing. Mainly because my youngest daughter really loved Chandler. He was her favorite. I know she is grieving right now, as many other young adults are. They felt like they knew him. He was their personal Friend. And because she is grieving, I am also grieving. My grief is compounded by the fact that I know way too much about what is happening with the increased deaths in young adults. This one really hurts.

When I got on Facebook last night, the first post I saw was one from a friend who is a psychologist. She wondered why, out of all the tributes being published about Matthew’s passing, she hadn’t seen anything from any of the actors who were part of the nuclear “family” on “Friends.” (I haven’t verified this, but after reading through the comments, I believe it’s true. Many of the people who were commenting are people I know to be excellent researchers, and if there was something missed, it would have shown up.) One person commented that they are most likely in deep shock, and taking some time to process. That certainly makes sense. The two images that kept coming to mind were these:

These images of Damar Hamlin’s Buffalo Bills teammates show their reaction to his cardiac arrest. At the time when it happened, my first thought was that the looks on their faces reflect two things:

1. Shock and concern for their teammate.

2. Fear about when it might happen to them.

These are not stupid people. They are not unaware of the concerns of what was forced on them as a condition of being able to continue their football careers. Actors are not stupid people, either. I believe the absence of comments in the immediate following of Matthew Perry’s death by those who seemed to us to be closest to him may be due to similar feelings of shock and sadness, compounded by fear. It is also likely that for those who have known him through his very public struggles with drugs and alcohol, staying silent until more is known is a sign of respect and love for their friend.

Which brings me to the news…

I eventually did go to “the news,” as I often do, just to see what’s being said that might be influencing people’s opinions. The first response that came up when I ‘Bing’d’ “Matthew Perry death” was this:

Who reads BANG Showbiz, anyway? Well, today for example, anyone who uses Bing as their default search engine (as Microsoft intends). This article is elevated in the search results because it’s what they want us to read.

The article mentions COPD and notes Matthew was a heavy smoker. He joked that fans could track his drug use by monitoring his weight and facial hair on Friends reruns. If he was skinny, he was using pills. If he was heavy, he was using alcohol. If he had a goatee, “It was lots of pills.” Notice that the choice of photo for the article shows Matthew with a goatee; the inference being, “It was lots of pills.” The article notes that while Matthew had been self-reporting that he was maintaining sobriety, people who had seen him out and about expressed concerns about him being “overweight and disheveled” - the inference being, he was using alcohol AND pills. The headline does what headlines do. It screams “Matthew Perry died of a drug overdose!” – which seems to be what the majority of “news” outlets want us to believe.

If they aren’t leading you to the “drug overdose” conclusion directly, they are doing it in a more round-about fashion. “Matthew Perry drowned in his hot tub!” How does one drown in a hot tub? He must have been using drugs (let us tell you ALL about THAT!). The drugs must have caused him to pass out and then he drowned. Ergo… “Matthew Perry died from a drug overdose!”

How else might we look at this?

According to reports, the drugs found were drugs prescribed to people who have been diagnosed with mental illness. Anti-anxiety meds and anti-depressants. COPD medications are mentioned, along with the information that “Matthew was a heavy smoker.”

A lot of people with serious mental illness are heavy smokers. The nicotine calms them, can help to regulate their moods, and in the case of schizophrenia, nicotine may actually help the pre-frontal cortex function more effectively. Smoking may also be related to the onset of schizophrenia, as nicotine intake and the changes in oxygen transport triggers the release of dopamine and adrenaline. Excess dopamine in the brain is one of the long-term theories about why some people develop schizophrenia. In bipolar disorder, the adrenaline/dopamine rush feeds the “high” that comes with hypo-mania and mania, which in itself is addictive and is a major reason why many people diagnosed with bipolar disorder don’t stay on their meds. They love the high and the medication takes that away.

Our collective judgement about mental illness and addiction makes us vulnerable to manipulation.

As a society, we are very judgmental. And the “news” takes advantage of this collective character flaw.

1. They use it against us when they want us to “click” and raise their ratings.

2. They also use it against us when they want to steer us away from something.

In this case, I’m betting what we’re experiencing is a bit of both.

The “news reports” I saw yesterday were playing up the idea that Matthew died from a drug overdose, which resulted in him drowning in the hot tub. Drugs and drowning are the headlines. Buried at the bottom of a couple of articles (which I did not save and now cannot find) and suspiciously absent from most – is mention of what should be obvious to anyone when a 54 year-old man who is a known heavy smoker dies suddenly – cardiac arrest.

It appears to me that what is happening is the mainstream media machine has gone into “bury this” mode. That’s hard to do with something this big, which means they have to hit hard and heavy from the outset to convince the majority of mainstream media consumers that “Matthew Perry was a drug addict who is responsible for his own death.” Period. Move on. I can just hear all of the discussion between otherwise upstanding citizens of this country as they place judgment on Matthew while downing their fourth beer of the evening. Or digging into their fourth slice of Everything Pizza while guzzling their sixth Mountain Dew of the day. If this description fits, a bit of self-reflection is in order.

It is very likely that Matthew’s history of drug, alcohol, and nicotine addiction contributed to his death. It is also likely that Matthew was struggling with mental health issues, which should not shock anyone who has seen his comedy. He was brilliant. Oftentimes, brilliance of that magnitude comes at a cost. Bipolar disorder, in particular, has long been known to be associated with extremely high intelligence and off-the-charts creativity. Anyone who knows someone personally who struggles with bipolar disorder will no doubt understand why rates of addiction are so high among our most creative and beautiful souls. The highs are internally produced, and they are absolutely addictive in nature. And as high as the highs are, the lows are… unspeakable. And they last at least twice as long as the highs. And so we chase. We chase the high that comes from being the best. The best actor. The best comedian. The best “Friend.” The one everyone could love and relate to. The funny guy. The one with the quickest wit.

And then the crash. And the self-medication. Trying not only to attain the high… trying to bury the pain. The very real, physical, gnawing pain of anxiety and depression. The feelings of worthlessness and guilt. Alcohol makes us forget our troubles for a few hours, and then makes the depression worse. It also disrupts our sleep, especially between 3-4 a.m. when our livers are feeling particularly stressed. Opiates are particularly attractive at this point. Powerful pain killers don’t just kill physical pain. They make you feel nothing. Until they wear off. So, you take more. And that’s how it happens.

I have no idea if Matthew Perry was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me from what little I know about his private life, which is now becoming very public. I know a lot about bipolar disorder and addiction, as you might have surmised by this point. My mother was diagnosed with manic-depression (now known as bipolar disorder) in the 1960s. She had three “nervous breakdowns” (aka serious manic episodes) resulting in hospitalizations of three months duration, and this happened during my first decade of life. Mom was addicted to Quaaludes for thirteen years. She took them exactly as prescribed by her psychiatrist, who slept through her sessions with him, and who she absolutely loved because he gave her pills and didn’t require anything of her. My father became a raging alcoholic who abandoned us when I was twelve.

My mother died at 71. By the last decade of her life, she had two (2) gallon-sized Ziploc bags to hold her daily medications, many of which were psychotropic meds. And then there were the thyroid meds and heart meds to dampen the symptoms of the damage caused by the psychotropics. Mom was also a heavy smoker. As she aged, the combination of mental illness, the prescription medications, and the cigarettes took a considerable toll on her body and on her appearance. She was definitely overweight and disheveled, even though she rarely drank and never took illicit drugs. She was unable to care for herself in any capacity for the last five years of her life. She stopped speaking completely 7 months before her death. The last word she said to me was “dignity.” I knew what she was asking of me because during the 1990s we watched the televised trial of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. We had many discussions about assisted suicide and my mother was a supporter (ideologically and financially) of the Death with Dignity movement. For anyone who wonders, I was a coward. I still carry guilt because I couldn’t help her.

My mother was brilliant. She was a gifted teacher who made a significant impact on the lives of countless numbers of children. She was an incredible pianist and shared her gifts with her community through her work in multiple churches and through volunteer work with the community theater and arts groups. People loved her.

Judging from the accounts of those who knew Matthew Perry best, he was an incredible person. He was caring and giving of his time, money, and energy, especially to those who were suffering from addiction. He was reportedly very active in helping others achieve the sobriety he had worked so hard to attain.

Thinking people need to ask themselves, “WHY is the mainstream media focusing so hard on Matthew Perry’s history of addiction?”

This morning I found an article that was posted on a site called Independentnews.com, which appears to have originated on Extra! and includes information from an interview between Extra! journalist Billy Bush and Matthew Perry’s Pickleball Coach, Matt Manasse.

Screen shots:

The article continues:

“After leaving his pickleball game, Matthew went home and is believed to have asked his assistant to pick up a new iPhone and some prescription glasses for him. The assistant returned two hours later and reportedly found the actor unresponsive in the hot tub.” (source)

From Billy Bush’s Instagram:

I wanted to see if any of the “mainstream media sources” were reporting on this information, as the fact that the last person to spend time with Matthew was saying he was fatigued for days before his death, and ended his game early on the day he died. There are some mainstream sources reporting that he loved pickleball, but when it comes to the fact that he was fatigued, it’s crickets. A couple of examples here and here.

Other news outlets that are reporting on the interview with the pickleball coach and partner include the following:

Hmmm… Notice anything? I did the search at 11:28 this morning (Monday, October 30, 2023). Multiple news outlets in other countries are reporting about the fatigue reported by the last person to spend significant time with Matthew Perry before his death. And the mainstream media in the United States hasn’t picked up on this? Yes, they have. They are just refusing to report it because it might damage the narrative that “Matthew Perry died from a drug overdose!”

Instead of reporting on this very pertinent information, MSM in the U.S. is doubling down in their effort to destroy the memory of this brilliant man, in their determination to protect the pharmaceutical industry from any negative press. They are continuing to promote the “drug overdose” theory by focusing on the fact that the autopsy lists cause of death as “deferred,” noting that “prescription medications found” are part of the ongoing investigation.

From CNN:

“ ‘In cases where the cause of death cannot be determined at the time of autopsy, a deferred certificate will be issued until additional studies have been completed,’ according to the LA coroner’s guidelines.

“An autopsy has been conducted, but examiners are awaiting the results of toxicology reports in order to determine Perry’s cause of death, the medical examiner’s office told CNN on Sunday. Such reports can take weeks to complete.

“Investigators are planning to use the toxicology reports to determine whether any foreign substances may have contributed to Perry’s death, according to a law enforcement source.”

And the L.A. Times:

The Los Angeles Times article reads:

“Perry was found dead Saturday at his Pacific Palisades home. He was 54.

“What do we know about his death?

“Officials received a medical call from Perry's home overlooking the Pacific Ocean at around 4 p.m. Saturday reporting that the actor was in a hot tub and not breathing. The identity of the caller has not been revealed.

“On Monday, officials said the Los Angeles Fire Department had arrived at 4:07 p.m. and the Los Angeles Police Department at 4:10 p.m. 

" ‘An adult male patient was deceased prior to first response arrival,’ the LAFD said in a statement. ‘The patient was found by a bystander who had re-positioned the victim where the head was out of water’ in a freestanding hot tub. 

“‘Firefighters pulled the victim out of the jacuzzi and did a quick medical assessment to find he was deceased,’ the statement read.

“No cause of death has been determined. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office has launched an investigation, which will likely take months and include toxicology tests.

“The medical examiner has completed an autopsy, but a cause of death was ‘deferred,’ officials said.

“Law enforcement sources told The Times that no illicit drugs were found at the home.

“LAPD Capt. Scot Williams, who leads the Robbery Homicide Division that is investigating Perry’s death, said Sunday that the ‘cause of death may not be known for some time, but at this point foul play is not suspected.’

“One law enforcement source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing, said prescription medications recovered at the home will be part of the review, which is common practice.” (source)

The United States mainstream media is focusing on the fact that the cause of death has been “deferred” and that toxicology reports could take weeks, adding that while no illegal drugs were found, prescription medications found at the scene are part of the ongoing investigation. Inference:  This was a drug overdose. No mention of possible cardiac arrest. No mention about the interview with the pickleball coach, which had been published at least 12 hours prior to the time when the CNN and LA Times articles were released.

This is a case of pharma-sponsored character assassination if I have ever seen one. The obvious goal is to saturate the public opinion with the media manta, “Matthew Perry died from a drug overdose!” Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Influence the minds of the public so that by the time the cause of death is announced, weeks or months down the road, there will be no way to undo the damage to Matthew Perry’s reputation, regardless of what the toxicology reports reveal. And you can be absolutely certain that’s intentional. He’s just another sacrificial lamb to the gods of Big Pharma.