So Says I

It's true that when the New York Times says something is a trend, it officially is. Sometimes the paper of record is a little slow to the party, Twitter comes to mind, but the Times often uses its clout to do fine stories on what newfangled thing the kids are up to these days. Other times, they just rely on anecdotes to suggest an activity is much more important than it really is.

Take for instance this story published recently, "Home Burials Offer an Intimate Alternative," about how supposedly more people are laying their loved ones to rest in their back yards. I don't know anyone who does this, and I kinda doubt you do too. Between the two of us, that's a lot of people who aren't being buried at home. Instead, the Times found a few people who really believed this was a good idea and added just enough stats to make the thing publishable, weird as the story is.

I love when the Times presents strange trends people enjoy just because, but stuff like this should not be treated as if it were a popular alternative. This isn't a profile, but an article on something seen as an up and coming method. As per ususal, here's the money 'graph.

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Advocates say the number of home funerals, where everything from caring for the dead to the visiting hours to the building of the coffin is done at home, has soared in the last five years, putting the funerals “where home births were 30 years ago,” according to Chuck Lakin, a home funeral proponent and coffin builder in Waterville, Me.
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Finding someone who supports any unusual idea is not difficult, but the Times suggests that this story is much more than a collection of those people. Such is the life of leading the national media.

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A clever shot at journalism from a Web site known for such things.

This fits that writeup pretty well, I think