A recent news article featuring Mayor Thomas M. Menino and his knee injury/surgery got me thinking. Since when are health problems considered to be public knowledge? 

It seems that people had some issues about the fact that Mayor Menino hadn't let the public know about his knee injury until after he had already undergone the surgery. Apparently, he had fallen down some stairs at his son's home at Hyde Park, severing a tendon in his left knee. Undergoing a roughly 90-minute surgery conducted by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Thomas Thornhill at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Mayor Menino is expected to be hospitalized at least until Thursday (Nov. 12). Drilling holes in Menino's kneecap and using wire, Dr. Thornhill stitched the torn tendon on Menino's thigh muscles to the top of his knee cap.

What piqued my curiosity about this article was what happens next. According to one public relations specialist, "politicians have a responsibility to tell constituents when they are hospitalized, unless releasing the information would put the public safety at risk." What I want to know, is why does it matter? Personally, I don't see why knowing about every minute/ridiculous accident that your local politician gets in affects my (your) life. Tobe Berkovitz, an associate professor of mass communication and public relations at Boston University was also quoted in the article as saying that "In this case, to me it just seems like unnecessary secrecy." In my opinion, feeling the desire or need to know when/if a politician happens to fall down and injure his knee seems a little much. Why does it matter? I mean, don't get me wrong- tearing any sort of tendon in any part of your body sucks. It hurts (I'm sure). But it shouldn't be considered "news". I understand why knee injuries are reported in sports. What I don't understand is why they need to be reported in political news.

The article then goes on to cite the eight other times that Mayor Menino was hospitalized since taking office in 1993. What is that?? Who cares if he is private about his health problems. They're HIS health problems. Unless he catches something highly contagious, has an untreatable illness, or has gone psycho or something, then I don't really care how or when he tears his ACL. Or that he had kidney stones. Or if his stomach hurts. No offense Mayor.