Toronto Star media critic Antonia Zerbisias looks at some of the loony things that have been done in the name of news coverage in the tragic Terri Schiavo case.

Some excerpts:

"It appears the parents of Terri Schiavo have run out of options ... meaning the Schiavo feeding tube will soon be removed from the cable news networks."

You can count on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart to inject cynicism into what has been, you should pardon the expression, a media feeding frenzy over a brain-damaged woman. ...

Critics have correctly attacked CNN and other organizations for distorting the presentation of opinion polls on the matter. An MSNBC host intimated that Schiavo's husband Michael is a "Nazi'' for wanting to remove her feeding tube. Fox News has come under fire for failing to identify demonstrators as members of an anti-abortion group. It even invited cancelled TV psychic John Edward to read Schiavo's mind.

And, if all that wasn't disgusting enough, how about the syndicated radio host, Glenn Beck, who claims to have raised $5 million (U.S.) in pledges "to buy" Schiavo from her husband "if he will divorce her and give guardianship rights to her parents."

It was the perfect Easter week story, a life and death drama with talk of miracles and resurrections mixed in with some of the worst coverage of any event ever.

Doctors who never went near the patient were called upon to diagnose her. Politicians spoke as if they were medical experts. Just about any nurse who changed a bedpan in the same hospital at some time during Schiavo's 15-year ordeal might have gotten facetime.

Meanwhile, the media, cowed by the "moral values" crowd, rarely asked legitimate questions that needed asking. For example, how U.S. President George W. Bush, who cut short his vacation to preserve the "sanctity of life," can also justify the death penalty.

On the latter, I believe conservative Christians would argue they are against the taking of innocent life, but that if you have killed, all bets are off.

Today, there was one live scrum on CNN with the Schindlers' family doctor who said Terri was not in a persistent vegetative state -- but then admitted he hadn't examined her in several years.

I don't know if you can attack the Canadian media for going berzerk. I'm not speaking for CTV, but I believe the national newscast hasn't run a full Schiavo report in the last few days. Nor was it on The Globe and Mail's front page Wednesday morning.