Hauser Cancer Saga Continues

What appeared as a high-level state, low-level national story yesterday seems to be ramping up in frenzy. Today, the media is calling 13 year old Daniel Hauser "Medicine Man" after his mother testified in court that her son holds the position of elder and medicine man in Nemenhah Band.

Brown County stated that they do not believe Daniel has any idea of what it means to be a medicine man or an elder, and within documents filed, Daniel cannot read because of a severe learning disability, further hindering his ability to understand his circumstances. He has stated that he will kick and fight any attempts to force him to submit to the chemotherapy injections. Without treatment for his very treatable cancer, he has less than 5 percent chance of survival.

Phillip Landis founded Nemenhah Band in the 90s, and was supposedly diagnosed with cancer that he treated with natural remedies. So convinced he was these remedies that cured him, he fraudulently advocated natural treatments and landed in an Idaho prison for four months.

Two things come to mind when reading the updated AP article: First, there must be something major going on that someone has decided we need to be distracted from as this story now has the makings of a media frenzy. Secondly, how the media is dryly presenting thin facts screams "cult" and extremist fundamentalism of a small religious group could result in exponential growth with all the media attention.