Albert “Leslie” Cochran, Austin’s famous cross-dressing transient and a perpetual losing candidate for office, was found unconscious near Interstate 35 and Oltorf Street Oct. 3.

He was taken to University Medical Center Brackenridge, has since begun to speak again and has been relocated to a rehabilitation facility at Seton Medical Center.

While Cochran’s condition is of real concern, the fact that his health has found its way into persistent news coverage is bothersome. Making Cochran a top news story may be a crowd pleaser, but it’s at the detriment of the quality and credibility of the news and it is insensitive to Cochran himself.

For years, Cochran’s flamboyance has been exploited, and for what? For photos uploaded onto Facebook pages; for magnets sold as novelties at record stores; for tales that we tell to our friends and family when asked just how eccentric Texas’ capital city really is. Basically, he has been exploited for entertainment.

Now, local print and television media are using his hospitalization as news fodder. We wish our colleagues in newsrooms across Austin would remember that being a respected source of news means applying professional standards to decisions about what events in a community get covered—and how they’re covered.

Cochran is ill now, more vulnerable than ever. We wish him the best in his recovery, and hope that it comes fully and quickly.

We also hope that his return to good health takes place out of the limelight, giving him the privacy and respect he deserves. If Austin values Cochran as one its own, we will all show him this kindness.

And while he recovers, we hope that local news outlets will focus on the important events of the day. We’ll even name a few: Health care reform, the economy, the war in Afghanistan.

That’s plenty for the front pages and evening news broadcasts, right?