Poor Tracy Morgan

Why did some outlets show pictures of him getting sick?

Do not do a web search for “Tracy Morgan.” Trust me. If I can spare another person from the gut-churning experience I had yesterday morning, my work will not have been in vain.

Morgan had a “medical emergency” at the Knicks-Heat game Monday night. On Tuesday, Morgan posted a photo of himself giving a thumbs-up while lying in a hospital bed. He thanked fans and the crew at Madison Square Garden for their concern. “I need to shout out the crew that had to clean that up. Appreciate you!

“More important, the Knicks are now 1-0 when I throw up on the court so maybe I’ll have to break it out again in the playoffs.”

Yes, Morgan threw up courtside during the game. He had to be taken away in a wheelchair. The doctors who treated him think he had food poisoning.

It’s great that Morgan is okay. The comedian has had some serious health issues the last several years. Diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 1996, Morgan says he didn’t take it seriously until a doctor told him that he might have to have his foot amputated if he didn’t control the disease. In 2010, Morgan had a kidney transplant. Four years later, Morgan’s limo was rear-ended by a commercial truck, killing his friend James McNair and leaving Morgan in serious condition.

Morgan was praised during his comeback a few years later, but his fans and the media continue to watch him cautiously. Does he look healthy? Has he been in the hospital recently? Is he well enough to keep performing?

It’s nice to care about someone. It is not nice to show pictures on social media and certain news sites of someone mid-vomit. At an NBA game. Courtside. In front of thousands of people. That’s disturbing enough. Opening X and seeing photos of it is just gross.

The Morgan incident exemplifies what’s going so wrong with social media and the 24-hour news cycle. Privacy doesn’t matter, nor does respect for others. Old-fashioned media used to “show” you what happened using descriptive words. (Writing “Morgan threw up on the court during the game” would have gotten the message across just fine.) New media has to put you inside the scene, whether you want to be there or not. New media tells you, “If you don’t like it, scroll away.” The problem is that, as hard as you might try to avoid disturbing stories, you’re bound to accidentally land on one at some point. Just like I did when I was mindlessly looking for “news” and instead was assaulted by a photo of a man barfing.

Is the only solution to walk away completely from the Internet, or at least from social media? Are we asking too much of people to not be intrusive and downright gross?

Feel better, Tracy Morgan. I hope that never happens to you again and, if it does, that we don’t have to see it.