PLIGHT

The next time a reporter feels compelled to "highlight the plight" of a young mother with five children who lives in a "shack" with no kind of financial support and who is "begging for a home" for her children, we hope that reporter is also tempted to ask the mother how she got into that situation, and try to track her efforts at contacting social services and the FPA before the situation with four kids and no one to support her and another baby on the way and living in a shack got out of hand.
Example: http://newsday.co.tt/news/0,70186.html