Giffords' Breathing Tube Replaced By Doctors

Not precisely.  The colored background­s are another 'symptom' or 'special feature' of HP's badge system, and comes from the networker and superuser badges.  The ability to do italics (and other rich text) comes with the pundit badge.  

How the networker and superuser part of the badge system works is explained here; how you get a pundit badge isn't explained there (or anywhere as far as I can tell), and it's something that beats me, too.
About Gabrielle Giffords
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost