Anyone else irritated that the nat'l print media are running premature obits for Holbrooke?

[Anonymous]

Anyone who's been in print journalism will immediately know what I mean. I find it disrespectful and it also sort of reeks of desperation to "get there first." Newspapers keep canned obits at the ready for important figures, and they're supposed to break them out after the public figure dies.

Here is one example.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/12/AR2010121203661.html

[Anonymous]

OP here, actually that link isn't the irritating story. that one is appropriate and brief.

THIS is the kind of story that jumps the gun, as it were, and bothers me: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/12/AR2010121203661.html

Look, if he dies, you can run this story in a few days. Why not wait, people?

[Anonymous]

I think that the first story merely explains who he is to an audience that largely would not recognize him. I'd say maybe 1 out of 5 people in the DC area could tell you who he is at best.

The second story is the unfortunate result that Obama decided to share some words about Holbrooke that actually are eulogizing. I think their reporting of it is expected. Obama might have jumped the gun.

[Anonymous]

Sadly, events now have caught up with the press.

[Anonymous]

More than 20 hours in surgery - it was not likely that he would have survived.

The mortality rate for a ruptured aorta is more than 80%- most people don't even make it to the hospital alive.

[Anonymous]

I'm a former newspaper reporter and I disagree. Sure, it was clear from articles like that that he was probably not going to make it. But I didn't sense anyone trying to be out there first with the story.