Anna Nichol Smith coverage template for future news...get used to it

[MnFats]

http://www.miamiherald.com/424/story/29482.html

snippet:


Was the press coverage excessive? You bet.

Mindless? Inevitably.

Tasteless? Rapturously so.

But this is the new New Journalism, which is steered by a core belief that people would rather be smothered by seedy gossip about dead ex-Playmate junkies than be bothered with the details of North Korea's nuclear program.

Like the Don Henley song says, crap is king. We are merely here to serve.

If you Googled Anna Nicole's name last week, you got 28.8 million hits -- 10 times more than that of Condoleezza Rice, who is only the U.S. secretary of state.

Debate all you wish about whether the public's interest is fueling the Anna Nicole overkill, or the overkill is inflating the public's interest. The fact is, lots of people are hungry for the story -- and not because they care one bit about this poor woman, or her child.

It's necro-tainment, that's all. The five-car pileup on the interstate. The stunt plane crashing at the air show. The train derailment, caught on tape.

As soon as Smith's death became known, a small army of print and broadcast reporters swarmed to Fort Lauderdale, grabbed spots in the shade outside the courthouse and began tracking the day's legal proceedings, which they dutifully regurgitated to their readers and audiences.

Not since the O.J. Simpson murder trial have so much manpower and so many resources been thrown at a story of so little ultimate consequence to society.