Friday, February 09, 2007

The Life And Death Of Anna Nicole Smith

How The Websites Reported Her Passing

It was interesting to watch the four-way race on the websites of BBC, CNN, Fox and MSNBC as the news broke about Anna Nicole Smith’s death. All four websites raced from prominent news flashes to full coverage in minutes, and this is how the contest unfolded …
BBC posted a full report at 21.14 GMT, which is 4.14pm Eastern Time. MSNBC was next, at 4.19pm. CNN was a heartbeat behind, at 4.20pm. And FOX News simply ran with a dateline that said `` Thursday, February 08, 2007’’ with no time mentioned.
This was how they reported the news.

BBC – Headline: ``Former Playmate Smith dies at 39’’.
The report began: `` The flamboyant former model Anna Nicole Smith has died near Miami, Florida at the age of 39, her lawyer has said.
Smith, a former Playboy bunny, married Texas oil billionaire J Howard Marshall II in 1995 when she was 26 and he was 89. He died a year later.’’

CNN – Headline: ``Anna Nicole Smith dies’’
The report began : ``Reality TV star and former model Anna Nicole Smith was pronounced dead Thursday after being taken to a Florida hospital, a law enforcement source told CNN. Smith, 39, collapsed at a south Florida hotel, according to news reports.’’

MSNBC - Headline: ``Former Playmate Smith dies at 39’’
The report began: ``The flamboyant former model Anna Nicole Smith has died near Miami, Florida at the age of 39, her lawyer has said.
Smith, a former Playboy bunny, married Texas oil billionaire J Howard Marshall II in 1995 when she was 26 and he was 89. He died a year later. ''

FOX NEWS – Headline: ``Anna Nicole Smith dies’’
The report began: Reality star Anna Nicole Smith died Thursday after collapsing at a South Florida hotel, one of her lawyers said.Smith, 39, did not respond to CPR, and her boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, was with her when she passed, her attorney, Ron Rale, told FOX News.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting stuff! (How the media is playing it, not the news itself...)

Seems like the beeb and MSNBC were pulling from the same wire.

Fletch said...

. . . and from the same 'copy'? It appears that Fox did it to CNN, too, but had the good grace to change a few words. David's time-line sort of lets the cat outta the bag, huh?

david mcmahon said...

You're right, Al,
I guess I got the idea of monitoring the four sites because I was toggling between them, waiting to see which of them would post the full story first. They would have all used pretty much the same sources, too.
Happy skiing!
David

david mcmahon said...

Good call, El Tel,
I guess all the sites were using the same sources for the basic information. It was just a question of which site would ``confirm'' the news and be the first to post a follow-up story to the News Flash.
Once they had the on-the-spot story, each wesbite diverged entirely, in terms of the spread of coverage.
Big story for the media - and the very sad end to a controversial life.
Take care
David

Assistant Editor said...

Hi David, just to add my posts in addition: http://dubaicelebrity.blogspot.com/search/label/Anna%20Nicole%20Smith

E.J. "Samadhi" Whitehouse said...

samadhi1955@yahoo.ca
Hi David--just want to join the conversation on Anna Nicole...

Maybe now, in hindsight, it wasn't rocket science, but a year ago, I said to my partner Lorraine, "She's going to die soon." and then six months ago, when I saw her forgetting thoughts, saying she was unable to eat, clearly [to me] the diet pills were not only killing fat cells but brain cells as well, and I sadly felt and said, "She will be dead within six months."... Five months later and she died.
SHE is now known as "The Story", "The Starlet", "The ex-Playboy Bunny"... in ALL of the news reports and shows, there is ZERO talking about her--Anna Nicole. It's just about her money, who's the daddy now, and I'll take the baby if there's a cheque that comes with her.
I sadly "feel" her laying in the morgue so quietly still and alone; all her life, she simply wanted what we all want, regardless of admitting it or not--LOVE. And sadly, all she could give to "get love" was her sexuality. Why does this hit home to my heart and soul? No, I'm not a starlet or nor have I ever had the looks/body to be a bunny...but I am a woman who knows what it feels like and knows how raped you feel everytime you give yourself to someone while you pretend you're being loved.
Isn't anyone out there going to talk about Anna Nicole in a respectful way? With compassion?
I believe the soul checks out when it is ready, and for Anna Nicole, I can see why she flew away. I'm hoping the next life will bring her closer to finding love within. When we look back at her first interviews in '93, she was so pretty and innocent... where do you think that all went?
Anna Nicole--have a beautiful flight... I'm reminded of that song that talks about sliding down the Milky Way, jumping from Jupiter to Venus to Mars... trying to find yourself out there. I hope she will and I send her my love and compassion.