RE: CNN error: Premature obits

["Bill O'Neill" <billo@shoreham.net>]

Bob writes:

> AP reports that CNN was doing mockups for some
> celebrity obituaries and the info accidentally wound
> up briefly on the Web due to human error. As of this
> writing, Ronald Reagan, Dick Cheney, Fidel Castro,
> Bob Hope, and Pope John Paul II are still with us;
> though some who accessed CNN's website may have
> found the erroneous obituaries of these and other
> people. (Hope's "death" was also prematurely announced
> in 1998 due to the same type of error.)
>
> No word as to whether or not any broadcast outlets
> were fooled by the Web foulup.

In the stylings of Bob Hope, "Mind if I play through?"  Hold the phone.  CNN
takes TWELVE YEARS fact checking in Iraq before an exec. blurts-out (remember,
CNN didn't come clean, an employee did), but takes NO time at all to deliver
heartfelt, sincere, obits on celebs that continue to come down from breakfast?

Bill O'Neill