When The Internet Lies, and I Believe It

So, last night I couldn't sleep, and I came across a blog item on Perez Hilton, the gossip blog, about how poor Natasha Richardson was in a bad skiing accident and had a very bad head injury. Sad! So, I wake up this morning, and the story has been picked up in all the British papers, as well as in some American blogs. And then around 1 PM, Time Out New York decides to run an unconfirmed quote about how she was dead, and then retracted that quote saying that it was unclear if she was dead or brain dead. The family will apparently make an announcement tomorrow, most of which will probably not be made up. I hope.

Now, I made the mistake of sharing this stuff (blogs and news web sites) in my Google Reader and saying something about it on my Twitter. But as much as I love gossip (and sharing my non-knowledge of medicine that I learn on Discovery Channel), it is so terrible to run all these unconfirmed and poorly sourced quotes all over the internet, and to run "RIP" items on widely read blogs is sort of whack. I mean, if you have to retract that someone got married or broke up or is pregnant, that stuff can be kind of funny or at least awkward.

But when people are dying, dead or on the brink of death because of a sad accident, don't run around saying that person is dead! It's craziness. I know that blogs aren't news, but this was also on Time Out's website. Oh, New Media! Why?!

And for myself, I will say that I feel like an asshole and a cynic for believing that poor, lovely Natasha couldn't possibly make it through this accident. And, more importantly, I feel like a dummy for sharing that all over the internets. But mostly, feel like a d-bag because nobody noticed that I Twittered about it. My digital footprint is like 'yea' big.