Outrageous
The junior-level employee who broke the Tim Russert death story on Wikipedia before any of the news organizations was fired from his or her job, and NBC seems to be completely down with it.
We were not prepared to say anything until all the family had heard,” said Allison Gollust, an NBC News spokeswoman. “The last thing we wanted to do was to have the family discover this on the air.” She said NBC had asked the other networks to hold back and they readily agreed...
...Holding back the news certainly isn’t the norm for journalists. Keith Olbermann, the MSNBC host, said on his prime-time show “Countdown” that Friday: “We wanted to be sure, absolutely certain, that every member of Tim’s family who needed to be told in person in private had that opportunity, was given that small piece of grace today. Other organizations did not do that”...
...An I.B.S. spokeswoman said on Friday that “a junior-level employee made updates to the Wikipedia page upon learning of Mr. Russert’s passing, thinking it was public record.” She added that the company had “taken the necessary measures with the employee and apologized to NBC.” NBC News said it was told the employee was fired.
Network honchos are saying they were "flabbergasted" to see it online while other news organizations held the news because they wanted Russert's family to know first -- as if they do that when it comes to any other public figures! Oh, I forgot, this is not just any public figure: it's St. Timmy of the Almighty Media.
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