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CNN Runs Live Feed of Whitney Houston Funeral Home Stakeout

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Mon Feb 13, 2012 at 08:25:13 PM EST
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Could the media get any more intrusive? CNN is actually running a live feed outside the funeral home where Whitney Houston's body is expected to arrive "later tonight."

CNN Live sent out a tweet saying:

View stake-out camera at funeral home where #WhitneyHouston body is expected to arrive in New Jersey. Watch live: http://on.cnn.com/cnndcl4

#ShameOnCNN (no that's not a real hashtag, I just made it up -- but it should be.)

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    CNN Runs Live Feed of Whitney Houston Funeral Home Stakeout | 21 comments (21 topical)

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    Everybody's trying to capitalize on her death... (5.00 / 1) (#5)
    by Edger on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 07:21:37 AM EST
    CNN is staking out her funeral home to draw viewers and sell ads, while Apple and Sony have more than doubled the price of her 2007 Ultimate Collection album, and by Monday seven of her albums were on Amazon's top ten list.

    Switched Back (5.00 / 1) (#10)
    by ScottW714 on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 12:01:05 PM EST
    and it was Sony.

    Parent
    What's troubling (5.00 / 4) (#7)
    by cal1942 on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 09:36:34 AM EST
    to me is the amount of coverage.  

    It would better serve us all if the mainstream media produced more thorough coverage of news that informs the public as citizens.

    Media covers every last possible detail of the death of an entertainer but presents scant information or informed analysis about serious public matters.

    Does this trouble anyone else?

    yes (5.00 / 2) (#11)
    by Jeralyn on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 12:21:44 PM EST
    that was the point of my criticism. It's one thing to have a news truck there and show a photo (poor taste but understandable given the interest), it's another for the media to spend money hooking up a live feed for the event for hours that shows nothing but a group of reporters milling around waiting for a van with the body to arrive so people can view it as it happens. It's not only intrusive, it is a ridiculous expenditure of funds by CNN. There were probably dozens of events about to unfold at the time more deserving of live coverage.

    Parent
    I personally think this is worse (none / 0) (#1)
    by Peter G on Mon Feb 13, 2012 at 09:25:19 PM EST
    than the Westboro Baptist Church pickets, and less deserving of First Amendment protection.

    really? (none / 0) (#6)
    by TeresaInPa on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 07:57:20 AM EST
    I might agree if CNN were holding up signs saying God hates C*nts.  
    It might be upsetting to see our media feeding our hunger for banal gossip, but it is hardly on the same level as spreading hate, talking about who God hates and why.
    Please think before you post.

    Parent
    I don't know.... (5.00 / 1) (#8)
    by kdog on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 10:03:39 AM EST
    the Westboro hatemongers are so laughable that I don't think anyone takes them seriously.  CNN and other media outlets, otoh, some people still take them seriously.  And the Westboro intrusions into the mourning process are far less intrusive than the medias.

    Maybe I'm wrong but I expect a little more class from the major media outlets than I do from the Westboro arsehats, I see Peter's point and am inclined to agree....if for no other reason than the media is not a fringe hate group, they damn well should know better and behave better.

    Parent

    Given the Choice (none / 0) (#13)
    by ScottW714 on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 12:34:48 PM EST
    I'll take a CNN stream over Westboro at my funeral any day of the week.

    CNN is one way communication, Westboro talks back and I don't really want a bunch hillbillies screaming at my family that god killed me because the state of Texas decided sodomy isn't illegal.

    Laughable to you and me, not so funny to my mom and pops at my funeral.  Me, I'll be looking for an alternate Universe, one in which peace rules the day and love fills the inhabitant's hearts, just joking, I would be dead.

    Parent

    I think I'd take Westboro... (none / 0) (#14)
    by kdog on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 12:46:38 PM EST
    I have no desire to be on tv, even in death;)

    And if my family and friends are who I think they are they'd chase the suckers from Westboro away, or bust some heads tryin' ;)

    Actually I ain't gonna have a funeral or a wake...cremate my arse and have a party, these are my final wishes.

    Parent

    geez, i'd have been more surprised (none / 0) (#2)
    by cpinva on Mon Feb 13, 2012 at 09:55:11 PM EST
    if they weren't staking the place out. "if it bleeds, it leads>"

    it isn't the media's job to be sensitive and/or unintrusive.

    Well, yeah, but it is the media's job (none / 0) (#3)
    by Towanda on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 12:04:03 AM EST
    to be interesting.  A vehicle will pull up to a mortuary.  That must happen fairly often across the country.  CNN could have done a Fox trick and just used old footage, especially with palm trees.

    Parent
    No Offense (none / 0) (#12)
    by ScottW714 on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 12:25:46 PM EST
    But no one cared about WH until she died.

    And even then I think the media was taken off guard, putting out that she was a crackhead washup who couldn't even keep B.Brown around or sing.

    Then they figured out a lot of people still really like her, and now it's the loving mother taken from us tragically, another angle fallen to the demons of addiction.

    It's all BS including Jeralyn's outrage, she is the queen of tabloid, and now when those tabloids aren't doing what she expects, fake outrage, "where's the fainting couch"...  right after the camera link in her post.

    No offense, but this isn't offensive because before Sunday, no one in the world cared what WH was doing.  So I have an extremely hard time believing anyone is watching for whatever is going to happen that won't be visible.

    I will say this, the media is certainly good at whipping up the crowd, a funeral barker complete with streaming video...

    i think that your take (5.00 / 1) (#16)
    by The Addams Family on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 01:50:04 PM EST
    on the media coverage of Whitney Houston's death is pretty accurate but that your drive-by insult to Jeralyn is gratuitous & unkind

    Parent
    I wasn't thinking of the site host (none / 0) (#17)
    by jondee on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 01:59:07 PM EST
    who's always impressed me as a person of some substance.

    Parent
    i was responding to Scott (5.00 / 2) (#18)
    by The Addams Family on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 02:00:33 PM EST
    he insulted Jeralyn

    maybe my comment didn't show up as a response to his

    Parent

    gotcha (none / 0) (#19)
    by jondee on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 02:01:05 PM EST


    Parent
    I Call it Like I see It (none / 0) (#24)
    by ScottW714 on Wed Feb 15, 2012 at 01:01:41 PM EST
    And I respect Jeralyn, but not the tabloid non-sense, and I do take shots.  When someone acts like a website is outrageous for whatever reason, then provides a link, and a snapshot, it's a little hard to take the outrage seriously, just like the tabloid stuff in general.

    But beyond those few tabloidy posts, there are few things in which I disagree, certainly the only shots I ever take is the tabloid stuff, where shots should be taken IMO.

    Parent

    I'm not offended (none / 0) (#25)
    by Jeralyn on Wed Feb 15, 2012 at 02:28:11 PM EST
    but let's move back to the topic.

    Parent
    another kick em' when they're down (none / 0) (#15)
    by jondee on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 01:39:08 PM EST
    Lindsey Lohan, Conan O'Brian punchline..

    As Dinah Washington, Billie Hoilday, and Charlie Parker would've been..

    It's about time we faced up to the fact that 2/3 of this country is a bunch of drunken, guffawing fratboys looking at a guy standing out on a ledge and chanting "jump, jump!" -- who then, immediatly going into treacly, Hallmark Card, Greek Chorus-mode after he or she yields to their wishes..

     

    Parent

    And...let's not forget that (none / 0) (#22)
    by Anne on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 03:35:02 PM EST
    it's February Sweeps!

    I watched about 5 minutes of NBC coverage Sunday, after the evening news, and realized it was going to be endless speculation and talking to people willing to dish on what she looked like, acted like, whether she was on or not on any drugs, look how bloated and sweaty she is in this picture, hear how bad and sad her voice is in this clip, on and on and on.

    Ratings wh0res, as ever and always, and good for little else but sensationalizing someone in death whom they didn't give two hoots about in the last decade of her life.

    Ugh.

    Parent

    I agree that the media is being disgusting (none / 0) (#23)
    by TeresaInPa on Tue Feb 14, 2012 at 05:52:01 PM EST
    but do not forget that the media is also the first source a star will exploit too get attention or their face out there.  They do it in a million ways.  They play the media like an old piano.  The exploitation is mutual.
    I was watching Diane Sawyer with and old interview of Ms Huston when she was obviously using but still looking young and like she has the world by the horns.  I think it was 2002.  She was so full of crap and so full of herself. It was clear she had learned nothing from whatever programs she had been in. She probably had too many suck up friends and managers.  She was gone a long time ago.  I feel a great deal of sorrow for her daughter and her mother.

    CNN Runs Live Feed of Whitney Houston Funeral Home Stakeout | 21 comments (21 topical)

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