I have some reporter friends who work for major newspapers (not major as in NY, LA or Chicago), but big papers. One in particular has won some big awards for his reporting, including a recent story that went national. I thought about emailing him about this piece, then decided not to. Woke up today to a message from him, so I decided to ask him anyway. I aired the grievances from this site and asked him about those in the context of journalistic integrity and fact-checking.
Here is his response to dirty laundry after someone dies: "The tendency to get it all out there at that point is basically a fire sale mentality of 'well, this is the last time anyone's going to care about Person X, let's shake loose everything we've got.' While someone's alive, there's also the element of 'hey, this person is struggling with their disease, don't pick on them,' but after the battle's been lost, that's no longer a concern. But obviously, dumping everything you've got into print also has the strong possibility of offending fans, along with relatives, etc. The Amy Winehouse documentary, as well as it's been received, has pissed a bunch of folks off, for instance."
When I told him about specifically mentioning the 'official' funeral and that the ex-wife and kids did not attend, but not mentioning the 'unofficial' memorial they put on when old friends of his, he replied: "The other memorial is just a straight-up oopsie, I suspect."
Obviously I think he is going to err on the side of assuming the writer did their own due diligence, but it seems as if this really isn't a piece that disregarded ethics.
To me, I know my heroes are people, and I think deep down we all knew Scott could be a person we wouldn't want to know, which is sad because we all know that he started out as a person many people would want to know. The thing that turned me off about Mary's letter is that, as a cautionary tale, it never mentioned once that, ya know, he used to actually be fun, likable, and a good dad. The way she portrays him as always being a shitty human being actually shits on her own point.
THIS piece is specifically about his downward spiral at the end, but at least it does mention, albeit a quote from his mother, that he was a good guy at one time and that is why it is tragic that he ended up where he did.
