\nThe passing from this live to the next is one of the most sacred, respected and revered events in the story of any one person’s life. How it is treated should be respectful, honorable and, most of all, selfless. My heroes of network journalism–Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, John Chancellor moving on to Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings–brought an evenness to stories like these. A fairness. A respect. You’d have never seen them leverage someone’s passing for ratings or capturing market share by extending the story longer than when there was a story.
\nI suppose these are fair matters for discussion: Does Farrah’s one season on “Charlie’s Angels” warrant a wider media berth than Ed McMahon’s long years on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson?” Does a rock star deserve more coverage than a world leader? Does the pitch man for retail products deserve more media attention than a deceased football player, or vice versa? But, in all truth, I don’t think media leaders make decisions that way. There’s a professional and respectful restraint that used to exist that is now missing. And it’s a shame, because its effects are far reaching, setting a model for how our culture sees itself and makes decisions in everyday life.
\nThe value of a human life is an awesome, wonderful–and equal–thing to our Creator, who (in my belief) loves everyone the same.
\nJournalism isn’t what it used to be; that much is obvious. But there comes a time when someone should step up and say–even if only to those close to us–that the real story is what we’ll do differently in our lives going forward before our run is done to memorialize the passing of those we respect with decisions in life that reflect our faith and impact the future.
\nAnd we can do that whether the one who’s passed is a media figure, a political leader, or just someone close to us who isn’t famous…but whose life mattered very much.
\nMy respects go out to the families and friends of Mr. McMahon, Ms. Fawcett, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Mays, Mr. Malden, Mr. McNair, Mr. McNamara and, to all of those who’ve lost someone less than famous recently whose lives likely mattered just as much to those who knew them and loved them.
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![\"Farrah](\"https:\/\/www.locatetv.com\/person\/farrah-fawcett\/29004\/584x85_belief.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apparently death isn’t a strong news story if there’s too many at one time. I fear our pop culture has become such a strong force in our nation that it may have more of an impact than it should upon what’s considered real news. After the sobering news of the passing of Ed McMahon, then…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":104,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,7,3,8,12,4,10,1,2],"tags":[718,828,829,860,301,862,861],"class_list":["post-2951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebrities","category-entertainment","category-movies","category-music","category-politics","category-pop-culture","category-sports","category-television","category-trends","tag-farrah-fawcett","tag-billy-mays","tag-ed-mcmahon","tag-karl-malden","tag-michael-jackson","tag-robert-mcnamara","tag-steve-mcnair"],"yoast_head":"\n