Oracle Online

The story of Smith’s death quickly spread nationally and has maintained the media and public’s attention. Journalists from different forms of print, television, and radio media continue to devote considerable segments to the facts and speculations about her death and to the questions of inheritance and custody of her daughter. The lines separating news from entertainment and public intrigue blurred as network news and sleazy tabloid reporting relied on the same footage of Smith’s hotel, repeated the issues of contention surrounding her death, and spent comparable amounts of time on the topic. News-broadcast channels like CNN broke from their “hard-hitting news reporting” to take on the tone of E! News; indeed, CNN could have saved time and money by using a syndicated broadcast of the story done by Ryan Seacrest.

There is no doubt that Smith enjoyed the limelight, or at least learned to accept the fame of Hollywood scandal that carried 20 frantic paparazzi with it at any given time. But the media’s overstated, drawn-out coverage of her career, death, and the ensuing problems is taking advantage and using her as media fodder after death, cashing in on someone who interested the public-but now less likely to create libel lawsuits.

Celebrities accept or at least tolerate reporters and paparazzi stalking their every move, but hours after the news of a death is not the time to dig deeper for Hollywood secrets. Addiction to the entertainment Smith’s lifestyle provided is allowed to undercut the seriousness of death. The public’s feeling of involvement or intimacy with Smith that was gained through her constant media exposure does not justify the continuation of the drama after her reality show (and human life) are over.

The reporting of Anna Nicole Smith’s death would appear more sincere and less exploitative if it were able to incorporate facts about her life other than the scandals that marked her career. In Newsweek’s Feb. 19 edition, Smith was called a “gold digger,” “circus freak,” and “American oddity,” all within the first five sentences of the article about her death.

There is no need to sugar-coat every choice she made or portray her as a happy, successful, vibrant young woman who painted rainbows all over the world.

Not everyone can be mourned by the public and affectionately remembered by the media upon their death, and it would indeed be foolish and offensive to draw a rosy portrait of late known figures like Milosevic.

But Smith was a celebrity, not a mass murderer. And even though Anna Nicole Smith had questionable motivations and an even worse reputation, media (and the public) have no right to strip the former model of her humanity after death.