phoebe ayers wrote:
I once talked to a librarian at a major news organization here in the U.S.; one of the most interesting things I learned was that a big part of her job was doing biographical research on older famous people considered "likely to die soon" -- so that when they actually did bite the dust, there would have a nice obit ready to go. Apparently most news organizations do this. Wikipedia, on the other hand, just scrambles to catch up :)
I've heard something like this before too. The simple fact that six professional media companies should all draw on the same Wikipedia error begs the question, "Who else is scrambling to catch up?"
Ec