Truemors
Various media outlets and some blogs are taking a very crude approach to reporting her passing. One in particular really burns me up! Read this:
The Headline: Kanye West's Mom Goes Out Olivia Goldsmith Style
Kanye West's number-one fan, his mom Donda West, died this weekend in Los Angeles from complications related to a cosmetic procedure, CNN has just reported. Donde, 58, was the author of Raising Kanye: Life Lessons From the Mother of a Hip-Hop Superstar, which was released earlier this year. She once compared her son to Jesus, and the worship was apparently mutual. "Hey Mama, I wanna scream so loud for you, cuz I'm so proud of you," he sang on 2005's Late Registration. West's publicist won't say what type of cosmetic surgery she was having, but we're putting all of our liposuction plans on permanent hold. [Source: The Daily Intelligencer, a blog from New York Magazine]
Now someone PLEASE tell me why anyone thought it was suitable to publish such garbage? What is wrong with you idiots? This is someone's mother, daughter, sister, cousin. No matter what she decided to do with her body, it shouldn't be open for ridicule, especially considering she's no longer here! What sense does that make? It's one thing to be curious about the way she passed and to report the facts in an respectable fashion, but to do so in this way is completely tasteless. It's quite apparent that there are some incompetent writers with a poor sense of humor over at NY Mag and it's a damn shame that these jokers are so hell bent on reporting gossip all the freaking time that they can't even write a respectful post when it comes time to do so, as evidenced by the writer's poor excuse for publishing this crap - "Hey, commenters. We weren't at all trying to make fun of Donda West's death, which is certainly a terrible thing, but I can see how you'd be bothered by the headline, it's pretty flippant. I assure you there's no sinister reason for that, it's just sometimes there's a delay switching from the tone used for Gossip Girl coverage to one used for Obits."
Update 11/12/07 5:00PM: When I first posted this screenshot, there were only three comments from folks regarding this crude post. Now there are 18 comments and growing, with many calling for the removal of this post and/or it's writer Jessica Pressler. For example:
"To Jessica Pressler from New York Magazine, even after you were given the correct spelling of Dr. West's first name you still mis-spelled it, are you truly a journalist? You sound cynical, disrespectful, evil and ignorant, this is appauling and if you have anything to say...... direct it to me. I will plan a petition to your editor to ask for your removal and also contact the department of professional regulation if you do not issue an immediate apology and retraction from this article and it's title." - chefallyd
But my FAVORITE comment comes from a BBC journalist in London:
"Oh dear what a rather unfortunate tone New York magazine has decided to use for this piece of news. I appreciate you are trying to let you readers know, that you have more information than is being reported. However it shows that you lack the empathetic integrity that celebrated and skilled journalists have. Its very inappropriate and I am sad to say this to my colleagues in the business, I hope Kanye West and the rest of the hip hop fraternity show you the same contempt when you want an interview. Some albeit not many of her family members may of discovered her death on your page. Hope it was worth it, how very careless."
Well said, this was careless indeed!
Update 11/12/07 5:16PM:The editors over at NY Mag FINALLY made a change to this blog post, by renaming the headline to Kanye West's Mom Dies During Cosmetic Procedure:
Editor's Note: The original headline for this piece offended a few people, as the comments show. For the record, it was "Kanye West's Mom Goes Out Olivia Goldsmith Style" --a reference to the New York novelist who passed away after plastic surgery (you can read all about her here.)dondawestnewyorkmagazinekanyewest
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