[CyberAnt]

It's not a matter of getting caught - I hate to burst your bubble, but ALLLLLL media outlets do prior obit writing; especially for famous people who are aging, like Ronald Reagan, etc. It's nothing new and it's not morbid. It's just a way for the media to be prepared - in case. If your paper is ready to go to print, and there is a sudden death, there is no time to write a factual obit. If you have one ready, you can pop it into your front page and be one of the first off the press line.

[Jalapeno]

Everyone knows about obits being prepared ahead of time, but it is quite bad form to have them publically accessible before the event.

CNN has had quite a few embarrassments and worse as of late, this just adds to the pot.