In the NYT, Amy Winehouse > James Gandolfini

[Dick Whitman]

Their Gandolfini obit is on A19 today. In fairness, there's a bottom-of-the-page refer, but this is the death of a titan. It's an all-time news placement gaffe, in my book.

P.S. Ms. Winehouse got an A1 obit.

 

[Ace]

Gandolfini's death broke pretty late.

 

[Dick Whitman]

A little after 7, right?

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Gandolfini's death broke pretty late.

That's the only excuse.

This is a lot bigger than Winehouse's death. A lot more people are talking about Gandolfini today than they were about Winehouse after she ODd.

 

[imjustagirl]

I got the CNN text as I pulled in my driveway at about 7:45 ET.

 

[JackReacher]

It was high on the web site. That's all that matters.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I got the CNN text as I pulled in my driveway at about 7:45 ET.

I just checked. I sent the text to my wife at 7:33 ET - I was standing in line for food and saw the thread on this site. There just were a couple posts already, so I imagine it broke right about then.

 

[Dick Whitman]

It was high on the web site. That's all that matters.

I was thinking that, too. For a long time, the conventional wisdom seemed to be that it was silly for print newspapers to feature news that broke early in the day, which people had already known about for some time. But perhaps that thinking has been fundamentally altered: The analysis, with context and perspective, of stories that have been covered on the 24-hour networks all day long are what's valuable. Breaking news like this, less so. That said, seems like it would have been plenty of time to draft A.O. Scott or someone into penning a perspective piece for the cover.

I think they dropped the ball.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Their Gandolfini obit is on A19 today. In fairness, there's a bottom-of-the-page refer, but this is the death of a titan. It's an all-time news placement gaffe, in my book.

P.S. Ms. Winehouse got an A1 obit.

Death of Titan?
Really?

 

[Dick Whitman]

Their Gandolfini obit is on A19 today. In fairness, there's a bottom-of-the-page refer, but this is the death of a titan. It's an all-time news placement gaffe, in my book.

P.S. Ms. Winehouse got an A1 obit.

Death of Titan?
Really?

Yes. Absolutely. No question. Without a doubt. Inarguable.

 

[Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!!]

Their Gandolfini obit is on A19 today. In fairness, there's a bottom-of-the-page refer, but this is the death of a titan. It's an all-time news placement gaffe, in my book.

P.S. Ms. Winehouse got an A1 obit.

Death of Titan?
Really?

Yes. Absolutely. No question. Without a doubt. Inarguable.

Um .. no.
He was a one-role wonder. A memorable role, but a helluva long way from "a titan." The show ran what seven season? Great show. Great show, but it was his high-water mark. Kind of like Alan Alda with M.A.S.H.. And it hardly makes him a Titan.

 

[Jake_Taylor]

I really can't think of too many performers whose death I'd say absolutely have to be on the front page of a national paper. Any member of the Beatles, sure, but I have hard time putting any TV star in that category and I'm about as big a TV fan as you'll find. Galdolfini and Chase redefined TV as an art form and he should get full credit for that, but it doesn't necessarily make it the most important story of the day. Jerry Seinfeld is probably more of an automatic A1 among TV stars because so many more people watched that show.

It's not really fair to compare whose death makes A1 and whose doesn't because as we all know things vary from day to day, but I will say this didn't seem like a particularly busy news day and it is a little surprising Winehouse was A1 and not Gandolfini.

 

[LongTimeListener]

There's always a chance too that the NYT decided long ago that putting Winehouse on A1 was kind of ridiculous. Much of this argument is an offshoot of the "well this is the way we've always done it" theory, which I think we all agree has proved to be a terrible way to run a newspaper.

And also ...

It was high on the web site. That's all that matters.

Truth, more than ever.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

Their Gandolfini obit is on A19 today. In fairness, there's a bottom-of-the-page refer, but this is the death of a titan. It's an all-time news placement gaffe, in my book.

P.S. Ms. Winehouse got an A1 obit.

Death of Titan?
Really?

Yes. Absolutely. No question. Without a doubt. Inarguable.

Um .. no.
He was a one-role wonder. A memorable role, but a helluva long way from "a titan." The show ran what seven season? Great show. Great show, but it was his high-water mark. Kind of like Alan Alda with M.A.S.H.. And it hardly makes him a Titan.

I've gotta agree with Orville - I heard the news and my reaction was basically, "Oh, how about that... <and on with my day>" I didn't have HBO and have never watched the Sopranos, but I don't know him from any role beyond that. This isn't Daniel Day-Lewis we're talking about. I think a front-page teaser and inside placement is fine.

 

[JackReacher]

I've never seen The Sopranos, but I've seen him in plenty of movies and know enough to know that his death is a big deal.

Not sure I'd call him a titan, but it was/is big news. A1? Meh. Probably not.

 

[LongTimeListener]

If we were finding out Tony Soprano is dead, now that's a no-brainer 1A.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I've never seen The Sopranos.

I've heard this argument more than once today. That's what my brother, who is anti-HBO, anti-indie movies and music, texted back t ome: "Nobody I know even watched that show. Just people like you."

Keep in mind that this was the same guy who didn't think Bob Dylan's death would be an A1 NYT story.

 

[JackReacher]

I've never seen The Sopranos.

I've heard this argument more than once today. That's what my brother, who is anti-HBO, anti-indie movies and music, texted back t ome: "Nobody I know even watched that show. Just people like you."

Keep in mind that this was the same guy who didn't think Bob Dylan's death would be an A1 NYT story.

It wasn't an argument. You should have read the rest of what I posted.

Just looked. I threw a question mark at the end, for some reason. It was a statement. My bad.

I know he was a huge deal. Just not enough for 1A, in my opinion.

 

[Dick Whitman]

I've never seen The Sopranos.

I've heard this argument more than once today. That's what my brother, who is anti-HBO, anti-indie movies and music, texted back t ome: "Nobody I know even watched that show. Just people like you."

Keep in mind that this was the same guy who didn't think Bob Dylan's death would be an A1 NYT story.

It wasn't an argument. You should have read the rest of what I posted.

Just looked. I threw a question mark at the end, for some reason. It was a statement. My bad.

I know he was a huge deal. Just not enough for 1A, in my opinion.

Sorry. Poor wording. I don't think that you were making an argument. But I've heard people make that statement as part of an argument today, i.e. that the show was a critical darling and extremely popular among a passionate fan base, but its reach was not very big.

 

[JackReacher]

Well, that's stupid.

And really....after thinking about it, I think he falls in the "It's cool if they put him on 1A, but I wouldn't really give a **** if they didn't" category.

For some reason, I remember him most for his small role in Crimson Tide and for his role in Last Castle.