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EW Online's Lena Horne Obit 'Oops!'
Seriously, did no one think to fill in the TKs? | Screenshot of EW Online's obit for singer Lena Horne
So what's the story, Entertainment Weekly online: Are your editors hitting the punch too hard at the holiday office shindig or did the recession force you to downsize them out?
The showbiz mag let a really big "Oops!" go live online just now in their rush to cover the death of legendary songstress Lena Horne--a story that deserves a bit more TLC than a quick rush to publish what is quite obviously a pre-written obituary. How do we know? How's this for fill-in-the-blank style writing:
Lena Horne, the torch singer/actress whose recording career spanned 70 years, and who sought to break Hollywood color barriers to become the screen's first African-American glamour goddess, died today at age TK in location TK from cause TK.
Even the headline escaped any real, live, sensible, intelligent, breathing human's eyes: "Lena Horne dies at TK." In fact, we can't even find it published anywhere that she even died!Nice work, EW Online. You've done the journalistic equivalent of having a visible pantyline, and it's embarrassing. In the meantime, RIP, Ms. Horne--if that is truly the case. We don't have a pre-made obit stashed here at LAist, so if you'll pardon us for now, we'll take our time to do it right.