Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Delayed news...

Fashion house founder and style icon Liz Claiborne died---yesterday.

Why am I just now discovering this news an entire day later? The news was posted on MSNBC shortly after 2 p.m. and shortly after 3 p.m. on the AP wire.

The style icon, who helped revolutionize the dress for women entering the paid labor force, died Tuesday at the New York Presbyterian Hospital after suffering from cancer for a number of years, said Gwen Satterfield, personal assistant to Claiborne.

Maybe its just me and maybe I'm impatient but it seems like I should have known this about an hour after it happened yesterday. I was totally baffled to discover that it was YESTERDAY and the news doesn't know about it until today.

I remember when Pope John Paul II died (I know Claiborne is no major religious leader, but still) I received a news text message on my cellphone the moment it happened. My mother called me about two hours later and asked me if I heard the news.

"Duh," I told her. "That news is old."

I could not believe she was just finding out when she called me. I thought she'd been under a rock that day.

One of my co-workers said the possible delay in learning about Claiborne's death could be because she isn't as relevant today as she was in the late 70s and 80s when her company skyrocketed. She said that if this had happened about 20 years ago it would have been a bigger deal.

Puh-leese.

I'm used to getting information the minute it happens. I like e-mail alerts and news updates telling me the latest juice. I thrive off them. Check our web site. You can get up-to-date information there too.

I don't sit around waiting for people to leave this life but when they do (or when they do something else noteworthy), if they're important enough, I expect to hear about it.

4 comments:

Melinda Williams said...

Wow Ashley, you're really amped up about this. She doesn't work for the company anymore so it doesn't affect business. Maybe her family just didn't want to talk about it yesterday.

Ashley Northington said...

I thought she just retired from day-to-day operations but still controls some interest or something. Still, I do wanna know and fast.

And if its her family, they haven't talked yet (maybe too grief-striken). The company released the news of her death, not the family.

Adam Kealoha Causey said...

How long did it take to find out James Brown had died? Or Anna Nicole Smith? (Just for comparison's sake.)

Ashley Northington said...

Adam:

There is no comparison. We knew about James Brown the same day. And I swear we knew about Anna Nicole Smith the minute after Howard K. Stern found her.