Heath Ledger was announced dead today. At around 3 p.m., I heard this on the radio. Having being someone that does not pretend to be a pop-culture expert or mere follower, I could not immediately identify Ledger’s influence or reason behind the on-air mention, and therefore did a Google search.

To put this timing in perspective, news results did not show up in my original Google search. After some more research, major newspapers weren’t even announcing this development as breaking news.

I proceeded to investigate, and clicked on the ever-so-reliable Wikipedia entry for Heath Ledger. Okay, Brokeback Mountain … The Patriot … The Monster’s Ball … etc. etc. Now at least I have a reference point. Then I noticed birth date … and now, the date of Ledger’s passing (April 4, 1979 - January 22, 2008). Scroll a little further down, and see a section describing Ledger’s death.

Before many news outlets had reported the story, a Wikipedia entry already documented today’s unfortunate occurrence. What this indicates is that someone dropped everything they were doing on this particular afternoon, and found it in them to update a Heath Ledger entry, simply, well because they can.

I do understand the Wikipedia foundation - the ability for anyone with knowledge about a particular subject  to contribute information - but at what point do you say, “Okay, as much as I’m tempted to run a 3.9 second fifty-yard-dash to the nearest computer, it might be a bit excessive.”

I do commend that single individual that apparently had a busy day. I’d contact you to say so, but nowhere on the site is there a byline.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 7:52 pm and is filed under Media, Miscellaneous. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.