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I'm surprised at the extreme brevity of this obituary; were they taken by surprise someone could die of old age as young as 100 and didn't have anything prepare
by arp242 3y ago
I'm surprised at the extreme brevity of this obituary; were they taken by surprise someone could die of old age as young as 100 and didn't have anything prepared? I would have expected at least an brief summary of his career, highlights, major points of controversy, etc. e.g. like this: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/29/henry-kissinger-dies-secretary-of-state-richard-nixon https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/nov/29/henry-kissin... (and undoubtedly many others).
Also, this ruins my "Jimmy Carter v. Henry Kissinger in 2024"-joke.
- jszymborski 3y agoSeeing as he was 100, I doubt they were taken by surprise. These things are usually canned and updated once in a while for people of interest, especially past a certain age (or at least that's my understanding).
- arp242 3y agoYes exactly, so why doesn't the BBC have more than 3 lines on Kissinger?
- xanderlewis 3y agoI think it’ll come. Probably within fifteen minutes or so. The BBC usually takes its time (sometimes to the point of absurdity — more than any other news outlet I can think of).
- dboreham 3y agoBBC are asleep.
- xanderlewis 3y agoWell, it is nearly 3 in the morning.
- kelseyfrog 3y ago> were they taken by surprise someone could die of old age as young as 100...? I doubt it. The economy of Henry Kissinger Grim Reaper claw machine memes has been going strong for the last four years at least.
- Quekid5 3y agoFour years? The Venture Brothers had a "Dr Killinger" character with his 'Magic Murder Bag' about 15-ish years ago. Kissinger's crimes have been known about for a loooong time... but the establishment didn't seem to care. EDIT: Apologies if you meant "forty" years. That'd be about right for mainstream.
- Philpax 3y agoI think they were referring to predictions of Kissinger's death, not of general recognition of his crimes.
- kelseyfrog 3y agoI was referring to a specific image template and heavily hedged with "at least", but you're right - anti-kissinget sentiment had been around for decades.
- Quekid5 3y agoIt's all good :)
- ksaj 3y agoI saw one that says "GOT HIM!" That one might actually be new.
- Bluecobra 3y agoI’m really surprised to see such a glaring typo, I don’t think I ever seen one before from the BBC: > Born in Germany in 1973,
- tanseydavid 3y agoIt is a side-effect of the learning cutoff date for the LLM they are using to write articles. </sarc>
- ekianjo 3y agoIf that was the only issue with BBC reporting, that'd be nothing...
- jandrese 3y agoThey omitted the war crimes out of "respect for the dead". That left the article fairly short.
- xanderlewis 3y agoThere you go: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19872410 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19872410 The BBC tend to keep separate breaking news (which they usually keep short, or run a live feed) and more long term articles about the state of the world, obituaries, etc.
- RajT88 3y agoI had a grandfather who was a boozing, gambling, cheating, abusive, no-good man who had a similarly short obit. This is how it works. If you cannot say anything nice, do not say anything at all.
- wyldfire 3y agoYour grandfather's obituary was written by his kin, right? But the beeb doesn't have to treat him like a relative. Seems like any controversies about them are very relevant to an article about their death.
- plorkyeran 3y agoIf you talk about the good things he did one group of people will get very mad, and if you talk about the bad things he did another group of people will get very mad. Much easier to just say nothing.
- dang 3y agoWe've changed the URL from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67574495 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67574495 to the NYT piece which (per https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38469147 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38469147) has obviously been in the works for...decades at this point.