Last Anna Nicole word

Just a quick link for anyone who missed Carl Hiaasen's column on how the coverage of Anna Nicole Smith signifies the end of journalism as we knew it: We have seen the future, and it's not pretty.

It's been quoted in lots of blogs but is worth noting once more. Some of the telling quotes:

...this is the new New Journalism, which is steered by a core belief that people would rather be smothered by seedy gossip about dead ex-Playmate junkies than be bothered with the details of North Korea's nuclear program.
...Don't make the mistake of dismissing the Smith story as an anomaly; it's a media watershed. If the death of a hapless, doped-up ex-model can knock two wars out of the headlines, there's no end to the squalid possibilities.

Hiaasen at his best.