[Libloather]

...re-examine the newspaper's policies on datelines, bylines and anonymous sources.

I think I heard Fox News announce that Bob Hope's NYT obit was written by someone who has been deceased for two years now. Pretty much cutting edge reporting...

[laurav]

Would make sense. Papers write obits ahead of time so they are ready to plug in when famous people die. They write them for people they assume will kick the bucket soon. For instance, I bet every newspaper in America already has obits written on President Reagan, the Pope, etc. So the fact that the obit was written by someone two years ago doesn't mean much, since Bob Hope hasn't done much in the last two years.