Gossip Ghouls Hit New Low In Race To The Bottom

In the race to publish purported online “exclusives”--no matter how phony, thinly sourced, or non-exclusive they are--gossip web sites have shown little concern when it comes to accuracy, ethics, or decency.

But that’s no revelation--TMZ, for example, once published the name and photo of a 14-year-old boy who was alleged to have been a sex crime victim. All because the child’s father is a famous actor.

Still, the operators of Radar Online--which launders the handiwork of American Media tabloids like the National Enquirer--today set a new low in the race to the bottom.

In its ongoing coverage of last month’s death of comedian Martin Short’s wife--a 58-year-old former comic actress who left show business 25 years ago to raise the couple’s children--the web site today posted an “exclusive” based on details contained in Nancy Dolman Short’s death certificate. Presumably, the site’s reporters were breathlessly counting the days until the document became publicly available from the Los Angeles Department of Public Health.

Along with reporting that the certificate disclosed that Dolman Short died at home following a three-year battle with ovarian cancer, the site made sure to note:

“It also reveals that she had an oophorohysterectomy, meaning her uterus and ovaries were removed, in 2007, not soon after she was diagnosed with the disease.”

The importance of including that medical detail is not explained by Radar staffers, who must have raced to a medical dictionary upon giddily returning to the office with the death certificate. Though they did make sure to report that Dolman Short “sadly lost her battle with the illness.”

It’s the inclusion of that “sadly,” you see, that conveys the site’s sympathy to Short on the loss of his wife.