Is online news taking it too far?

Via the Richmond Times Dispatch: Blogging and online news has redefined reporting on deaths of celebrities. Alongside politics and sports, news makers who are nearing death are the focus of all media attention, especially online. Be it the Terri Schaivo case or that of the Pope, it was the blogs and TV that ran the news first. But as technology aids such rapid update of news, is the online media taking it too far? The article asks, "Does the zeal to 'get it first' in this instant-information age rob the dying not only of their privacy, but of their dignity? And what exactly are we competing for when the outcome is less a scoop than an inevitability?"