Anne Heche, the Gurney and the Roving Eye

You already know the answer.

It was a live feed, they couldn't possibly know what was going to happen in advance. Plus, everyone has a recording device on them these days, so this is the new normal, I'm afraid.

R2 That's right. The media does this all the time to ordinary people involved in car chases, car crashes, and disasters requiring rescue. No one even knew it was Anne Heche when the coverage started and didn't even know until filming had been going on for nearly an hour. The same footage would have been shot even if she was not a famous person, and if she had lived. All that happened was that it became a bigger story because she was famous. The video would have still been on the news and online if she were not famous.

OPwants Cronkite to prescreen his vids.

OP, I appreciate you bringing this up because it is a tough and painful question. My immediate thought was the image of that one man who had jumped from one of the WTC buildings on 9/11 - he looked so graceful as he plunged to his death and we all watched it happen live. All of that is to say that I have no idea what the right answer is but I agree that it should be discussed.

Here is her son’s message from yesterday (via People):

Homer Laffoon, 20, said: 'My brother Atlas and I lost our Mom.

'After six days of almost unbelievable emotional swings, I am left with a deep, wordless sadness.

'Hopefully my mom is free from pain and beginning to explore what I like to imagine as her eternal freedom.'

'Over those six days, thousands of friends, family, and fans made their hearts known to me,'

'I am grateful for their love, as I am for the support of my Dad, Coley, and my stepmom Alexi who continue to be my rock during this time.'

'Rest In Peace Mom, I love you,' he added.

Anne's ex husband and Homer's dad - Coley, released a really beautiful statement on Instagram. Scroll down to watch. Coley is remarried and Homer has a loving step mom. They all saw the love in Anne Heche.

She was a performer, right up until the end. Now, who will play her in the Lifetime movie?

Anne had something. People seemed to love her. I'm glad she got to have her kids.

One thought I had, could Anne have been having a wild paranoiac episode, fleeing from people she thought were pursuing her? A mental break fueled by cocaine? Maybe the red wig was a desperate attempt at a disguise. And isn't a lot of coke contaminated with fentanyl these days?

It’s exploitive, but I think the reason people are watching is because the story is so hard to understand, so they try to understand with what little is shown.

It’s trying to solve the crime aspect of this tragedy…why did she suddenly do this, what was the drug, does a drug like this actually cause this type of reaction?

Why did she jump up? It doesn’t match with other parts of the story…It seems odd because it’s the opposite of what we would assume would happen to someone in her state.

It was her final bow.

But how could any of us know how someone 'should' act after such an incident? She did talk to the neighbor who tried to help but couldn't get to her. Apparently, she talked a little bit in the ambulance.

You'd have to be a medical expert on bodily trauma, smoke inhalation, etc., to have any reasonable expectations, one way or another.

Anyway, it's a tale as old as time. Crime shows that cover every detail they can unearth about murders. Everybody stops to watch a car crash, train wreck, hot air balloon collapse, they used to have picnics at lynchings because people wanted to see it.

I think it was Woody Allen who said, 'there's nothing interesting other than sex and death.'

We don't want journalists censoring new like that though. It happened on live camera. At that point it becomes news which can't be retracted. There really can be no moral purview if it happens live on camera.