HuffPo Does Tasteless Better Than Anyone Else

Passing this on from And So it Goes in Shreveport:

Friday, September 11, 2009, a 20 year old student at Cornell University,
Warren Schor, pictured left, died of complications from the swine flu. IvyGate
Blog chose the tragedy as an
occasion for mockery and silliness.

IvyGate is a blog that purports itself to be a "news and gossip blog that
covers the Ivy League" and is written by current and former students. In the
past they've covered stories such as the Princeton class president who set
a squirrel on fire and more recently, mocking the distribution at Harvard of a pamphlet instructing students not to defecate in the shower.

When Warren Schor died last week, IvyGate published this article, originally
under the byline of Molly Fitzpatrick, now under the byline of Adam Clark Estes. The article mocks Schor's death and the administration attempts to encourage students to stay healthy by practicing good hygiene. So intent was IvyGate on its mission of mockery that they couldn't even get the dead student's name right in the original article, first
identifying him as "William" Schor, until offended commenters called out the
error.

It is beyond the pale that anyone would use the death of bright young student to yuck it up. If anything, you would think that fellow students would have a higher sensitivity to the passing of one of their own. But if you read further, it becomes apparent where the "talented" Mr. Estes gets his appalling lack of taste.

In addition to his responsibilities as editor of IvyGate, Estes is also Associate Editor of Huffington Post Investigative Fund, described by Arianna Huffington this
way: "This nonprofit Fund will produce a wide-range of investigative
journalism created by both staff reporters and freelance writers." The site
considers itself a "watchdog" of sorts, reporting on fraud, abuse, and waste in
government.

In June, Estes announced the formation of the Investigative Fund's Health
Unit whose purpose is to track the progress of ObamaCare. So why is a
Huffington Post editor and one in charge of the Health Unit, mocking the death
of a young man with H1N1?

Well, that rather explains it, doesn't it.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the family, friends and campus community of Warren Schor and to Cornell Professor William A. Jacobson. Professor, please look after yourself, so many of us look forward to you posts at Legal Insurrection.