Entertainment Tonight goes too far with Michael Jackson photo

I understand that the death of Michael Jackson is enormous news. There has been nothing else on the cable news networks for the last 2 hours. Every entertainment outlet is searching for a story and angle on this. Including myself to a degree.

But Entertainment Tonight has gone too far. They went to a place that the realm of good taste forbids. Even tabloids tend to not tread this path - at least not hours after the death of a celebrity.

Entertainment Tonight has placed on it's website a photo they claim is the last ever taken of Jackson. Jackson was intibated and on a strecher. Some time shortly after this photo he was dead.

I find photos of dead celebrities to be disgusting. It is an insult and a disrespect. It does not shed new light on the event, it does not inform. And I can imagine the horror it can evoke to the family and friends of the deceased. Especially 2 hours after the news has just broken.

Imagine that if for some reason you were a friend of Jackson and you turn on your TV or computer and that ewas the first thing you saw. Imagine if you are a family member and you get to see that after the wake or funeral. Imagine if you are one of his children some years from now, and you get to see that this was how some exploited your dad after death.

Entertainment Tonight has acted as only scum would in my opinion. I accept that the photo was taken while Jackson was alive, with expectations that he would survive. But ET knew he was dead when they published this photo. So their only decision was to release this photo in an effort to profit off of his death. It's the modern equivalent of grave robbing.

Tabloids and paparazzi act in low manner all the time. They have the least respect, unless a dollar is attached. But this is inexcusable. I mean can't they let the man's memory, family, and friends have even 1 night before they disgustingly hustle for a buck on his grave.

I too am a member of the media. A small part, but still part all the same. And I deplore and am insulted by this desecration of Michael Jackson. The executives that ok'd this decision should get beaten with a stick by the Jackson family.

Maybe I am too sensitive (which may be the first I would be called that) or my morality is too high. But I think the outcry from the public should remind the media that there are limits. That the chase of a buck does not justify everything. That good taste still is more important than a scoop or quickie journalism.

Do you agree?