A source more reliable than “Piers Norgan” — or even CNN’s Piers Morgan, for that matter — was the latest to declare former South African president Nelson Mandela dead. Germany’s Deutsche Welle published Mandela’s obituary earlier today on its website. Even after DW apologized and blamed “technical difficulties” for the error, the obituary was still available for perusal, maybe even by Mandela himself.
Nelson Mandela's temporary online death blamed on pic.twitter.com/YaIbYgwu5N
— Lucy Kafanov (@LucyKafanov) June 14, 2013
I think Nelson Mandela should be grateful for the fact that he gets to read his own obituary… http://t.co/99aR7NzNoi Not many get to. lulz
— ? Exceedingly Unseelie ?#AnonymousOwls ? (@der_bluthund) June 14, 2013
Pre-publishing death notices is not common practice yet, but George Soros was recently given the opportunity to read his own obituary thanks to Reuters.
Dear well-meaning people: please don’t tweet that Mandela or any other icons died until you see it from at least 3 decent sources. Thanks.
— Carlin (@the2scoops) June 14, 2013
https://twitter.com/mskris_/status/345693739446071297
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