while nothing justifies a media orgy,
steve irwin was probably
one of the most aggressive species conservationists
of the past 30 years.
there are a number of "inconvenient"
or "overly aggressive" species around the world
that may not survive
as a result of his untimely death.

jhimm - 1. Nobody in the media even talks about that when discussing Irwin and frankly, that's nice, but hardly worthy of this much hype. 2. As an example of someone I think should have had more press coverage than Irwin is Simon Wiesenthal. Yet he only got 1/4 (if that) of this kind of coverage and "the life of".

i'll say it again:

"nothing justifies a media orgy".

and i refuse to debate
which is "more worth it"
fighting racism or ecology.
that's a fools' argument.

jhimm - agreed.

Accomplishments aside (and I will not discuss "worthiness" either) I do think peoples reactions are somewhat different when someone dies young, in the prime of life, leaves small children etc. rather than at the end of a long life. However, that doesn't mean that the media didn't overdo it, but I was on vacation most of the week so was able to avoid it.