Jim, can I ask a question that I am genuinely curious about? For you and the rest of the your CNet friends, has the fact that this has made national & even international news (my mother-in-law picked up on this from a Taiwan news-cast for example) made it any better or worse when it comes to dealing with the sadness? I can see it going both ways at the same time.
Well, you're right in that it definitely cuts both ways. On one hand, what started as a fairly personal crisis that I learned about thru an e-mail forwarded from one of our executive editors at EOD last Wednesday, caught the local media Thursday night, and by Monday morning was a national story. As a result, it's been really really hard to escape this any time I turn on a TV or radio or pick up a paper. I've been asked about it by friends, neighbors, and some guy I barely know at my bus stop that happens to know where I work (really). As I've alluded a few times, I have not entered or left our building once since Friday without there being at least one satellite truck parked on our block. To be fair, I have not heard of them being rude or intrusive to any of my coworkers, although there were a few shots on channel 7 tonight of crying women exiting the building that I thought were a little heartless. I flipped on CNN Monday night and Nancy Grace was dissecting the story, and I've heard it made Larry King as well.
On the other hand, it has been somewhat comforting to read the messages of support that people literally from all over the world, not just in the US, have left on our site and others.
But there's an ugly side to that too. One of my fellow CEs was upset today (before the announcement was made) because she had read some particularly ugly comments on SFGate. I don't know the nature of them, but I can guess. Some assholes just like to have a soapbox from which to broadcast their assholishness. And we all know there's no shortage of assholes in this world.
So in rereading my response, I'd have to say overall, it's made it worse. The comments were nice, but I'd rather not be under the microscope.
