Kobe Bryant's untimely passing & the media that made it so much worse

In the moments when the world began to hear that basketball legend and sports idol Kobe Bryant had passed in a tragic helicopter crash among his daughter, Gigi, and 7 others, it seemed as if everything had stopped and all we were looking for was answers.

The news was first released by media giant TMZ only a few hours after their helicopter hit a hill in Calabasas, CA, and crashed, killing Bryant, 41, Gigi, 13, and the 7 others aboard the plane. Horrifically enough, Bryant's family and the others affected by this tragedy had not yet been contacted by the police, meaning they found out about the death of their beloved father and husband through social media. Of course, TMZ received an outpour of backlash for causing so much added grief to the family's severe suffering already, but aside from that, releasing this information so early causes many slip-ups for other media outlets as well.

In an article posted by The New York Times, they explained the severity of releasing catastrophic news at the right time and broke down the ways that some outlets chose to release the information as opposed to others. In some cases, like the Los Angeles Times, they were cautious to confirm the details with TMZ before sharing their article and then lifted their fees on the site for the day so it would be accessible to everyone. NBC News also tweeted first, stating "we are working to determine and confirm who was on board the helicopter," before making any further comments.

Many other news outlets, however, made massive mistakes on the day of their deaths, with one as tragic and horrifying as ABC's statement claiming that all four of Bryant's children were believed to be dead. The different claims being made got so bad and confusing that Jared Greenberg, host and reporter for NBA TV tweeted "PLEASE STOP spreading 'news' unless you can personally confirm it!"

After hours of different statements about the crash being released, the world was finally able to truly read exactly what had happened on this tragic day, but that isn't to say we all didn't experience an immense amount of added stress and hurt for the family's involved and even ourselves for having to take in so many false claims.

I feel that this is a lesson for news outlets, bloggers, and social media gossips to hold their fingers and thumbs back long enough to confirm and be sure that what they hear and read is the real truth before spreading any information out to the masses. As for the Bryant family and the loved ones of the others who passed this day, I'm so unexplainably sorry that they had to learn about the passings of their family through TMZ. No one on this Earth deserves that and I hope that we will all be more posied and thoughtful next time.