“The late Murray Kempton once described editorial writers as ‘the people who come down from the hill after the battle to shoot the wounded,'” writes L.A. Times columnist Tim Rutten. “Nowadays, media analysts are the guys who follow behind them, going through the pockets of the dead looking for loose change.

“So, yes, this column is about Anna Nicole Smith.

“Friday morning, less than 24 hours after she died in a Florida hotel room, the Drudge Report — our media culture’s digital arbiter of all things tacky and prurient — had 12 items posted on the onetime topless dancer. That would account for some of the media frenzy surrounding her death. It’s a little-known fact, but certain sectors of the broadcast media have long believed that if a dozen items on Anna Nicole Smith ever were posted on Drudge simultaneously, it would herald the onset of the apocalypse.

“Who knew? This is the way the world ends — neither with a bang nor a whimper but with cleavage.”