Passing of a Kennedy

A committed liberal in my life sent me a message last week, reading, "If all this Teddy Kennedy coverage makes ME want to vomit, what must it be doing to people who disagreed with him politically? If these talking heads can even remember the name Mary Jo Kopechne, I bet they couldn't spell it."
The Boston Globe began one of its obit pieces: "TED KENNEDY was not a great man."
So with a figure as divisive and storied as Kennedy, what is the right tone to strike in coverage and how much coverage should we have?
NPR's ombudsman tackles some of the issues.
How much is enough? How does the timing of the death play into coverage choices? Farrah Fawcett's death might have been a fairly major news story until Michael Jackson died unexpectedly shortly after. How do we cover flawed individuals with honesty while still respecting the truth? Did you know what Chappquiddick was or who Kopechne was? Does that matter?

Well-Prepared or Morbid?

What do you think about obituaries prepared in advance? Reporters recently revealed that AP has a prepared obit for Britney Spears, speaking to the darkness she's recently been through. But the vast majority of obits in the can are for people in their 70s or older.
What does it say when we prepare text in advance of the death of a woman in her 20s? Should an obit merely cover a career or should it speak to the larger context of a person's life? Should it speak to her troubles or is that trampling a person's grave?