How do you cover a tragedy in an age where things can come back to haunt you? Well, our friends at Gawker have pointed up a LiveJournal site where you can read all manner of journalistic appeals, and the public’s response (think ‘whores,’ ‘vultures,’ etc.) – God bless them.

The site is the cyber equivalent of ‘the knock.’

(On which grim subject, a photographer colleague in Belfast once had to go and see a woman whose husband was the freshest victim of sectarian violence. My colleague made the usual polite request for a picture of the deceased.

The widow put down her cigarette and gestured to the next room.

“The coffin’s open in the kitchen. snap away,” she said.)

It is part of the job, but there are perhaps better words than those employed by the Boston Herald:

I would love to chat with you about this horrific event…

As Gawker put it: ‘You stay classy, media.’