BREAKING NEWS: Jerry Falwell dead at 73 (ii)

Most of the media are still reporting that the Rev. Jerry Falwell, founder of the alleged “Moral Majority” collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.

The AP reports that Falwell is dead.

Excerpt:

Lynchburg, Va. - The Rev. Jerry Falwell, who founded the Moral Majority and built the religious right into a political force, died Tuesday shortly after being found unconscious in his office at Liberty University, a school executive said. He was 73.

Ron Godwin, the university’s executive vice president, said Falwell, 73, was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. “CPR efforts were unsuccessful,” he said.

Courage.

11:33 PDT (GMT 18:33) BROKEN NEWS: The earlier stories have all now vanished into the mists of history. It is an odd thing: those "in the moment" initial reports are, invariably, scrubbed from the accounts—probably because they ofttimes prove embarrassing in retrospect. Here is the earlier, "bets tastefully hedged" AP story:

Falwell in 'gravely serious' condition
5/15/2007, 1:01 p.m. CDT
The Associated Press

LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — The Rev. Jerry Falwell was hospitalized in "gravely serious" condition after being found unconscious in his office Tuesday, a Liberty University executive said.

Ron Godwin, the executive vice president of Falwell's Liberty University, said Falwell was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but "he has a history of heart challenges."

"I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast," Godwin said. "He went to his office, I went to mine and they found him unresponsive."

Godwin said Falwell was receiving emergency care. A hospital spokeswoman said she had "no information to release at this time" on Falwell

Falwell, a television evangelist who founded the Moral Majority, became the face of the religious right in the 1980s. He later founded the conservative Liberty University and serves as its president.

Falwell survived two serious health scares in early 2005. He was hospitalized for two weeks with what was described as a viral infection, then hospitalized again a few weeks later after going into respiratory arrest.

Death Scares Everybody.

Courage.