Obituaries Are All About Life

Guest: Vanessa Gould, director and producer of the documentary “Obit”; Bruce Weber, former obituary writer at The New York Times, author of "As They See 'Em: A Fan's Travels in the Land of Umpires" and "Life Is a Wheel: Love, Death, Etc., and a Bike Ride Across America" It’s true that anyone can have an obituary published in the local paper, as long as they’re willing to write it and pay a handsome fee. But only a select few get an obituary written by a reporter of the paper, and they are usually famous, noteworthy or notorious. The pinnacle of obituary pages is The New York Times, where an entire team of seasoned reporters crank out some of the most memorable stories in the paper each day. And, as the new documentary “Obit” makes clear from the start, obituaries are not really about death.