Rosenbaum

It’s no secret that obituaries for famous figures are written long before they’ve died—how else would the Post have published the final words on Godfather of Go-Go Chuck Brown within minutes of his death earlier this year, for example?

The New York Times’ obituary of liberal stalwart and former Democratic Party presidential contender George McGovern has been sitting around for a while, it seems—over six years, to be exact. How would we know? Because the man credited for writing it—David Rosenbaum—was killed during a robbery in Northwest D.C. in 2006. (The Times admits as much in a postscript.)

In the wake of Rosenbaum’s death, a panel was charged with implementing changes in the way emergency crews respond to such incidents. After Rosenbaum was found unconscious, an emergency responder thought he was drunk; consequently, he didn’t receive treatment for his injuries and wasn’t taken to the closest hospital available. In 2007, Rosenbaum’s family pulled back their $20 million lawsuit against the city pending implementation of the changes proposed by the panel.