CNN broke into regular programming just after 8:50pm ET tonight to report the news of the death of Tammy Faye Messner. The former televangelist, singer and TV personality died Friday morning, but the family had asked family friend Larry King to hold the news until today. King told CNN’s Rick Sanchez, “they wanted to delay it a full day so that the family could all gather together.” In fact, Messner was cremated this morning and, as King explained it, her remains have been “buried in a remote part of Oklahoma.”
Messner was a fixture on King’s program, appearing Thursday night, looking like a shell of her former self. Here’s the story from Access Hollywood…
King told Sanchez he “was proud and blessed” that the family asked him to report the news.
>An emailer wonders: “did (King) even tell his bosses at CNN that he was sitting on the story? How can he be a ‘journalist’ if he holds news 24 hours at the family’s request?”