It was obvious this material had been prepared some time ago.

During the evening similar material was broadcast on other television news services.

The sameness of the material across the different commercial channels and the ABC was evident.

It was almost as if they had all bought the same stuff off the same shelf from the same place.

I can understand the Vatican having a succession plan, just as the Palace had a succession plan for Queen Elizabeth, but that was different altogether.

Everyone knew Pope Francis was unwell and at his advanced age in danger of passing away but to have a media dossier ready and waiting seemed decidedly ghoulish.

It’s not the first time this kind of thing has happened of course.

No doubt there are similar dossiers sitting ready and waiting for a range of elderly or infirm dignitaries the world over.

I imagine that prepared material is sitting and waiting for Joe Biden and probably Donald Trump when they fall off the twig.

In Australia I bet there are similar post-mortality media dossiers on people like John Howard and Paul Keating ready to go.

It’s not unusual, of course, for ordinary, everyday, garden variety, people to think about how people will remember them when they are gone and to garner a set of facts in some form or other for when the time comes.

Websites like Wikipedia are replete with biographical details written about otherwise obscure and forgettable people wanting to advertise their merits both in life and beyond it.

In the hope of what, I’m not sure. To be remembered I guess. To be immortalised? Maybe to simply satisfy their egos? Maybe for the grandkids.

I once had the job of sorting through the effects of a rather famous anthropologist which had become the subject of a legal battle because of the sensitive artefacts he had collected, which he probably shouldn’t have done.

In the process I came across an elaborate set of documents related to the artefacts and other material which set out exactly how they should be handled after his death, in effect, to enhance his reputation.

This was in pre-internet days. If he had access to the internet it is interesting to speculate what he would have done with it.

That sort of thing is bizarrely human and pretty harmless.

Collecting material for post-mortality media purposes, and probably monetising it at the same time, is a different matter and doesn’t reflect well on the people who do it.

But that’s the sort of world we live in I guess. If it’s saleable that’s a good enough excuse.