passing of a loved one..who breaks the news?

Tweet

This is my first discussion (signed up 20 minutes ago). Sometime this week I was flipping through the channels on TV and stopped on ET. What was being aired was the death of A.Jolie's mother...ET's Mary Hart said something like...it was ET that broke the new to her (jolie's) friends on the red carpet and got their thoughts. BROKE THE NEWS???? What I thought at the time was .. who does an entertainment show think they are (a part of the family?) and to actually say that is absurd! Thoughts?