Dolly Parton Profiting Off Of Whitney’s Death – An Unfair Accusation! [EDITORIAL]

Maybe I'm taking this headline the wrong way.  Maybe I'm being to sensitive.  Maybe I'm just cranky and overtired.  I've been seeing this headline over and over again today, like this one from thefw.com-"Dolly Stands To Make Big Bucks Off Of Whitney Houston's Death".  Low blow!   

Again, I might be reading this wrong, but the insinuation troubles me a little bit.  Are they trying to say here that Dolly should feel guilty about this?  Are we painting Dolly Parton as a gold digger?  She wrote "I Will Always Love You" and Whitney chose to do a cover of it, and a brilliant one at that. 

But the fact that they are playing it over and over and over these days in tribute to Whitney is not something conjured up by Dolly to make money.  That's just the way it works!  The article states that Dolly gets paid 8 cents for every time it's played on any form of media.  Good for Dolly!  How did she know this was going to happen?  It's just a weird twist of fate.

Now should Dolly donate the proceeds to a drug awareness charity organization or something?  Sure!  If she wants to, that's fine.  But should she feel obligated to do this out of guilt feelings?  Absolutely not! 

Contrast this with a record company that jacks up the price of Whitney Houston albums to cash in on her death.  Now that's a different story altogether in my mind (although according to Kevin Richards' blog, she owes the record company money for advances that were given to her.  So maybe they are doing that to recover their losses, but I don't think so.

Dolly - don't get upset when you read headlines like this.  You can sleep easy knowing that you're not to blame one single bit, and you can feel free to add this money to your growing 401K account.

Sorry, but I just had to get this off my chest (insert Dolly joke here). 

P.S. Kevin, I'm not mad at you.  I read the headline in 3 other places before I got to your blog!