RANT: debunking public figures the moment they're dead

It has long disturbed me, ever since Mommie Dearest became a national past-time, how, without a decent mourning time for the ones feeling their loss, there are invariably those who seem to delight in tearing their reputations to shreds. Now, I did not read Mommie Dearest or view the film; I was too disillusioned to hear the talk about an actress I had spent a lifetime loving. Perhaps she deserved it. But, the general trend is something I find pretty disheartening. William Somerset Maugham was to me a great gentleman. I don't recall seeing a bad word in print concerning this man, ever - until he died. Then a book cutting him down was released. There is a long succession of such instances. I never read the gossip, and I think the worst of most of the ones doing the debunking.