News of Jackson's death first spread online

I'm aware that there are a bunch of threads on Michael Jackson, but I had to throw this one in the mix.
We found out from TMZ.com also before anyone else (although I did not believe it as well, as you can see in one of the other threads here).

It was a where-were-you moment in a digital age. Michael Jackson's death was not learned from a fatherly TV news anchor. Instead, the news first spread online.

Some of the initial reports from various outlets were confusing: Was Jackson still alive? Was he in a coma? They spread like wildfire across news sites, social media networks and Twitter.

The celebrity Web site TMZ.com. site broke the news of Jackson's death at 5:20 p.m. Thursday.

It was a huge scoop for the AOL-owned TMZ, though many did not believe TMZ's report until it was matched by more established news organizations.

Here's the link:

news.yahoo.com...

reply to post by impaired


I hate TMZ, they are nothing but vultures.

I have had to deal with them a few times. Nothing but a bunch of low lifes.

Maybe the word got out online first, but Jackson's time of death has been listed as 2:26PM PDT and Fox was reporting it, though not yet confirming it, at 2:28PM PDT.

I don't think that the difference is particularly earth shattering.

I'm very interested in knowing the exact time of death. I first heard of Michael ending up in the hospital at 5:50 PM EST via Yahoo's front page. Their story was that TMZ had a story up about Michael arriving at the hospital and they linked directly to that story.

I then started listening to 1010wins.com's live stream, as well as looking at the discussion page of Wikipedia's Michael Jackson page. 1010wins at that time mentioned TMZ's article about the hospital arrival. Wikipedia's discussion page mentioned BBC and Sky News confirming his death. CNN however was reporting that he was in a coma.

6PM I visited TMZ's article stating that he was dead. I looked at the time and noticed 5:20 PM, then read the first few comments. I read "don't believe the controversy. He's dead."

What I want to know is whether TMZ announced his death before the doctor pronounced it, or were they genuinely the first website to know?

do you think its a conspiracy? lolz
i mean: who cares?
he died-its "sad"-move on

You will find out it was prescription drug related...I was more interested in Farrahs death, she fought cancer for three years before giving in, I guess MJ had a heart attack. Will wait for more news...


Jackson's Drug Issues:
www.vancouversun.com...

www.kansascity.com...

[edit on 26-6-2009 by Oatmeal]

TMZ? Its not a surprise. It's funny though, that people still wait for "more reputable" sources like the big media to confirm these kind of things. I already saw on another site about a possible drug-related connection with Lou "the Hulk" Ferrigno. Whatever happens, the media's gonna milk this as long as they can. Sometimes it feels good not to be a famous.