All about Michael Jackson

So I’m sitting outside a café in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art last Thursday afternoon when a waitress yells: “Michael Jackson is dead!” She has just received the news via Twitter. People immediately reach for their cell phones and the story surrounding his death is soon the main topic of conversation.

My wife arrives from her tour of the galleries to say that one is already playing endless Jackson recordings. The waitress tells us she feels sorry for Farrah Fawcett because Jackson’s death will overshadow hers. True enough. On the car radio we hear that a TV network’s planned one-hour tribute to Fawcett will now be a two-hour tribute to both her and Jackson. (It was, needless to say, devoted mainly to Jacko).

We switch through several FM stations on the drive home. Jackson dominates the news bulletins and the phone-ins. In fact, there is nothing else to hear. The right-wing shock jocks are eager to point out that they are not about to celebrate the life of a child molester. But they talk about him endlessly anyway, and not always unkindly.

By now, about 3.30pm, the radio stations are reporting that a huge crowd of fans has already gathered outside the UCLA medical centre, probably alerted by Tweets. (Twitter was reported to have crashed for a while due to the rush of messages).

By the time I reach my son’s home, I see that the net is humming with Jackson. The Los Angeles Times is running the story (while, oddly, CNN is being very tentative, relying on “reports” from other media and telling viewers it could not independently verify the death. ).

By now, of course, Britain’s newspapers are filling their online sites with as much information (and speculation) as the US news outlets. Next day I note that one celebrity website, , is claiming to have landed the scoop, boasting that it was way ahead of traditional media outlets. Well, someone had to be first.

A claim that Jackson’s personal doctor has gone missing is leading the news bulletins on every TV and radio station. It is impossible to turn on the radio without hearing a Jackson song, listening to tributes from friends and family, and renewed rants from the shock …

Read the original article at Guardian

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