I Heard The News Today, Oh Boy: Michael Jackson

On line ... On the button

If ever there's proof of the real growing impact of the Internet then it's the news coverage of the death of poor Michael Jackson.
I first heard something was not right with the 50-year-old troubled star when watching Newsnight and they broke off from talking about MPs expenses to say it had been reported on the well-respected celebrity website TMZ that he had suffered a heart attack.
Well respected TMZ seldom get things wrong. I was worried.
I switched to BBC 24 News and watched the grim story unfold. I wanted it to be a hoax.
First the news he was in a Coma and then the shock horror of it all. The LA Times followed it up with a confirmation that, indeed, Jacko was dead.
While all the news was being released people were texting each other in pubs, bars, buses at home and some were Twittering such as Foreign Secretary David Milliband who said, "RIP Michael."
I now flashback to the way we heard John Lennon was dead.
This was 1980 and before mobile phones and it took eight hours for his assassination announcement to make it over to the UK.
Lennon died in America on December 8 but over here on December 9. New travels so much faster thanks to the digital revolution.
When I saw the headlines this morning I had to buy a newspaper because we in print and books can do follow ups much better than web reports more depth . . . for the time being.,
And since the news Jackson's own fan club website crashed due to the craving for information NOW.
The Internet is a powerful form of communication I and millions more are now convinced.
I do think, however,that the TV broadcasters were ill prepared for such a tragedy. Their footage and range of interviewees was woeful.
Surely they must have had something prepared in the light of his recent health scares.
So Now Michael is out of our lives.

Extra Extra . . . Read all about him
OUT MONDAY 29TH JUNE!

MICHAEL JACKSON took the amazing step from child star to the King of Pop.
From his early successes with the Jackson 5 through to the phenomenal success of Eighties best-selling albums Thriller and Bad, Jackson became the biggest pop artist on the planet.
Part of the new Mirror collection, 'Michael Jackson - The King of Pop' celebrates his life through a selection of great images from the Daily Mirror archive charting his rise from childhood to the height of superstardom.
www.merseyshop.com (£4.99)

RADIO DAZE...

I am on Neil Fitzmaurice's show at City Talk Saturday June 27, 7 to 10am chatting about the Scouse accent with excerpts from my book Talk Like The Scousers and looking at Scousers in the world of film.