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While it is sad news about Michael Jackson dieing so suddenly and at only fifty years old, Sky News (UK 24 hour news channel) have been talking about it pretty much non-stop all day.

I first heard the news at 6.30am this morning on BBC Radio 4, but it was covered as the main story along with other news.

I turned on Sky News and was watching between 8am-9am and they never mentioned any other news story - not even in passing. It's the same now some six hours later both on Sky and on BBC News 24. Both channels still have "Breaking News: Michael Jackson is dead" as the banner at the bottom of the screen. The fact he has passed away is hardly breaking news any longer.

Seems very over the top to me. Sure, it should be be lead story and given a lot of coverage, but there is reason in all things.

What the coverage of Karen's death like in the pre-internet, pre-24 hour news channel days ?

If there had been the internet and so on back in February 1983, what would the coverage of Karen's passing been like ?
Edited by Mister H, 26 June 2009 - 09:05 AM.

I think MJ's would probably still be more. KC's, while having the added interest of the "new" disease, probably still wouldn't have garnered the same interest when you compare it to the interest that MJ's other "side issues" would have brought........had the internet and all the media been around when KC passed.

JMHO.

All I want to say, that it's extremely sad, when such a brilliant, talented people leave us in such a relatively young age. What is 50 year old in the terms of modern developed countries? He could live so much more, than just 50... I was shocked by his death too. We have been watching TV-news about him all day long and still can't believe it's true.
I wasn't around yet when Karen passed away, so I can't tell whose death got the most initial coverage, but yes, I suppose that with internet and all this modern stuff, her death would have been covereged more largely.
Edited by Tanya, 26 June 2009 - 11:08 AM.

You're probably right as Michael was just as famous for his personal life as his music - probably even more so.



It is very sad, especially when you see the early footage with his big hair and his face as yet untouched by too much surgery. It's hard to believe he is the same person as the shambling, strange looking man we knew of recent times.

I remember that my friend called me at home with the news of Karen's death. It was early afternoon, so, given the 3 hour time difference between California and Michigan, I would say that it was indeed "breaking news" and that some tv stations must have interrupted their programs to report it as soon as they knew about it. Not being the age of 24/7 news coverage, the stations would have quickly returned us back to "the regularly scheduled program" and we'd have had to wait til the 6 o'clock news to hear anything else.

There was no one to talk about this with like we have now. No internet, no message boards, no IM's..nothing but news at 6pm and 11pm, and the daily newspaper. Months later People magazine put their story out, but until then...nothing else. Having no other friends who were Carpenter fans, I was pretty much alone in my shock and grief. If there were large gatherings of fans anywhere, it was not widely reported or I'd remember it.

So, for initial coverage I'd say the events were equal, in that both events captured ALL the coverage available at the time. Allowing for "inflation" of the media industry from then to now, I'd say they were equal.

For ongoing coverage, both speculative and informative...MJ wins, hands down. But that's today's society. If he had died as a child or young adult, he would have had a few news stories, a few articles, we all would have said, Oh, how sad, and then waited 9 months for the People magazine article. If he had been 50 years old in the seventies or early 80's...we never would have known about most of his eccentricities since there was no coverage to tell us, and indeed then there were managers and studio heads actually covering up anything out of the norm (Like not telling fans what was wrong with Karen and saying she was fine and "dividing her time beween homes in NY and LA" when she was really in therapy for her life). So MJ still would have had only a few news articles and a People story 9 months later.
Edited by Summer, 26 June 2009 - 03:34 PM.

I'm just puzzled! Yesterday, in spite of being 36 years old, I cried like a child on the bus, all the way heading home from work, while listening on and on We Are The World with my MP3, the only song of his that I have there.

My teenager years were deeply touched with MJ's music; I just wasn't ready for such a sad new, and still find it hard to believe it's true. He is gone too soon...
I'm sending a hug to all of his fans, and we all know there are many people who love MJ and the Carpenters as well.
Now, I bet there's a duet in heaven, already recording the first songs for a duets album: "Remember The Time When Loving Took All Night",....

It really doesn't sound like much, even allowing for the difference in the way news was covered back then. I guess that people were less "emotional" maybe and just dealt with it in their own way.




I know what you mean. I happened to be off work today and had the chance to watch a lot of the news programmes and I never really realised how many great tracks MJ recorded. There are so many good ones and it's so tragic that he never managed to get a handle on his demons. Seeing his much earlier footage just goes to prove that there was never anything wrong with his looks. He was just so painfully insecure. Shame on those surgeons for taking money just to ruin his natural good looks.

As for all the Wacko Jacko stuff and the court cases and stuff I never knew what to believe, but MJ was dreadfully naive to think that "Neverland" was a good idea.

Just a few short weeks after Karen's death PEOPLE did a cover story on her death. Then about 9 months after her passing they did another PEOPLE cover on Richard Carpenter remembering...

Cam

There were several articles pointing the similarities of Michael & Karen: CARDIAC ARREST ......ANOREXIA, insinuating Michael Jackson had an eating disorder