Thursday 6/25 I was working in an independent television studio.
I was making broadcast masters for a show we regularly video record. There is a certain amount of free time while the masters are being duplicated, so I logged into my twitter account. After a few moments I began reading random tweets and saw one that said "McMahon, Fawcett and now Michael Jackson.
This was first I became aware that anything had happened to Michael Jackson. A quick glance at Google News had many stories about Michael Jackson being hospitalized for a heart attack. The time was 5:18 pm EDT.
We in the studio were discussing the possible causes for Jackson’s heart attack when I refreshed the Google page and noticed that the TMZ had announced that Michael Jackson had died. The time at this point was 5:22 pm EDT.
For the next few minutes as far as google was concerned only TMZ reported on Jackson's death.
Then websites like Newsday, and a San Antonio newspaper site reported on his death. Moments later the Washington Post was joined the death reports and there now a good chance that this was a true story.
A quick click to the Washington Post’s website was met with an system error. It seemed they were knocked out by a surge in traffic. The time now was 6:02 pm EDT.
At this point we fell back on traditional media and turned on the television. Neither CNN, MSNBC, nor Fox had reported on Michael Jackson's death. They were still carrying stories about the heart attack were still waiting for further news.
It was almost a half hour later the major media announced his death.
More Internet News Impact Stories:
Michael Jackson Dies -TMZ
http://www.tmz.com/2009/06/25/
How Michael Jackson’s death made search engines go crazy
http://www.examiner.com/x-10080-DC-EGovernment-Examiner
Michael Jackson’s death reported in near real time
http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/06/25/
TV misses out as gossip website TMZ reports Michael Jackson's death first
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-jackson-media
