Michael Jackson died on Thursday, June 25. The online entertainment tabloid, TMZ.com, was the first to report the news, although the reports of his death had not been officially confirmed at the time. You will notice in the brief story TMZ filed, the word “confirm” or “confirmed” did not appear:
We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50.
Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him. We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back.
A source tells us Jackson was dead when paramedics arrived. A cardiologist at UCLA tells TMZ Jackson died of cardiac arrest.
Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate him but he was completely unresponsive.
A source inside the hospital told us there was “absolute chaos” after Jackson arrived. People who were with the singer were screaming, “You’ve got to save him! You’ve got to save him!”
We’re told one of the staff members at Jackson’s home called 911.
La Toya ran in the hospital sobbing after Jackson was pronounced dead.
Michael is survived by three children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince “Blanket” Michael Jackson II.
The Los Angeles Times was the first traditional media outlet to publish a confirmed report of the singer/performer’s death, in its Los Angeles Now section:
Pop star Michael Jackson was pronounced dead today after paramedics found him in a coma at his Bel-Air mansion, city and law enforcement sources told The Times.
Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Steve Ruda told The Times that paramedics responded to a 911 call from the home. When they arrived, Jackson was not breathing.
The paramedics performed CPR and took Jackson to UCLA Medical Center, Ruda said. Hundreds of reporters gathered at the hospital awaiting word on his condition. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said family members rushed to Jackson’s bedside, where he was in a deep coma.
The circumstances of Jackson’s death remain unclear. Law enforcement sources said that Los Angeles Police Department robbery-homicide detectives have opened an investigation into the death, though they stressed that there is no evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
The detectives plan to interview relatives, friends and Jackson’s doctors to try to figure out what happened. The L.A. County coroner’s office will determine a cause of death. A Los Angeles Fire Department source told The Times that Jackson was in full cardiac arrest when rescue units arrived.
A feature-length article in the Los Angeles Times‘ main news section has details about the comeback tour Jackson was planning at the time of his death:
He had come to Los Angeles to rehearse for 50 sold-out concerts at London’s O2 Arena, a run of shows that was scheduled to kick off July 13 and had been dubbed “This Is It.” The concerts were to have been the start of an ambitious career revival designed to begin wiping out Jackson’s staggering debt — he owed at least $400 million and would have earned $1 million a night — and return the singer to cultural relevancy.
Jackson’s backers envisioned the London appearances as an audition of sorts for a reboot that would go on to include a world tour, movies, a Graceland-like museum, new music and revues in Macau and Las Vegas.
Those close to Jackson have said he had been working diligently to get in shape for his comeback. A year ago, he was gaunt and used a wheelchair, but recently he’d been exercising with a trainer in addition to daylong rehearsals with dancers half his age.
Kenny Ortega, the force behind “High School Musical” and “Dirty Dancing,” was brought on as the concerts’ director. Jackson was consumed with the project, Ortega said, personally approving every costume and every bit of choreography. Jackson was also thrilled by the notion of keeping the details of the tour secret.
“He was so in love with this project,” Ortega said. “When I looked into his eyes, they looked great. . . . Michael was sincerely happy.”
Rehearsals were to wrap up early next week. Ortega was leading one of the final rehearsals Thursday afternoon when he received a phone call confirming Jackson’s death, which he then revealed to the tour performers.
“People fell to their knees,” he said.
Reports of Jackson’s death combined with Farrah Fawcett’s death earlier the same day led to an information-seeking frenzy that nearly brought down the Internet. The Los Angeles Times‘s technology blog reported that “Michael Jackson-related traffic doubled Twitter’s update frequency [and] tripled Facebook’s.”
The LAT has an interesting piece about TMZ breaking the Jackson story first and how traditional news organization were reluctant to use TMZ as a confirming source or give them credit for breaking the story.
Next: Media and blogger reaction to Jackson’s death.
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