His passing is yet another reminder of how pop culture consumes its icons. At 50, Michael Jackson outlived Elvis by almost a decade, but neither was destined for the old age that Sinatra and Bing Crosby reached in an earlier era. When Presley died in 1974, he was a grotesque caricature of himself, obese and drug-damaged, planning a comeback tour, but a cynic called his sudden death on a bathroom floor “a...

This doesn’t seem to be a good week for celebrities with word now coming that pitchman Billy Mays has been found dead in his Tampa home at the age of 50. Mays Dies

You’ve probably heard the 911 call by an anonymous man asking that an ambulance be sent as soon as possible. It turns out while on the 911 call, the phoner says that the doctor is applying CPR (and doing everything) to Mr. Jackson and that Jackson is not breathing yet. The doctor is Conrad Murray, who is said to have practices across three states. The doc has a few problems, as stated by ABC news: Dr....

The autopsy for “King of Pop” singer Michael Jackson is over and the results are inconclusive – and it may take another six weeks to know the precise cause as medics await toxicology reports. But family friend the Rev. Jesse Jackson has told CNN that the family wants to know more about what the dead singer’s private doctor knows — and wants some answers: Michael Jackson’s...

I am working on a roundup of media and blogger reaction to the death of Michael Jackson, but I just want to make an initial point about the revulsion many people (here and elsewhere) have expressed toward Jackson because of the child molestation charges filed against him in the mid-1990s.

I remember the day Princess Diana died. I was on holiday with my family and my 12 year old brain could not comprehend why so many people were showing such emotion for a person they hadn’t met. I couldn’t understand how someone can cry for a person who wasn’t a direct family member, or a close personal friend. I remember a news correspondent saying that Diana’s death will go down in history as one of...

Perhaps you saw how as the attendants moved Michael Jackson, his body lay nearly flat on the stretcher, as though there were an ironing board underneath the sheet, rather than the body of a full person. My guess from just a glance, is that he weighed around 100 pounds or less. Not slender, not thin, rather… entirely skeletal. Most people are familiar with anorexia nervosa, an emotional disorder characterized...

Editorial cartoonists around the world are offering their good byes to singer Michael Jackson. Here are a few: Michael Goes To Heaven John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Missouri The Moon Walker Manny Francisco, Manila, The Phillippines Michael Jackson In Paradise Patrick Chappatte, NZZ am Sonntag Bye Bye Michael Monte Wolverton, Cagle Cartoons Michael Jackson Frederick Deligne, Nice-Matin, France Last...

If The Beatles managed to convey the increasing dominance of machine over man — with their voice and script struggling to rise over the clamour and force of musical instruments, Michael Jackson’s songs, accompanied with his unbeatable mechanical body movements, went a step further to deliver a similar message — the human beings gradually turning into robots. Thus, The Beatles and Michael Jackson...

Well, what more is there to say? One of the genuine icons of our time, which says a lot about our time (more for bad than for good, I would argue), has died at the age of 50. Like him or not, there is no denying Michael Jackson’s significance in global popular culture. He was a star above stars, as outsized a celebrity as we have ever seen. He was an artist, I’ll give him that, but he was so much...

Barack Obama’s presidency was partially built by the moonwalk of Michael Jackson. The Political Pop Star owes a debt of gratitude to The King of Pop. How so? Take a few minutes and let’s rewind the clock 25 years before President Obama announced his candidacy. 1982 – Ronald Reagan was entering his first full year in office, “Hill Street Blues” was a top rated TV hit, and MTV...

GMA reported this morning that Google was “down for 40 minutes” on news of Jackson’s death. An overstatement, I suspected. Cnet clarifies in a comment from Google: Some Google users complained that the search engine’s News area was inaccessible for a time. A Google representative confirmed that “between approximately 2:40 p.m. PDT and 3:15 p.m. PDT today, some Google News users...

I’ll let others proclaim the significance of Michael Jackson’s contributions to music and entertainment as the legendary “King of Pop.” I considered him weird. It was best described by Johnny Carson in an opening monologue of The Tonight Show years ago when the hometown Dodgers led the league in fielding errors. “What does the Dodger infield and Michael Jackson have in common?”...

Deng Coy Miel, Singapore This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

TechCrunch: It was probably to be expected that Twitter would struggle as reportedly hundreds of thousands of tweets came in about Jackson in a very short amount of time. While I only got a couple actual Fail Whales, the site was really sucking wind for much of the hour that people were trying to get information about him. But Twitter was hardly the only site that was struggling. Various reports had the AOL-owned...

It’s dangerous to be a king. In ancient times a young man was each year groomed to be king, given all beautiful things in excess, lulled with praise, adored as more than human, and in the end, drugged and taken by the venerating populace to the cliff, to the pit, to the cenote, the well to be drowned. And once the king died/ was put to death in the most adoring of ways, the populace turned to look for...

The BBC has a photo gallery of fan reactions HERE.

Political Cartoonists Mourn Michael Jackson by Daryl Cagle Michael Jackson was God’s gift to editorial cartoonists. Now that the gift has been “returned to sender” the cartoonists are mourning the loss of one of their most evergreen gags. Jackson was a wonderful character for cartoons. From “Jesus Juice” to chimps and burning hair, he was a cartoon treasure. One of my all time favorites was a Mr. Fish...

Cardow, The Ottawa Citizen This cartoon is copyrighted and licensed to run on TMV. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Ticket to Ride There’s an ancient train leaving right on time… it roars through a sudden door cut open in the upper climes. We are shocked the iron horse scooped our beloved out of mid-air… shocked to see the hinge-blown door that has always been right there… c.p.estés And here on Earth, maybe a wisp of that locomotive smoke lingers here, and we are one soul less… one soul less...

Michael Jackson has died at age 50. Like many, I’ve watched him degenerate from an articulate, confident child star to a strange, reclusive adult. Four years ago, I wrote this piece inspired by Jackson on the effects of fame on the famous. If Michael Jackson had not been introduced to the addictive power of fame, might he have lived an obscure and happy life? We’ll never know. This video is of Jackson’s...

Over the next few hours, most of the blogging world will be posting on the impact of Michael Jackson’s life. I have had mixed feelings about him over the past 15 years or so. His legal problems aside, in my opinion, he is one of the most important American artistic personalities of the past century. Jackson, Elvis, Hendrix and Sinatra changed music so dramatically that people are still trying to copy...

UPDATE: Web Site TMZ.com is now reporting Jackson has died. E! News is also reporting his death. The LA Times is now confirming his death. It seems official enough to confirm, Michael Jackson has died at the age of 50. ———- After already getting the news of Ed McMahon passing earlier this week and Farrah Fawcett dying today we now have news that number three may be on the way. Michael Jackson...

When the news hit that quintessential late night TV sidekick Ed McMahon died, it marked the end of an era. But not the era that many have noted. It wasn’t just that he was a great TV sidekick to the undisputed former King of Late Night, NBC’s Johnny Carson. It wasn’t just that he was a multi-fronted talent threat: a great sidekick, a talented actor, an emcee in his own right, an effective...

We’ve lost another of the classic names of the small screen. NBC News is reporting that legendary Tonight Show sidekick and promoter of everything, Ed McMahon has passed away. He had been battling a number of different medical problems for some time. The era of the Tonight Show when he partnered with Johnny Carson was a part of the fabric of life for so many Americans. A long road and a job well done....