About us Login Get email updates
County Fair
Print

CNN as Michael Jackson central

June 30, 2009 1:31 pm ET by Eric Boehlert

Maybe I imagined this, but I could have sworn I heard a collective sigh of relief last week from the press, and especially the cablers, when it realized it wouldn't have to spend more time discussing health care reform (borrrring!) now that Michael Jackson had died.

As Jim Rutten at the Los Angeles Times noted, Jackson's death was huge news, and news consumers responded in record numbers:

When Jackson's death was first reported, traffic across the Internet spiked to virtually unprecedented levels. Google's search engine slowed to a crawl; Yahoo reported "one of the biggest things" in its history; social networks Twitter and Facebook nearly collapsed under the weight of traffic. This newspaper experienced 12 million page views at its website, apparently because it was widely credited with confirming the death.

The funny part is Rutten was complaining about the "serious" media's wall-to-wall Jackson coverage on Saturday. (Rutten thought it was excessive.) If anything, the coverage seems to have become more intense/monotonous since the weekend.

Behold CNN's primetime last night, four days after Jackson died. Since Jackson's passing, very little actual news had been uncovered (the  official cause of death won't be known for weeks), but CNN devoted pretty much its entire night, starting with Lou Dobbs Tonight, to the Jackson story.

I realize that for TMZ and Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight (not to mention US and People), the Jackson passing requires all hands on deck.  But I guess I'm not sure why on CNN the "Jackson" references have out-numbered "Honduras," which just experienced a traumatic military coup, nearly 10-to-1 over the last two days, according to TVeyes.com

UPDATED: From journalism.org:

Expand All Expand 1st Level Collapse All Add Comment
    • Author by Leftym0m79 (June 30, 2009 1:39 pm ET)
      1  
      Thank you MM4A, I've been saying this since Friday.
      Report Abuse
    • Author by seeryer (June 30, 2009 2:29 pm ET)
      2  
      I must admit that MJ is by far the most interesting story in the world today. At least in my opinion and I consider myself a poltical junkie. There is something about him that makes you want to know "How did this boy grow up to be this man". I know it is not what we expect from CNN but if you look at their numbers since MJ's passing I bet you will see they have been much better than the average night. They are going to ride this until their ratings come back to pre Jacko death levels. This is a perfect example of the modern media. They are driven by ratings, not by journalism. Ratings pay the bills while journalism is seen as a cost cutting measure in 2009.
      Report Abuse