MJ and TMZ
As I’m sure everyone is now well aware, Michael Jackson died yesterday from cardiac arrest. When he was first admitted to the hospital, there was some confusion as to his condition: TMZ reported that he had died, while other media outlets said he was in a coma. To supplement TMZ’s reporting, many looked to Twitter to figure out what was going on. Major media outlets waited to confirm his death until the Los Angeles Times had reported it, as well. Naturally, the “old” media’s slower response was criticized by many, including Robin Wauters over at Tech Crunch.
The fact is that TMZ was indeed first, and that–this time–they happened to be right. TMZ’s strategy involves paying for tips and paparazzi journalism, and doesn’t necessarily make for the most reliable news. Some major European outlets, including Britain’s The Sun, use these kinds of tactics, but in the United States, the practice is generally frowned upon. The Sun, coincidentally, is headlining that a “painkiller injection” killed Jackson, while the New York Times article I linked to above merely states that he was on medication. That, to me, is emblematic of this journalistic divide: one set of outlets is quick to report the (any) news, while the other is more measured and thorough in its approach.
Besides, I think it is ridiculous to rebuke other media outlets for taking “longer” to report the story; in this age of instantaneous communication and desemination of information, taking an hour or longer to get your facts straight seems like the smart thing to do. The backlash a gossip site like TMZ might encounter when it gets a story wrong would probably be very small in comparison to the criticism heaped on CNN or the New York Times.