 |
         
|
NBC's Rehema Ellis and ABC's David Muir both started their coverage of the grief of Michael Jackson's myriad of fans at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. That is where his family singing group, The Jackson 5, first found fame. CBS went even further back, sending Terrell Brown (no link) to Jackson's birthplace in Gary Ind. The death was a multimedia phenomenon, NBC's Ellis pointed out: MTV and BET were running Jackson music videos non-stop on cable TV; Facebook and Twitter were overloaded with condolence messages; AT&T text message traffic spiked; amazon.com sold out its stock of Jackson CDs; his songs topped the charts on iTunes; and pop memorabilia was posted for sale on eBay.
ABC included Dana Hughes' coverage of mourning in Nairobi and Nick Schifrin on grief in Islamabad in Muir's report. NBC had Dawna Friesen survey the global scene from London. She introduced Ian Williams in Japan: "Visual imagery plays a huge role in popular culture here. This is the land of the comic book and the videogame. Jackson's exciting, often outlandish, videos helped shape their culture." NBC's Friesen ended her report in Piccadilly Circus where a flash mob of fans danced to Thriller, "an impromptu street party, a massive multicultural, multiracial singalong."
You must be logged in to this website to leave a comment. Please click here to log in so you can participate in the discussion.
