Friday, June 26, 2009

TMZ gets MJ death first (before he dies)


As reported globally, the gossip site TMZ.com was the first to report that Michael Jackson died, publishing a story at 5:20 p.m. East Coast time on Thursday (click on the image to see the time stamp). That report was quickly followed by other gossip sites, quoting TMZ, which in turn led to some news organizations reporting on multiple reports that the pop icon was dead.

The New York Times reports today that Jackson was pronounced dead a 2:26 p.m.

Western Time.

That's 5:26, six minutes after TMZ's report of his death.