[cartman]

Michael Jackson has died after a heart attack at his home in LA.

[Smacca]

RIP MJ. Your music changed the world.

[sam]

Sydney Nine News is doing 50 minute news and 1 hour ACA will Perth have to?

[Kevin]

The news came in around 5:00pm US EDT today (which is during the 5:00pm local news hour on most channels) and most of them had made mention of the news of him being taken to hospital. It wasn't long before TMZ said he was dead and it spread from there.

NBC broke in to the local news to let Brian Williams deliver news of his death just 5 minutes before NBC Nightly News was due to begin anyway (mainly for the west coast I guess - could have waited 5 minutes though). I believe Seven showed that as well.

Sad news... despite all the weird things he did in his life he was a great artist.

[Kevin]

sam, on 26 June 2009 - 01:16 AM, said:

Sydney Nine News is doing 50 minute news and 1 hour ACA will Perth have to?

Good luck.

There was no extended national news here (that I know of) but all of the major networks did specials tonight. ABC had a 2 hour 20/20 special at 9:00pm devoted to Jackson and Fawcett, NBC had a 2 hour Dateline special at 9:00pm devoted to Jackson and Fawcett, and CBS News had a 1 hour news special at 10pm.

CNN and MSNBC of course had rolling coverage for hours.

Fantastic coverage on such short notice.

[sam]

Kevin, on 26 June 2009 - 03:24 PM, said:

Good luck.

There was no extended national news here (that I know of) but all of the major networks did specials tonight. ABC had a 2 hour 20/20 special at 9:00pm devoted to Jackson and Fawcett, NBC had a 2 hour Dateline special at 9:00pm devoted to Jackson and Fawcett, and CBS News had a 1 hour news special at 10pm.

CNN and MSNBC of course had rolling coverage for hours.

Fantastic coverage on such short notice.

Seven took dateline live I thought Perth had to take TCN and replace the news

[Smacca]

I see there's a wide variety of music choice on all the music video channels at the moment. Same in the US, Kev?

[dude]

He Will always be the king of Pop

[cartman]

Smacca, on 26 June 2009 - 04:47 PM, said:

I see there's a wide variety of music choice on all the music video channels at the moment. Same in the US, Kev?

Yeah, I have MTV on at the moment... They're showing the Top 25 Michael Jackson songs. MAX and Vh1 also have similar Jacko music specials airing tonight too.

[cartman]

Kevin, on 26 June 2009 - 01:24 PM, said:

There was no extended national news here (that I know of) but all of the major networks did specials tonight. ABC had a 2 hour 20/20 special at 9:00pm devoted to Jackson and Fawcett, NBC had a 2 hour Dateline special at 9:00pm devoted to Jackson and Fawcett, and CBS News had a 1 hour news special at 10pm.

Seven took the 2 hour Dateline NBC special live across Australia at 11am EST / 9am WST followed by a 1 hour edition of Seven News at 1pm EST / 11am WST. Sky News aired the ABC 20/20 special live.

[Smacca]

cartman, on 26 June 2009 - 10:09 PM, said:

Seven took the 2 hour Dateline NBC special live across Australia at 11am EST / 9am WST followed by a 1 hour edition of Seven News at 1pm EST / 11am WST. Sky News aired the ABC 20/20 special live.

I'm glad TVW/GWN took the specials live. STW/WIN showed 2-hour-old news all morning and afternoon.

[cartman]

Smacca, on 26 June 2009 - 09:46 PM, said:

I'm glad TVW/GWN took the specials live. STW/WIN showed 2-hour-old news all morning and afternoon.

I know. I can't believe they did that (actually, yes I can, it's WIN!). Anyway I've already had a rant about that in the Today Show thread.

[cartman]

Seven's coverage live from NBC:

[cartman]

Seven News at 1pm EST / 11am WST:

[Kevin]

Amazing how they aired that special Dateline in 16:9 because they did it live from the Today studio... Dateline is always a 4:3 program.

[cartman]

Kevin, on 26 June 2009 - 10:29 PM, said:

Amazing how they aired that special Dateline in 16:9 because they did it live from the Today studio... Dateline is always a 4:3 program.

So that explains the 4:3 2-Way boxes then... I was wondering about that.

[cartman]

The Morning Show (east coast only):

[cartman]

CNN / FOX / SKY NEWS:

[Kevin]

cartman, on 26 June 2009 - 10:47 AM, said:

So that explains the 4:3 2-Way boxes then... I was wondering about that.

Like I said, you would be surprised at the number of 4:3 programs here. Almost all NBC News broadcasts are widescreen (for studio at least) but Dateline is always 4:3

There really is no need for it.

[trisreed]

Geez, Sky is doing an awful job if they can't produce their own graphics into 16:9 (the two-way box).

[cartman]

trisreed, on 27 June 2009 - 12:05 AM, said:

Geez, Sky is doing an awful job if they can't produce their own graphics into 16:9 (the two-way box).

The 2-Way boxes were ex Sky News UK. The International feed off satellite is still 4:3.

[cartman]

He may have been a sick weirdo, but he sure did have some great songs. This is one of my personal fav's...

[cartman]

[cartman]

So beat it, just beat it... Like Kevin does every night...

[Kevin]

Some caps from WESH 2 News at 11pm on the day that he died...



and here's some caps from NBC Nightly News...