Radio Australia Today Editorial

The reports of Michael Jackson’s death. A brave new world.

26 June 2009

I write this just minutes after we reported on Radio Australia a claim that singer Michael Jackson has died.

At this moment we don’t know if it’s true. If it isn’t, then then this is either one huge hoax or a great case of ineptness by the website that first reported the claim. The way we reported it on our program was to make it absolutely clear that we were reporting the claims of the website, not stating the death as a fact.

This does bring up the fact that information in the age of the web moves ever so fast. The site involved (TMZ.com) had the story of his heart attack only minutes after Jackson was supposed to have been taken to hospital. When you consider that with the death today of Farrah Fawcett, information and video of her last minutes was posted on the web almost instantly, you’d have to admit that the power of the medium is becoming extraordinary.

This speed changes journalism forever. I was always taught that we never ran with any story unless we could confirm it by at least two sources. In this case of Jackson, if we waited for two sources, then we would not be reporting this story right now. Jackson, if indeed he has died, he would’ve been dead for some hours before we would be able to tell the world about it.

So what do we journalists do in this brave new world of instant information? We are starting to give out what information we have instantly, with the caveat that it is unconfirmed, thus allowing you, the listener, reader and viewer to decide the information’s veracity.

But let’s think back. Unconfirmed information has always been given out in the case of major stories. When US president JFK was shot in Dallas in November 1963, TV broadcaster Walter Cronkite crossed the boundaries of journalism by taking off his glasses and with a breaking voice as he made the pronouncement of Kennedy’s death. But in the minutes leading up to the confirmation, he reported on claims that the president had died. He must’ve known there was a chance that the report was wrong, but he went with it, with the appropriate warnings that they were unconfirmed reports. He even placed a caveat on the words of his own reporter Dan Rather, who had sent through a message that Kennedy had died. Cronkite waited for the official confirmation before making it definitive. It was a masterful piece of live journalism, perfectly balanced.

In this age of even faster information and extreme pressure, let’s hope that the reporters of today are as true to the ethics of good journalism as Cronkite.

And just now, as I write, Adelaine has come to me to say that there are now reports that Jackson is in a coma, which always goes to prove that a pinch of Cronkite salt must always be sprinkled on days like these.

– Phil