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Michael Jackson's death shows why radio is still a viable medium
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The Internet crashed today.
The supposed source of all up-to-date information went down over worldwide interest in the death of Michael Jackson.
Here's a great column by Internet watchdog Dean Takahashi, explaining the phenomenon.
Radio did not go down. The medium covered the event and is still covering it. (I'll be on KGO-AM (810) talking about Michael and my time spent with Janet Jackson tomorrow in the 7 a.m. hour.
Let this be a warning. We are way too dependent on a questionable technology, and the technology won't replace the essence of journalism over the past centuries: shoe leather, investigations, questions, on the scene reporting.
A lot of stupid media companies have downsized, thinking that humans can be replaced. It's not so, even if the Internet site TMZ was first on the story (proving again that gossip sites and papers know the value of good sourcing).
You look at a mediocre publication, or many of them in the case of the newspapers owned by Media News in the Bay Area, and most of the reporters don't live in the towns they cover, or have the kind of sources who can steer them to information first. The mediocre managers think they can save money by getting news from the Internet. Nothing proves that isn't the case more than this.
Meanwhile, Jackson's death ranks with those of Elvis and John Lennon, in terms of his importance in pop music. It's creepy that he, Farrah and Ed McMahon died so close together, all icons of the '70s.
I sat with Janet Jackson once watching the MTV music awards. She had ducked out of the main hall at Radio City Music Hall and walked into an empty pressroom in the mid '90s, where I was filing a story. We talked for a while. I'd interviewed her before, and she was always down to earth and was proud of being so.
She told me she had few Hollywood friends and her favorite vacations were camping trips.
"What about Michael?" I asked. "You have to give me the real scoop."
"Don't ask me," she said. "I think he's as weird as everyone else does."
As a reporter, that was one of those moments I'll always treasure, a moment of truth.
