Guidelines for Covering Michael Jackson's Death, Other Celebrity Stories

By Al Tompkins
My, how times have changed. When Elvis Presley died in 1977, "CBS Evening News" didn't even lead with the story. The first mention of Elvis' death was not until six-and-a-half minutes into the newscast that night.

The Newseum said:

"By then, many viewers who had tuned in for news about Elvis had switched to other networks, resulting in the CBS newscast's lowest ratings in years."

"...Even though celebrity journalism was not the obsession that it is today, the news of Elvis' death dominated the next day's front pages. In Memphis, The Commercial Appeal and the Memphis Press-Scimitar were so swamped with requests for extra copies of their Aug. 17 editions that they jointly published a special 'Elvis Presley Edition' a week later to meet the demand."

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		"Resources for Covering Michael Jackson's Death," by Al Tompkins

News of Michael Jackson's death Thursday evening spread throughout all of the major networks. The coverage was followed by stories about Farrah Fawcett's death. "Dateline" produced a two-hour special on the Fawcett and Jackson deaths.

Hollywood has not seen a day like this since Sammy Davis, Jr. and Jim Henson died on the same day in May 1990.

Several years ago, The Poynter Institute hosted a seminar about covering celebrities. Here are some guidelines questions that emerged from that seminar:

• Why am I doing this story?
• Is there a journalistic reason for this story?
• What is the story's news value?
• How much time and resources are we spending on this?
• Is this being done at the expense of another, more important story?

"Determining the worth of a story is a newsroom decision based on various factors. But as some panelists argued, celebrity status should be one factor to be weighed. Others maintained that a story can be valued merely because it is entertaining and a good read. But with any criteria, there should be a process or method that will help journalists determine the coverage of celebrity news."