Live Coverage of Michael Jackson Funeral Has Begun

Live coverage of the Michael Jackson funeral is the only thing on TV today, since live coverage of the Michael Jackson funeral is everywhere. At 1 p.m. Eastern, the live coverage for the Michael Jackson funeral will officially get under way, with live coverage dominating the entire airwaves. ABC, CBS, NBC and many cable networks will cover the entire Michael Jackson funeral, in the most publicized memorial service in the history of television. Even after live coverage of the Michael Jackson funeral ends, the media blitz today will not be over.

The Michael Jackson memorial will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific at the Staples Center, with live coverage from the three major networks, CNN, MSNBC, E! and more. But live coverage of the Jackson funeral isn't limited to television.

Twitter and the Internet has been a big resource for coverage of Michael Jackson's death, and for people to post their memories and tributes. Practically every news and gossip site will have live blogging at the Jackson funeral, with live coverage coming in the form of blogs and Tweets.

Truly, the power of Twitter has reached record status - and/or has jumped the shark - when it can be used to provide coverage of a memorial service. But of course, nothing about the Michael Jackson funeral qualifies as a traditional service.

Live coverage of the Michael Jackson funeral will go on until at least 3 p.m, since the service is expected to be two hours long. After that, the final memories of Michael Jackson will be rebroadcast and remembered throughout the night.

ABC, CBS and NBC will have special Jackson editions of their news shows tonight, with a special 20/20 and Primetime on ABC from 9 to 11, a special CBS Evening News and 48 Hours from the Staples Center on CBS, and a special NBC Nightly News and Dateline on NBC.

The cable network will undoubtedly have their own tributes and stories throughout the night. After today's live coverage, tonight's final Michael Jackson specials, and the eventual burial of Jackson, this climactic level of media coverage will be over.

After today's live memorial, there will be room for actual non-Jackson news to get through again. Sarah Palin and Mark Sanford will have to go back into the direct spotlight, at least for the immediate future.

But for the moment, this is the last chance for the press and the Internet to swarm over Michael Jackson's remains. The live coverage of the Michael Jackson funeral, whether on TV and online, leaves much of the country with little else to watch for the afternoon, so they'll probably resign themselves to tuning in as well.

Sources

Billboard- "Michael Jackson Memorial To Be Worldwide Television Event" www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/michael-jackson-memorial-to-be-worldwide-1003991181.story

Los Angeles Times- "Media gear up to cover Michael Jackson's memorial service at Staples Center" www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tvnews7-2009jul07,0,182782.story

Entertainment Weekly- "Michael Jackson memorial: streaming video and live blog" popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/2009/07/michael-jackson-memorial-service-live-blog.html