As you might imagine, news of Michael Jackson’s death has pretty much wiped all other world events off the map, at least for the time being. No sooner had rumours of his demise begun to circulate than Sky News et al were on the case, and of course it’s no surprise that the coverage continued throughout the night. For my part, I had decided to have an early night for once and was woken an hour later with the news, my initial reaction being to turn Sky News on straight away and proceed to flick between them and BBC News 24 until well past 1am (so much for the early night idea…..)

The extraordinarily detailed coverage though does make you wonder how the deaths of other prominent figures in the world of showbiz were reported – as huge a deal as Elvis’ death and John Lennon’s murder were they happened in an era when 24 hour news didnt exist – which meant they cannot possibly have gotten the breadth of coverage that Jacko is getting, even though they were just as big in story terms.

Of course, it’s left me wondering how either one of those might have if Sky News and the like had existed then – hell, how any similarly large story for that matter. Can you imagine how something like the death of Marilyn Monroe or the assassination of JFK might have been covered in the age of 24 hour rolling news? Doubtless it would have been moment by moment stuff, tributes, members of the public having their say, the works.

The last time I recall something similar getting this much attention was of course the death of Diana (the news channels had a fair shot at it with Jade Goody earlier this year – although frankly that now seems like small potatoes in comparison with Michael Jackson) – and in the ensuing melee it’s all too easy to forget that other news exists.

Having watched coverage until the small hours last night, I then switched on the TV this morning expecting yet another onslaught of Jacko-related news – only to be faced with weather reports on all channels. I was momentarily shocked that there was actually something else on – but then you see that is the power of round the clock rolling news for you. It gets under your skin and into your psyche to such an extent with its minute by minute detail of huge stories that it’s all too easy to forget there is still a world outside and that world is still going about its business even as the biggest news story of the year is unfolding on your TV.

Of course other news will return, it always does. But you can expect something as significant as this to dominate the headlines for some time…..