News of Jackson's death first spread online

NEW YORK -- It was a where-were-you moment in a digital age. Michael Jackson's death was not learned from a fatherly TV news anchor. Instead, the news first spread online.

Some of the initial reports from various outlets were confusing: Was Jackson still alive? Was he in a coma? They spread like wildfire across news sites, social media networks and Twitter.

The celebrity website TMZ.com. site broke the news of Jackson's death at 5:20 p.m. (2120 GMT) Thursday.

It was a huge scoop for the AOL-owned TMZ, though many did not believe TMZ's report until it was matched by more established news organizations.

"Everything starts with a tip," said Harvey Levin, managing editor of TMZ. "We wouldn't have put it up if we weren't positive."

Jackson's death was confirmed by the Los Angeles Times and then The Associated Press just minutes before the nightly network news began. The anchors relayed the news at the top of their broadcasts, though CBS and ABC quickly moved on to their prepared obituaries for Farrah Fawcett, who died earlier Thursday.

MTV, the channel that had so much to do with Jackson's incredible rise to fame, played Jackson's iconic music videos Beat It and Thriller, and continued with a Jackson marathon.

Jackson dominated the discussion on Twitter, generating the most tweets per second since Barack Obama was elected president in November.

"We saw over twice the normal tweets per second the moment the story broke as people shared their grief and memories," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in an e-mail.

The tweeting tripped up Twitter briefly, but engineers quickly responded to keep the service running. At times Thursday night, Jackson-related search topics were the most popular on the site.

Celebrity users on Twitter — including Lindsay Lohan, Ashton Kutcher, John Mayer, Ryan Seacrest and ?uestlove of the Roots — posted their remembrances.

"I will be mourning my friend, brother, mentor and inspiration," tweeted MC Hammer. "He gave me and my family hope. I would never have been me without him."