'Legendary king of pop' Michael Jackson is dead, and as was often the case with stories about him during his remarkable life, the explosion of news on his demise was accompanied with high drama – perhaps befitting of a man who will be remembered just as much for his amazing music as his bizarre personal life.

• AUDIO: Jermaine on his brother's death
• SLIDE SHOW: Molly Meldrum's tribute
• What now? Michael Jackson's children
• PHOTOS: Michael Jackson dead
• Homicide squad to investigate death
• Reporter outside the chaotic hospital
• Michael Jackson: Discography
• Mixed Response: 3AW talkback callers
• His first question: Are there waterslides?
• YOUR SAY: The king of pop is dead

The first version of the story – which reverberated around the world via all mediums (TV, radio and online) – appears to have been broken by an entertainment news website, TMZ.

With news editors entitled to be sceptical as to the reliability of the sources given the website promotes itself for 'Celebrity Gossip', most early stories played it safe, with headlines such as: "Michael Jackson dead: report".

However, once reputable US media organisations the Los Angeles Times and CNN started reporting 50-year-old Jackson was, in fact, dead, most stories quickly changed to reflect the certainty of what had happened: Michael Jackson had died, likely as a result of suffering cardiac arrest.

Fred Coral from the Los Angeles Coroner's Office said around 10am AEST: "Mr Jackson was brought in by paramedics to the hospital in full cardiac arrest and was later pronounced dead."

Coral's confirmation was then followed by the most official source – his devout Muslim brother Jermaine Jackson – fronting the media and detailing what happened in Jackson's final hour at the house he was residing in, reportedly a French chateau estate built in 2002 with seven bedrooms, 13 bathrooms, 12 fireplaces and a theatre.

"My brother - the legendary king of pop Michael Jackson - passed away on Thursday June 25th 2009 at 2:26pm. It is believed he suffered cardiac arrest in his home," said Jermaine.

"The cause of his death is unknown until the results of an autopsy are known. His personal physician, who was with him at the time, attempted to resuscitate my brother. As did the paramedics who transported him to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre."

"Upon arriving at the hospital ... a team of doctors, including emergency physicians and cardiologists attempted to resuscitate him for more than one hour."

"Our family asks the media for privacy during this tough time. May Allah be with you Michael - always."

3AW continued to cross to the United States as more details of Jackson's death emerged, with Channel Seven reporter Mike Amor speaking to Nick McCallum from outside the medical centre where Jackson was pronounced dead and describing the shock conveyed by people learning the news for the first time from the media scrum at the scene.

Shortly after this report, a Jackson family spokesman said the legendary musician's fatal heart attack was not a total surprise because 'of the medications Michael was under'.

"The people who have surrounded him have been enabling him... if you think that the case of Anna-Nicole Smith was an abuse, it was nothing to what we have seen in Michael Jackson's life," lawyer Brian Oxman told CNN.

"I do not know the extent of the medications that he was taking but the reports we had been receiving in the family is that they were extensive."

"When you warn people that this is what's going to happen and then it happens - where there's smoke there's fire."

3AW then told listeners Jackson's body was being flown from the hospital by helicopter to a coronial facility – with homicide squad detectives enlisted to investigate the death as a result of the singer's stupefying celebrity.

Along with the news reports, tributes from those who knew and worked with Jackson started to dominate the media landscape, with Molly Meldrum's insightful snapshot into Jackson's life illustrating that for all the accusations about his treatment of children - which he was never convicted for - the music icon's disturbing upbringing may have laid the foundations for the roller-coaster his life proved to be.

"One has to remember that (brothers) Jermaine and Randy and everyone else had a fairly normal upbringing,” Meldrum told 3AW.

"But Michael's father Joe just had him rehearsing, rehearsing, day in day out in the house so he didn't really know the real world. And basically when he wasn't rehearsing he was watching shows like My Three Sons, Leave It To Beaver, The Partridge Family and whatever."

"One of his complexes was he felt the only way he was really going to make it in the world was to be basically a white artist. Which is horrendous! It's terrible, it's really sad."

3AW's Neil Mitchell, due to return to the airwaves from holidays on Monday morning, perhaps sums up the end to Jackson's life best:

"Michael Jackson was a genuine eccentric in a world of entertainment where originality is so often confected. He was strange, even weird, but he knew his audience and he knew how to entertain. There will always be a strong suspicion that he was a child molestor but it was never proved so he is entitled to be considered innocent," Mitchell said.
 
"He lived his entire life as a public person under intense media scrutiny and the chances are his death will be the same. It will not take long before speculation begins on the cause of death and the circus around the grieving has erupted already. Sadly, that may rob him of whatever dignity was available in death, but then perhaps that is how he would have liked it - entertaining to the end."

Jackson is survived by three children - Prince Michael, 12, Paris, 11, and seven-year-old Prince Michael II, known as Blanket.

It is not yet known who will take care of them, but a source close to Jackson's family told London's Daily Mail his ex-wife Debbie Rowe is expected to receive initial custody while long term arrangements are sorted. Jackson was married to Lisa-Marie Presley prior to his ill-fated three-year marriage to Rowe which ended in 1999.

SLIDE SHOW: Molly Meldrum's tribute

"One has to remember that Jermaine and Randy and everyone else had a fairly normal upbringing. But Michael because of his father Joe, just had him rehearsing, rehearsing, day in day out in the house so he didn't really know the real world." In a day of mass tribute, Molly Meldrum perhaps captured the world's vibe best.

What now? Michael Jackson's kids

Following the death of Michael Jackson and the imminent squabble over the remains of his fortune, the question to be asked is what will become of his children? Read more.

• SPECIAL WRAP: Mass hysteria in the US

VIDEO: Jackson's body moved

Watch footage of Michael Jackson's body being moved from the hospital where he was pronounced dead to a coronial facility - video set to 3AW news audio.Jackson passed away on Friday morning AEST.

Peter Ford: The biggest ever story?

3AW Breakfast entertianment reporter Peter Ford discusses the affect Michael Jackson's death has had - and will have - on the world's media landscape. Ford also looks ahead at who would attend Jackson's funeral.

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