It’s not ‘OK!’ – Should the magazine have shown a pic of dead MJ?

July 3, 2009 by Richie Berges

michael-jackson3 The international entertainment magazine ‘OK!’ has been criticized for showing a picture of Michael Jackson being whisked to hospital after he suffered from fatal cardiac arrest last Thursday.

The magazine claims that the picture is the last one of him alive before his ‘tragic death’. Other sources however believe that the picture of him is after he died.

There is further bad publicity for OK!. This comes after it was confirmed that the company that owns the magazine allowed a $500,000 fee to be paid for the photo, which appears on the front page of the US edition this week.

It could provide a boost for the troubled magazine which has been riddled by financial and staffing problems recently. It is understood that OK! are looking forward to a big boost in circulation due to this unexpected story, in line with other newspapers and magazines that have also been covering this very significant media event.

Sarah Ivens is the editorial director of OK! magazine in America. She criticized some magazines for going with tribute-style covers instead of actually reporting the story at hand. On behalf of the magazine, she said that they wanted to be different from other media sources and run with a picture they obtained and one similar to that seen on Entertainment Tonight.

michaeljackson She said: “It’s a photo that captures the surprise and the upset and the moment of this breaking news story. I hope the cover will provoke readers. It celebrated the man, but it also does expose that he was an eccentric character who lived a very controversial life.”The picture is understood to be featured in versions of the popular magazine around the world this week. It is yet to be seen whether the huge fee paid for just the one picture will take the magazine into profit.