If asked to give a recap of what the major news happenings were this week, it’s a pretty safe bet that most of your answers would have more to do with celebrity deaths than Iran or the White House’s stance on tariffs.

On a side note, it’s especially tragic when celebrities die around the same time, because now the beautiful and brave Farrah Fawcett has been forever relegated to a mere footnote in the great Death of Michael Jackson story.

Although he died Thursday, cable networks are still covering the story like it’s headline news, pawning off old observations as “breaking bulletins” and having “experts” who never even knew the man share with viewers Michael Jackson’s most intimate thoughts, doubts and fears.

It all feels sadly familiar, after the recent media blitz surrounding Anna Nicole Smith’s untimely death and numerous other celebrities before her.

As idealistic young journalists, we look at the over-coverage of Jackson, Smith and Fawcett’s deaths and say, “We’ll never do that.”

But the truth is, Web traffic on the entire Internet in the hours after Jackson’s death reached record highs, and long-form journalistic work didn’t stand a chance in the hit count when competing with the King of Pop.

And with news organizations universally struggling to turn a profit (or post as small of a loss as possible), many of them just can’t afford to not give readers what they want.

Journalism consumers want new information, new details, no matter how badly repackaged the old news is. Even you, yeah you, the one saying, “I don’t care about Michael Jackson, stop covering it!” We think it’s a safe bet that you’ve read at least one story about him online or at least refrained from changing the channel when the “Thriller” music video was on for the millionth time.

Michael Jackson’s story is a tragic one, about the effects of child stardom and how the glaring public spotlight can beat into a shy, awkward young man. The plastic surgery, failed marriages, prescription drug abuse and sexual assault allegations are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the demons Michael Jackson faced in his lifetime.

Without a doubt, it’s a fascinating story, but also an old one. We were surprised to hear that he died, but in many ways he was gone long before Thursday. In his final years, it was as if Michael Jackson became nothing more than a caricature of a star, a wax figure of a man that no longer even resembled himself.

It’s the stuff of documentaries and E! News specials. However, it is not fair game for filling time on network news television stations or space on front pages of local daily newspapers.

In the first newswriting class at ASU, journalism students learn the principles of newsworthiness, what makes a story important or necessary to cover for our audience. Reporting Jackson’s death at the time that it happened was newsworthy because of his prominent position in show business and his effect on music history.

But running stories with pure speculation about his cause of death and plastic surgeons’ “expert opinions” on just how many rhinoplasties he underwent is not only excessive, it’s a disservice to followers of journalism everywhere.

Since when do news organizations do anything but give the facts? A conclusive autopsy will be out soon enough, but until then let’s stop beating this dead horse, to use a metaphor that we probably should have waited on, too. Oh, well.

As Jackson’s good friend Liza Minelli said this week, all hell will break loose when his autopsy results come out.

Sadly, she’s probably right.