Most Americans believe Jackson coverage excessive

Twenty-nine per cent of the 1,000 people polled June 26-29 for the survey published yesterday by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press said they believe the coverage of Jackson's sudden death on Thursday was the "right amount."

Sixty-four per cent said it was too much. Thirty per cent of those polled said they followed the coverage of Jackson's death "very closely" while 28 per cent said they followed it "fairly closely."

Twenty-three per cent said they followed it "not too closely" and 19 per cent said they followed it "not at all closely."

Thirty-one per cent said they followed the Jackson story more closely than any other during the week.

Pew said African-Americans followed the death of Jackson more closely than the population as a whole with eight in 10 blacks saying they followed the news of his death very closely compared with 22 per cent of whites.

Seven in 10 whites said there had been too much coverage compared with 36 per cent of blacks.

Thirty-eight per cent of those under the age of 40 said they followed his death very closely compared with 27 per cent of those between 40 and 64 and 20 per cent of those 65 and older.