BROOKE GLADSTONE: From WNYC in New York this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Brooke Gladstone.

BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. If you watched cable news on Thursday, you saw more than stories about terrorist bombs in Turkey and Iraq, President Bush in England, protests in Miami and Wacko Jacko on the lamb. You saw the battle for the soul of TV journalism. [TAPE: MONTAGE]

CORRESPONDENT:Coming up, twin attacks on British targets in Turkey, coming during President Bush's state visit to London. The death toll is rising, and Al Qaeda is...

CORRESPONDENT: ...since D-Day here in London. We'll see how that big demonstration looks when it winds up here on Trafalgar Square....

CORRESPONDENT: ...this Fox News Alert, protestors are clashing with police in Miami, just outside international trade talks...

CORRESPONDENT: ...the King of Pop is expected to surrender here in Santa Barbara...

BROOKE GLADSTONE:The battle raged all day as square-jawed anchors moved briskly between stories, approaching each with an equal amount of gravity and urgency. There was deja vu in Trafalgar Square-- [TAPE PLAYS] [CROWDS CHEERING]

CORRESPONDENT: ...they are bringing down an effigy, a statue of George W. Bush...

BROOKE GLADSTONE: -- and scenes of devastation in Istanbul. [TAPE PLAYS]

WOMAN: The synagogues were bombed on Saturday. They had a couple of...

BROOKE GLADSTONE:But mostly we saw the media straining at the reins in pursuit of the prize pheasant, the 40 lb mackerel, the once and forever biggest Cahuna. [TAPE PLAYS]

CORRESPONDENT: ...getting under way. We don't know when or where we might see Michael Jackson today...

CORRESPONDENT: ...but thousands of reporters are waiting for him.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Cable's Keystone Kops were on the trail... [TAPE: MONTAGE - WRONG JET AND THEN RIGHT JET]

CORRESPONDENT: ...we're keeping an eye on this airport because we are receiving word that Michael Jackson has indeed left...

CORRESPONDENT: ...let me interrupt real quickly. I am seeing a Lear jet land. I just want to point that out...

CORRESPONDENT:...just hearing now from Access Hollywood that this indeed is not the plane. It has a different tail number than the one that was reported...

BROOKE GLADSTONE:What to do? What to do? Even ABC's unimpeachable Nightline this week bumped more serious fare to cover the predations of the alleged Pederast of Pop. Give the public what they need, or what we think they need, or give the public what they want, or what they seem to want. [TAPE: CLASSIC CAR CHASE]

CORRESPONDENT: On top of everything we're doing, I feel like we're kind of beating a dead horse a little bit, but-- let's press on anyway.

BOB GARFIELD:Yes, there was a battle on television, for television, as the big stories vied for air time, and as we watched Thursday images of death in Turkey and angry crowds in London receded, while the cable shows returned more and more often to the other story -- until it saturated the air waves. [TAPE PLAYS: BROTHER OF MICHAEL JACKSON]

JERMAINE JACKSON: ...a thousand percent. I have nothing else to say.

CORRESPONDENT: Jermaine, please stay with them. Jermaine--

JERMAINE JACKSON: Goodbye.

CORRESPONDENT: Jermaine, are you still with me? [PAUSE] Okay.

BOB GARFIELD: The victor was inevitable. Simply irresistible. Michael Jackson won hands down. Or, more accurately, with his hands up. [TAPE PLAYS]

CORRESPONDENT: ...the King of Perp faces the music -- in handcuffs. Superstar Michael Jackson...