In these digital times, it was interesting to watch the way the news of Michael Jackson’s death broke online and then spread through the more traditional news media.

Here in the UK, it was largely non-entertainment journalists who were either asked – or volunteered – to write about what his death implied about his health, including his apparent use of painkillers. After all, it will be weeks before the official results of the autopsies.

One exception was The Daily Telegraph’s showbiz editor Anita Singh, who appears to have put in an early call to Royal College of GPs chair Steve Field, who in Friday’s paper explained the nature of addiction to the opiate painkiller pethidine and how it might stop you breathing if you accidentally take too much.

Over at The Independent, health editor Jeremy Laurance went for John Strang, director of the National Addiction Centre at the Maudsley Hospital in London, who said the singer’s death actually could have been because of an unexpected reaction to Demerol (the drug’s brand name), rather than the result of an overdose.

In the Sunday Express, health editor Lucy Johnston quoted Michael Serpell, a “leading expert on pain management at Glasgow University”, effectively claiming he could have saved Michael Jackson’s life himself, if only he had been there. “A dose of Nalexone completely wipes out the effects of Demerol. He would wake up and be breathing again. It’s lifesaving. I have done it myself.”

By Sunday, Steve Field had injected some fresh drama into his quotes, telling The Observer: “If you gave all those drugs to you or me we wouldn’t be able to stand up”. Long term prescription of the drug was legal, but “very bad practice”.

“It would not happen in this country,” he added. That’s a relief.

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