Since the King of Pop died last Thursday of cardiac arrest, many news outlets and reporters have seized on his possible prescription drug use as a reason. It makes for a good story and, after all, the King of Pop did admit to an addiction to painkillers in his past.

Friday’s headlines quote an unnamed Los Angeles law enforcement official as saying police found Diprivan, which also goes by Propofol, in his rented Los Angeles mansion. Earlier this week at various times, we heard about needle marks in his body, a nurse whom he had begged for drugs, a stomach full of pills and a head with only fuzz on top. Most all sourced to unnamed people familiar with the situation — in some way.

The chase for news about Jackson’s drug use this past week mirrors the scramble to get news of his memorial service and funeral these past two days. (Read our blog about that here.) A public memorial was going to be Thursday, then Sunday, then maybe Monday, before it became Tuesday. A funeral would be at Neverland, and then at Forest Lawn cemetery and still no one really knows. And so it goes on.

In these stories, there’s always a scramble for news. It happens. (Anyone remember David Carradine and autoerotic asphyxiation.) That’s not saying we’re going to ignore the question of whether Michael Jackson died of a possible drug overdose. Or, other parts of the dark side to Michael. We haven’t. (Read about that here.) After all, where there’s smoke…

But chatter about memorials and innuendoes of drug use are two different things. One is an event, the other impacts a legacy. And so, we leave to you. Michael Jackson, was he on drugs when he died? And if so, why? Or, is all the media speculation, as Shakespeare said, much ado about nothing?