• Mediaite, Monday, May 2, 2011 3:45 PM

By now you probably know that the news of Osama bin Laden's death was reported initially on social media, a historic first for a "Kennedy moment for a new generation," as Al Jazeera English correspondent Alan Fisher put it. But how did more traditional media handle the story?

New York Times Media Decoder Brian Stelter (who provided the Al Jazeera quote above) writes a fairly thorough round-up of how newspapers and TV networks jumped on the news after President Obama's press conference at 8:35 p.m. ET last night.

Entertainment Weeklydetails exactly what programs NBC and CBS went back to on the West Coast after a brief follow-up to the press conference:  reality shows "Celebrity Apprentice" and "Amazing Race" respectively. Only ABC "made the shrewd decision" to continue with more coverage, through 10 p.m. on the West Coast.

Stelter also reports on major newspapers' front page headlines. Our favorite: the New York Daily News' "Rot in Hell."

At the Times itself, a memo was circulated saying that all news reports would drop the traditional "honorific" (that's the "Mr") when referring to bin Laden, according to Poynter's Jim Romanesko.

Finally, mediaite posted video of NBC News' Chuck Todd explaining how White House official sent "clear, but unspecific" messages on how big a story was set to break, including the three-letter phrase "B.F.D.," to major news outlets and reporters.

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