BREAKING NEWS: Justin Bieber is NOT dead. I repeat: Justin Bieber is NOT dead. Do not panic. (Or celebrate too early, whichever the case may be.)

While it’s up to you as individuals to determine for yourselves whether or not the fact that Justin Bieber is still walking the earth is a positive thing or not, t please don’t spread the rumor about his death any further because it would force the bloggers (like me) to continue to waste their time and effort to dispel the rumors.

Here’s what happened:

Some very creative hackers with WAY too much time on their hands over the fourth of July weekend had a little fun with everyone’s favorite youth by re-directing traffic that was generated by Justin Bieber to either porn sites or to an announcement that the singer/amazing dancer had died in a car crash. For even more fun, the hackers messed around with I-Tunes, too.

Although I wouldn’t necessarily do it, I personally think that re-directing the Justin Bieber traffic to the porn sites was a nice touch.

The authorities (and no, the New York Post is not reporting exactly who the authorities are) suspect the fairly innocuous mischief was done by members of the 4-chan Bulletin Board who earlier successfully tied Justin Bieber to Syphillis and caused thousands of bored office-workers and high school students to link the two in their Google Searches. At this time, there is no known link between the 4-Chan Bulletin Board and the Mafia, but I will keep a close eye on the situation.

Justin Bieber is not the first young hot-shot superstar to have been reported dead prior to any actual death or even any actual accident that may have led to a death- earlier this year, Miley Cyrus was reported dead. Again, at that time, reports of Miley’s death also spread like wildfire, and I believe she had to make an announcement herself that she was not dead.

Other people that are not dead despite death announcements and early obituaries that spread on the web include: Will Ferrell, Paris Hilton, Lou Reed, and Johnny Knoxville. Even Michael Jackson was reported dead several years before he actually died, which is probably the reason that his death was so difficult for so many people to believe.