I was watching This Week with George Stephanopoulos this morning on ABC, and right at the end of his "The Roundtable" segment (beginning with around 3:50 remaining), Stephanopoulos brought up the topic of Michael Jackson and the hoop-lah around his death. It began by contrasting the attempt by Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee (D-TX) to introduce a bill in the House honoring Michael Jackson opposed by the comments made by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) this past week commenting upon how people and the media were glorifying the death of a "pedophile" when there are people who die in noble pursuits and professions everyday. Granted, the House of Representatives held a moment of silence for Jackson already in their chamber on June 25.
The Roundtable of Stephanopoulos, George Will, Donna Brazile, Bob Woodward, Sam Donaldson, and Cokie Roberts squabbled back and forth over whether the media coverage was excessive, whether Jackson really impacted so many lives significantly to deserve such a post-mortem spectacle as his memorial service this past Tuesday garnered. A few points caught me as I listened, so I thought I'd share.
Rep. Peter King may come off sounding like a close-minded, semi-racist douche in this schpeal, but he has a point. People die everyday, some of whom are great humanitarians and selfless and have caused joy fro countless others during their lives, some of whom are creeps and pedophiles and twisted with fame and success. Michael Jackson was a mixed bag. Like with any ending of human life, it is sad for those of us who remain to be left without something that was once there and be reminded of our own mortality. I also think that his vehemence towards Jackson as a "pervert" and "child molester" were kind of unnecessary though. Sure, the guy was a little weird but not convicted of anything, so before we go blasting the questionable morals of others, Mr. King, let's not forget what (or who) our friends in the Republican party have been doing.
Shelia Jackson Lee's resolution honoring him has been deemed "not necessary" by Speaker Pelosi, and considering that there was a moment of silence held for him in the House chamber, that sounds about right. This is a political grandstanding by Jackson Lee, that's it. If he was such a great humanitarian that was in need of good press and recognition by the U.S. Congress, then why didn't you propose the resolution before Jackson's death? Hmm, yeah, that's what I thought.
The panel also discussed the concept of "synthetic grief," or that only because of the extensive and sensationalized coverage did people seem to care and grieve for Jackson. While I'm sure this is not true for some who were in fact deeply touched and influenced by Jackson's music or generous works, I think this has a pretty good chance of being true. Alex Whalen once wrote about this kind of grief on his blog relating to September 11th and how ridiculous it is when some people claim to have been more affected by 9/11 then people directly involved in the events of that day. I think this is the same kind of grief, where audio and visual overload of something via the media is bludgeoned on to one so much that one begins to feel as though they are directly involved in an event. But reality check: you aren't, I'm sorry. You can go back to living you own life now and not letting Big Brother Media project how you should think and feel.
And folks, let's be real. While the memorial service was nice and dazzling and had some touching moments, Cokie Roberts hits the nail on the head about the whole ordeal: it's about making MONEY. They sold tickets for MONEY. Buying his works on iTunes is about MONEY. The MSM has been covering it so tightly because it gets them high ratings, meaning MO' MONEY.
That got me thinking, and this will need to be something I ask of my journalist friends out there. Why did the MSM give so much attention and coverage to the death of Michael Jackson, besides that there was obviously a market for it and they played 'supply' to the people's 'demand?'
I think it might be because it's so much easier for them to write about a dead person, where the facts are constant and requires very little research, than to have to go digging and sifting through information to find the facts and build a story around it in developing news . I don't mean to be cynical (who am I kidding, of course I do), but after getting beat up by the new media about Iran a few weeks ago, being called out for it and having to step it up in response, the MSM loved the death of Jackson because it was their chance to take a breather and rest on their heels again. Why do the hard stuff when the easy stuff is a gimme?
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