OMG, I Don’t Know If You Heard, But Michael Jackson Died ~ A Look at the Coverage Surrounding the Death of Michael Jackson

It’s raining Michael Jackson.  Everywhere you go, despite if you are a fan or not, despite if you thought he was a pedophile or not, there he is staring at you usually from a photo taken circa 1986ish.  All decked out as if he is a general off to serve his unicorn based country in a glitter war campaign.  What is more amazing to me than the coverage is how all over the map the American public (dare I implicate the world in this, I suppose I will) is over the treatment of Jackson’s death.  It’s like the most left winged and right winged personas are suddenly in agreement that Jackson’s death is much ado about nada while God fearing folks and vegans living on some seaweed diet are weeping gently in each other’s bosoms over the loss of a fifty year old man/boy named Michael. 

 

                Here are some undisputable facts.  Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009.  Earlier on that very same day Farrah Fawcett died after a long battle with cancer.  She had been in the news for the last month or so because she had made her condition public.  When she died the pop culture presses were ready, the eulogies were written, the orbits waiting for someone to press publish…then Michael Jackson ups the press coverage ante by also dying.  His death seemed to come out of left field and for that reason it was shocking.  I imagine even his most devoted fan must admit that the man must have gone under the knife more than once or twice to alter his appearance so.  Further, there had already been some allegations of drug use in the tabloids so the idea of Jackson dying wasn’t as shocking as say someone who appears to be in perfect health, but nevertheless it was shocking. 

 

                Jackson was in the last stages of rehearsal for fifty sold out concerts to be held at the O 2 arena in London which were to take place from July 13, 2009 to March 6, 2010.  I am not in the position to venture to even guess at Jackson’s financial status at the time of his death because reports are all over the place.  From the various sources I have read, these concerts would have cleared Jackson of his debts and given him a substantial profit margin unless his spending got out of control or something tragic happened…like his death.  As it stands presently I am sure his family, friends, and the world public are going to hear about the hashing out of the Jackson estate until his youngest child, known commonly as Blanket, is in his 80’s.

 

                All that I have written above is news worthy.  I don’t think anyone would dispute that Jackson’s passing should have been one of the headlines of that day but the day after and the day after that?  This is when things start to get murky.  As far as myself, my breaking point with the Jackson 24/7 coverage came fairly early, like four hours after finding out about his death.  I was doing the craft thing at a friend’s house and we turned on CNN for a few minutes.  The general feeling I got was that CNN was treating Jackson’s death as if the world populace attended the same high school and there was a school shooting therefore CNN was letting all of us know that there were therapists available to tend to our grief.  The whole, please tell us what Jackson meant to you by e-mailing us, quickly got on my last nerve – as I think it did others as well.

 

                I’ve heard Michael Jackson described as a musical, dancing, and entertaining genius.  I really am not in a position to declare anyone a music or dance genius since I have never displayed much knowledge or ability in either category.  Although I believe he was talented in both areas.  I do think he was a genius (either intended or not) in staying relevant in the public eye despite having his musical/dancing heyday peaking in the 1980’s.  I am sure that he didn’t welcome all of the relevancy in that part of the reason he remained in the headlines was because of alleged child sexual abuse of non related children of which he was never found guilty of in a court of law.  There was also the fact that his appearance drastically changed throughout the last few decades.  It was claimed he suffered from vitiligo which may have explained the change in his skin color although his ever shrinking nose appears to this laywoman as something that could have been caused by too many rhinoplasties and not enough cartilage.  Of course there was more, but you can read all about those from a million other sources on a billion other blogs. 

 

                Here is the crux, it has been two weeks since his passing and Michael Jackson is everywhere!  His music is dominating the airwaves, his image was on both ‘Time’ and ‘Newsweek’ magazines along with a tabloids and special tabloid editions.  The questions of his estate, who will get custody of the children, and if the children were his biological children are all being asked and probably will never be answered much to anyone’s satisfaction (assuming you are in the category of those who want answers to those queries).  Here’s an interesting observation, billions watched the live coverage of his public memorial service (nope, I wasn’t one) which cost an estimate 1.4 million dollars.  (On the flip side of that, the service itself probably generated income in different sectors so I don’t know if even the staunchest Jackson hater could write it up as a total waste of taxpayer money.)  Also within that service his daughter Paris went from the girl behind the veil a mere month ago to saying a tearful and gut retching goodbye to her father in front of the world (yes, I saw the clip).

 

                I am perplexed by how some public and private personas, that I respect, have almost claimed the death of Jackson as something worthy of the honor of Julius Caesar being eulogized at the Roman Forum.  I don’t know if it has something to do with me not being a huge fan of Jackson’s in the sense I liked some of his songs but never purchased a Jackson CD…or if there is something more that I am missing?  I’ve heard people talk about his charity work and such, but honestly a lot of people give to charity and usually they do it without much fanfare?  Is it because the bad economy, terrorism, and everything Sarah Palin are much too depressing and the world needs something distracting like an over the big top celebrity send off?  If the recent death had been one of Jackson’s contemporaries such as Prince would the outpouring of grief and coverage be the same?                

 

                One thing is for sure, the whole Michael Jackson is dead phenomena is making strange bedfellows.  I am not a citizen of New York, I am definitely not a Republican, yet I don’t think what Representative Peter King said about Jackson was all that wrong.  I saw his video and what I took from it was that there has been enough of Jackson let’s celebrate or laud someone else’s laurels like everyday people who sacrifice to keep this country going.  Maybe he could have been a bit more ‘politically correct’ in the way he explained things (since political correctness was one of the things he railed about) but as he said, "No one wants to stand up and say we don’t need Michael Jackson. He died, he had some talent, fine," he said. "He may have been a good singer, he did some dancing. Bottom line is, would you let your child or grandchild be in the same room with Michael Jackson? What are we glorifying him for?" 

 

                King got a lot of heat over what he said because many viewed it as disrespectful, but overall I think the most disrespectful thing I saw in regards to Jackson’s remembrance was how his father Joe Jackson, whom Michael accused of being physical and emotionally abusive when Jackson was part of the 5, walked down a red carpet and then participated in a news conference in which he managed to say he was grieving for his son without any tears in his eyes or breaks in his voice, while with the same breath promoted his new recording studio.  I think the press coverage of Michael Jackson is overhype creating more hype which is more than any person who did not die in public service deserves, yet I do think that a son deserves more from his father.     

 

                And this concludes everything I have to say about Michael Jackson.

 

                Okay, it’s fession time, I wrote this for another website and since it is over 1500 words, I wanted to get some final wear and tear out of it.  It seems as if some of the ruckus has died down, as is expected.  What do you some of you think of the press coverage?

 

Westerfield © 2009