June 26, 2009
Michael Jackson: Puh-leeze
I really hadn't planned on posting anything on the death of America's creepiest celebrity, but the unseemly and undeserving avalanche of media coverage, along with the outpouring of manical adulation from otherwise sane citizens has provoked a response, including -- but not limited to -- nausea and revulsion.
Jonah Goldberg posted his thoughts over at National Review; they're exactly on point, and worth excerpting.
... I find the media’s instinctive rush to sanctify Michael Jackson disgusting.
Look, I understand that Michael Jackson was an “icon.” I understand that some people loved his work and that many people who never met him believed they loved the man too.
But I didn't, and I’m hardly alone. If Michael Jackson were just another famous person, I’d probably stay silent and let the pro forma celebration of his memory roll by without comment. (For instance, I have no problem whatsoever with the media taking a moment to pay respects to Farah Fawcett).
[...]
I think part of [the problem] is the narcissism of our celebrity culture. Here was a guy so many of “us” read about in People magazine for so long. His passing, therefore, isn’t a loss in the sorrowful sense of the word, but in the selfish one. It’s a loss of an interesting subject, a creature to gossip about and to fill a few minutes on E! or Entertainment Tonight.
[...]
Calling Michael Jackson an icon doesn’t let him off the hook for anything. But to listen to the news anchors you’d think it absolves him of everything.
I say: Who cares who his famous friends were? Who cares what a “fascinating” person he was? If you want to talk about his death as an end of an era, have at it. But that’s not what the Barbara Walters set is doing.
I know that Michael Jackson wasn’t convicted of the despicable crimes he was accused of. And that’s why he never went to jail. Three cheers for the majesty of the American legal system. But in my own personal view, he wasn’t exonerated either. Nor was he absolved of his crimes because he could sing, moonwalk, or sell 10 million records. (Though many of us suspect the money and fame he made from those things is precisely what kept him out of jail).
And, while I merely think he was a pedophile, I know he was not someone responsible parents should applaud, healthy children emulate, nor society celebrate.
And while we’re at it, his relatively early death wasn’t “tragic.” He was one of the richest people in the world. He spent his money on perpetual childhood and he was perpetually with children not his own.
Meanwhile, in the last ten days, we’ve seen or heard of remarkable people who’ve given their lives for freedom in Iran. We’ve heard of innocents killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the last decade, America has lost thousands of heroes in noble causes and thousands of innocent bystanders who were denied the simple joys of life through no fault of their own. Those deaths are tragic, and we're hard pressed to think of more than a handful of names to put with the long line of the dead.
If anything, Michael Jackson’s life, not his death, was tragic.
[...]
Michael Jackson had many accomplishments. But the press is sanctifying him because he was famous, deservedly so to be sure, but not because he was good. So much of the coverage seems to miss this fundamental point, as if being famous made him good.
I feel sympathy for Jackson’s family and friends who understandably mourn him. But I can't bring myself to mourn him any more than I mourn the random dead I read about in the paper everyday. Indeed, I confess to mourning him less.
Every channel says this is a sad day for America. I agree. But not for the same reasons.
The only thing I can add is my profound disappoint at the number of long-time friends who have seemingly taken leave of their senses, mourning the passing of this deeply flawed -- I'll go further and say "evil" -- man who preyed upon children, because he also had the ability to entertain.
The most charitible explanation is that my friends are engaging in a bit of self-reverential navel-gazing, mourning the loss of their youth, along with the singer who provided the soundtrack to their school days and parties.
In the meantime, Iranians are rioting for their freedom, Congress is getting ready to pass the most massive tax hike in the nation's history, and the destruction of our healthcare system is fast approaching.
Like Goldberg, I think this is indeed a sad day for America; the media -- and the public -- should take a deep breath and get a grip.
Posted by Mike Lief at June 26, 2009 10:19 AM
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Comments
Yep--a pedophile, nothing more. Soon we'll start seeing the "Michael slept with me..and my brother at Neverland" books and movies.
Posted by: Udunno at June 26, 2009 06:32 PM
Agree
Posted by: Penny Keefer at June 27, 2009 11:34 AM
Yes! to this whole article. And thank you, Mike, as well as Jonah Goldberg for putting this in print. Nobody could have said it better.
Posted by: Susan at June 27, 2009 10:27 PM