Posted on 06/27/2009 3:05:12 PM PDT by AJKauf
The death of a pop culture icon is always an event; and Michael Jackson’s fame equaled that of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. He was world-famous and beloved for most of his career.
And now, like them, he has left this earth prematurely. His death has given his name a new life; once again Michael Jackson is selling newspapers and record numbers of albums — and making TV history. CNN’s ratings shot up a whopping 973% on Thursday — MSNBC by 330% and Fox by 243%. Interest in his death brought the Internet to its knees. Crowds have gathered from London and Paris to Tokyo and Beijing, mourning his death and celebrating his music with singing and dancing.
Why? Why is a man with such a checkered past and bizarre personal life being mourned so intensely? It seems illogical for so many to care deeply about a dead singer.
But when an icon of our youth dies, it’s not just a person that is gone. It’s a passing of an era....
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
Now that MJ is dead, I wonder if the kids that he molested and paid off for their silence will finally have something to say? Or, do lawsuits such as these require people to stay quiet even though their nightmare has ‘left the building’?
I'm far more interested in the passing of another era...one that actually makes a difference in my life.
MSM are just a bunch of ghouls
Whatever highly newsworthy death they can glom onto
and just keep reporting on , they go for it .
We are still hearing about poor little Kaylee Anthony
all the time .
Why not report on the continuing beating , torture and killings in Iran ? THAT is news worthy
Just go back a few years to when Anne Nicole Smith died, and the media feeding frenzy. Michael Jackson was a much bigger personality with actual talent and was even more weird and controversial.
The entire spectacle is disgusting. It reminds me of the frenzy surrounding the death of Princess Di. People must enjoy being maudlin and emotionally overwrought.
What on earth has changed in most people’s lives due to the death of MJ? Sales of his music is way up. Huh? You mean you couldn’t buy it last week? Why would his death make people run out and buy his music? It’s not as if it is going to disappear.
The whole world has gone looney. Does anybody know why the sheik in Bahrain was so crazy about MJ?
Not having television is a cool thing, more conservatives should try it.
I was very annoyed when Fox News dumped their regular programming for - what? 2 days? - to do those boring Michael Jackson 'stories' that were mostly asking people who had no or a very tenuous relation to Michael Jackson inane questions they usually couldn't answer.
This, while the onerous 'Cap and Trade' bill was being passed. I know the ratings were high but Fox's willing abdication of responsibility was disappointing.
“Huh? You mean you couldn’t buy it last week? Why would his death make people run out and buy his music? It’s not as if it is going to disappear.”
His death reminded people of his existence, and made them want to listen to his music again. Simple as that.
That’s what happened to me when I heard Ray Charles died. I thought, “I’ve always liked him, why haven’t I bought an album? I should go do that.” Then I decided to wait so as not to look like a bandwagon-jumper. But that’s nonsense. Nothing wrong with using death as a reason to buy music.
I’ve enjoyed hearing a lot of MJ on the radio the last two days. I’d forgotten how good some of those songs were! I also never realized just how perfect EVH’s guitar solo in “Beat It” was. Got to enjoy that today too!
“This, while the onerous ‘Cap and Trade’ bill was being passed.”
I have to disagree there. Fox was doing hard coverage with Beck and the next two shows when things went down. Michael took over again later that night, but then nothing important happens late at night (except adding gigantic amendments to bills).
I am infinitely more concerned with the death of
Neda Agha Soldan, than I ever will be about MJ.
Perhaps, one day, Her senseless death will be a true symbol of freedom, and spark an uprising to free those people in Iran.
MJ inspires no such thing.
As it was for Elvis, the death of Michael Jackson was a great career move. He’s back on top. That’s what I call living.
I have one but I only get 2 over the air channels and most nights its silent. It has remained so since MJ died. Most of the time when it is in use the dvd player is the source of content.
I just checked — MJ is still dead.
Next status report in 1 hour. I will check with all outlets for a change in condition.
Lift Your Head Up High
And Scream Out To The World
I Know I Am Someone
And Let The Truth Unfurl
No One Can Hurt You Now
Because You Know What’s True
Yes, I Believe In Me
So You Believe In You
Help Me Sing It, Ma Ma Se,
Ma Ma Sa, Ma Ma Coo Sa
Ma Ma Se, Ma Ma Sa,
Ma Ma Coo Sa
I Said You Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
You Got To Be Startin’ Somethin’
I Said You Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’
You Got To Be Startin’ Somethin’
It’s Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You’re Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)
It’s Too High To Get Over (Yeah, Yeah)
Too Low To Get Under (Yeah, Yeah)
You’re Stuck In The Middle (Yeah, Yeah)
And The Pain Is Thunder (Yeah, Yeah)
Nothing wrong with it. I just don’t understand it. The music was there and will be there, so I don’t see why someone’s death would increase sales.
His record company must be licking their chops.
No news to be found on Cap and Trade voting and coming massive tax increases.
This is a very peculiar trend in our culture.
Human beings have never before been saturated all day every day with electronic images and sound that come from distant places, controlled by people they will never know or see.
Humanity seems to be absorbed in this in a way that nobody could ever have forseen. No one ever has any way of checking out what they see and hear. Or rarely.
It’s very strange. These images and sounds are extremely real to people, they live for them. Live by them.
I don’t know what it means or where it’s going but this has never happened before in human history.
We are the pod people.
>>His record company must be licking their chops.<<
Makes for a good conspiracy theory.
Just sayin’
I think they do. I think by acting out grief over the death of a public figure, they are participating in a mass social ritual the likes of which we don't get very often in this society. The need to mourn public figures en masse can be very strong in some societies; look at the reaction to the deaths of Ayatollah Khomeini or Kim Sung-Il, and ask yourself who the masses in our own country could elevate to that status. It's going to be a celebrity entertainer, of course.
They are also confronting death and all its funereal trappings without actually losing someone close to them--a safe, group-huggy catharsis. Think of the mass-mourning spectacles as a practice or rehearsal for real personal tragedies, or sort of Walter Mitty method of psyching oneself up and preparing to meet deaths that actually matter.
.
I really hate to see Michael Jackson being condemned for his child abusement charges 24/7 everywhere.
We don’t KNOW what went on. After all, he was acquited of the charges, and all we have is the word of hangers-on and people who exploited him. Some will do/say anything for money.
By all accounts of those who knew him best, he was not capable of molesting any of the children. He was a child in a man’s body who sought to recapture a childhood his father robbed him of. He was most comfortable around children.
Let’s pray for his soul.
Let him rest in peace.
Let’s just remember the gift of his music that Michael left to the world.
.
That’s kind of nice, during part of the 90s I had a 9 inch black and white with a weak antennae, it was perfect for not being important yet being there if I wanted to catch something about a big news story.
Before I had a computer I also used a 2 inch TV or a radio with TV reception for listening to the Sunday news interviews.
“The music was there and will be there, so I don’t see why someone’s death would increase sales.”
It really all comes down to marketing/PR. Factor out differences in quality and “relevance”—both of which defy quanitification—and the difference between popular and obscure acts are that popular acts are recognizable. People know who they are. They’ve hear the songs, watched the performances. It all comes down to PR.
For the last 15 years, Michael has had terrible PR. And despite a few isolated successes (”You Are Not Alone,” for instance), he’s been declining since the original molestation charges. Now that he’s dead, everyone loves him again, which is the magic of death. And you have video retrospectives on TV, song marathons on the radio, wall-to-wall coverage on the news. It reminds people of their childhood, when MJ was famous and beloved. Makes them want to own and replay the songs at their own leisure.
Yes, the music was there last year, and it will be there next year. But the PR won’t be the same.
Death: the ultimate (killer) career move.
In his death, Michael Jackson was finally able to do something good for mankind.
It took the drug induced death death of this formerly black, half man - half woman, retarded, sexual pervert to knock the networks and news channels out of their 24/7/365 non-stop Obamathon.
It’s the abortionists fault that screwed up 50 years ago!
“It’s very strange. These images and sounds are extremely real to people, they live for them. Live by them.”
Guess i’m not part of humanity, music makes me nervous and I took the radio out of my truck 44 years ago when I bought it and have never missed not having it.
Have never in my life bought a record, tape or cd and wouldn’t have any way to play it if I did other than a cd on the computer..
What is this fascination with this pervert. Fox news takes rare breaks from coverage on Jackson and Greta of course will be covering this non news for the next several months. A nuclear detonation over the Unites States would not even interupt coverage over this what ever he was. All I can say is good riddance.
Very astute comments.
This is the herd mentality at work. People long to be part of something larger than themselves, and a giant group hug and weep-in makes them feel significant somehow.
This sort of thing gets scary when what people cling to is the Hitler youth, Mao’s revolutionary guard, or perhaps, the Obama corps. in order to find meaning in their lives.
O.K. I only watch Fox in the early morning (before 10 A.M.) and later evening (after 8 P.M.) Thursday night, June 25th, Bill O'Reilly was canceled and Greta Van Susteren was doing a continuous show about nothing but Michael Jackson, which wasn't a shock but still a disappointment. I assumed O'Reilly just took the opportunity to get a night off.
On Friday morning (26th), between 9 and 10 A.M., I saw Megyn Kelly and Bill Hemmer on 'America's Newsroom' doing non-stop 'stories' on the late Michael Jackson. I'm sure they all got around to covering actual news at some point - but I can't watch TV 24 hours a day.
I expected better of Fox. Apparently, my expectations were a bit too lofty. It is a TV network and I'm sure a lot of people want to watch this stuff for hours on end. I don't.
At least FoxNews has pretty much gone back to regular programming. Enough with the Michael Jackson stuff! I'm reasonably sure that over half the country think that, perhaps, Michael Jackson was a great talent 25 years or 30 years ago - but in the years since then had turned himself into a drugged-up pedophile with an extremely weird aversion to being an adult, African-American, even at age 50. His ridiculous fake face made him look like an Anime figure. Michael Jackson was very strange - by choice.
His untimely death is sad and unfortunate but hardly worthy of the huge coverage it's been receiving. Then again, the tragic and untimely death of British Princess Di was also covered incessantly, for days, on TV. That was in 1997. Obviously, little has changed, since. Too bad.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.