The American public shrugs off Presidential debates (regardless of the faults in the system, which few would deny), yet plan viewing parties for the funeral of a pop singer with a checkered history (to be generous)?
Newsmagazines struggle for readers, but any two-bit tabloid with a pathetic narcissist like “Jon and/or Kate” on the cover flies off the shelves.
People devote their entire lives to serving humanity—be they teachers, police and firefighters, military members, scientists looking to unlock the mysteries of our most horrid diseases, relief and mission workers, those who help the poor and destitute or so many others—and yet the media chooses to devote the better part of two solid weeks to alleged ‘reporting’ about someone’s will and custody arrangements?
Our Congress is debating what could be the most significant change to the American lifestyle in generations, and the network that once defined “all news” sends a reporter to find a chimpanzee?
Children are starving, lack healthcare and are sent to unsafe schools with inadequate supplies, and we focus on whether Britney Spears will have visitation or custody of her kids?
People won’t watch the President (regardless of party) deliver policy addresses in significant numbers, but millions upon millions will tune in to watch celebrities pat each other on the back and consider that somehow meaningful and significant?
I’m completely in favor of diversions from the serious issues of the day, but we’ve become far too obsessed with the celebrity culture to the point that we pay no attention to what really does impact our lives. Forget Nero fiddling while Rome burns, it’s the Romans themselves who are too busy listening to the fiddles and swooning over the fiddlers to notice they’re ablaze themselves.
Entertainment Tonight and E! have their place, but when the network news operations become indistinguishable from them, we’ve lost something important and may never get it back. Shows like The Daily Show or The Colbert Report are wonderfully insightful, but when the public begins to substitute them for actual news, the viewers are missing the point entirely. It’s not just about taking jabs at public figures’ gaffes, it’s about understanding the underlying issues. (And despite what an alarming number of people seem to believe, what happens overseas does matter, and does have an impact on our lives beyond the thankfully rare tragedy like 9/11.)
Don’t think our priorities are out of sync? ABC has devoted more than twice as much airtime in just one day to the Michael Jackson nonsense than they did to their conversations on healthcare a couple of weeks ago. That’s beyond pathetic, and is a shameful, shameful commentary on the media and on the public for rewarding their irresponsible behavior.
It wasn’t just Farrah Fawcett that died on the same day Michael Jackson finally lost the game of Russian Roulette he’d been playing with drug abuse. No, there was a third famous death that day, only the corpse and public has failed to realize it. Any sense of perspective, moderation and responsibility in television journalism is now officially deceased.
The study in excess that has greeted the inevitable end of a perverted human freak show like Jackson has been appalling even had he been someone who didn’t do inappropriate things with children. I’m now expecting that when O.J. finally, and far too late, leaves this earth, that the coverage will be all about his considerable football skills with some passing references to those pesky allegations about what happened to his ex wife and her companion. Both took full advantage of prosecutorial ineptitude and a star-struck jury system, and such is the way it goes. That said, people don’t make payouts that end in “illions” to people who just felt like leveling false accusations for sport. But this is someone who had a childrens’ bedroom in his house only accessible by passing through his own room. Please explain to me how that’s the least bit appropriate. Or why a grown man kept dozens upon dozens of pictures of little boys on his wall. This is not some “misunderstood free spirit,” it’s a walking poster for pedophilia. Apparently, none of that matters, though. He recorded some hit songs. That must absolve him of behavior that would land just about anyone else on a sex offender registry.
Let’s pretend, though, that none of those things were real. The death of a singer does not warrant the kind of absurd attention it has received. By one analysis I read, 93% of cable-TV news coverage for 36 hours after he died was about Jackson. Leaving seven percent to focus on such trivial matters as wars, the economic crisis, the healthcare-reform debate, cap and trade legislation and anything else going on in the world.
A week and half later, the so-called news segments of the national morning shows continue to push aside actual news in favor of nothing more than innuendo—as there has been no conclusion in the actual investigation—and meaningless, tangential topics like home movies. Home movies? Are you kidding me? His movies weren’t news two weeks ago, they’re not news now. That, sadly, isn’t even the low point of the depths to which journalists have sunk. That ignominious honor goes to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, whose show (over which he exercises a degree of editorial control) somehow found it relevant to waste time on locating Jackson’s former pet chimp. You’re already wasting 55 minutes of every hour (based on the 93% analysis) on Jackson, and yet someone thought it was a good idea to devote yet more time to telling us where a particular chimp was spending its days.
A close runner up in the worthless coverage sweepstakes is ABC, which inexplicably gave Al Sharpton air time to vent his meaningless bile this morning. The same racist Al Sharpton that perpetuated the Tawana Brawley hoax, rendering anything he has to say irrelevant. Had Robin Roberts even asked why the public should take his comments seriously when he’s a proven liar would have been a worthwhile exercise, but, no, as usual, the liar was allowed to speak unchallenged.
Jackson’s death was news, to be sure. Even a top story on the day it happened. And meaningful developments could rightly have been included towards the end of subsequent newscasts along with other entertainment news. But anchoring Nightline from a place where he hasn’t lived in years, spending five minutes explaining to people nowhere near L.A. what will be closed off for the funeral service (side note: will the Jacksons pay for this public extravaganza with all the revenue from the renewed interest in his music? It would be the right things to do for a cash-strapped city and state.), showing home movies and talking about routine custody and estate issues that thousands of families tragically experience on a regular basis…no, that is abdicating any sense of journalistic responsibility.
John Stossel at ABC is my new hero, for showing even in the sea of stupidity that has swallowed up the decision makers, there are some voices that recognize other issues are actually important. He publicly bit the hand that feeds him and took them to task for bumping his report on the health care proposals working through Congress in favor of Jackson coverage. I may not always agree with his expressed opinions when he editorializes (which probably means he’s doing his job very well), but I stand up and cheer for him being willing to say the emperor has no clothes.
Michael Jackson was a singer; a wildly popular performer one in his day, to be sure, and an internationally known celebrity to this day; but a singer nonetheless. He was not a head of state, nor a worldwide religious leader, nor someone who contributed something great to the medical or scientific world. Good for him for making a lasting impression on his chosen field, and of course it is sad for a fan when someone they enjoy dies. Perspective, though, has taken a backseat to over-the-top hype in what ensued from his death.
So goodbye, journalistic standards and integrity, it was nice knowing you while you existed. You were sorely strained in recent years with nonsense like Brittney Spears and Jon & Kate being placed in newscasts where they had no business, but the weight of keeping a self-mutilating freak’s death in perspective finally pushed you over the edge. Perhaps the simpler thing to do now is replace CNN et al with a simulcast of E!, and put Katie, Brian and Charlie out to pasture in place of additional airings of Entertainment Tonight. Apparently the shows are one in the same now.
Edit: though not common that I agree with a GOP lawmaker, this guy has it right, if a bit blunt for someone in public office:
