It seems it’s all the cable news stations can talk about right now. The demise of a mega-celebrity—especially if untimely, as so many such deaths seem to be—is treated as the story that trumps all other news of the day. After all, that’s what celebrity is all about, isn’t it?
I understand that Michael Jackson was huge, perhaps even bigger than Elvis in his time. But I was somewhat immune to the Elvis hoopla back then. The Beatles, yes. But although I appreciated some of Elvis’s music, I was neither a big fan nor a follower of his life.
The same was true of my attitude towards Michael Jackson, whose notoriety and strangeness eventually surpassed even that of his predecessor as King of Rock, whose own notoriety and strangeness was quite considerable. Jackson’s life seemed mostly sad to me, all that talent and work squeezed down to an existence that appeared in the end to have become as pinched and tormented as the face he worked so hard to perfect and ended up nearly destroying.
Did his death result from drugs he used to kill the pain, as has been widely reported but not yet confirmed? Sad sad sad sad—but hardly surprising.
Previously a lifelong Democrat, born in New York and living in New England, surrounded by liberals on all sides, I've found myself slowly but surely 
June 26th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
The best comment I’ve read so far came from a Russian-language LJ: “Michael Jackson was so not a human, that he didn’t die – he got broken”
June 26th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I appreciated MJ’s talent – and how he changed the face (no real pun intended here) of music in his day. But I asked someone I know “Is this what our society had come to – news channels spending hours on this (to the exclusion of all else) when there is nothing new to report – when there is so much else going on that is so important?”
His answer was, “Well you just don’t understand – I didn’t even like his music – but he sold more than anyone else and he affected so many people?”
I just don’t get it. I am interested to find out new information when they have any, but in the meantime people are being slaughtered in Iran and the house is getting ready to vote on cap and trade this afternoon (a bill which could cripple industry in this country) – including a 300 page amendment Waxman dumped in at 3AM today.
I would have thought congress would have learned their lesson from passing the stimulus bill without reading it.
June 26th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Oh dane…. you just haven’t gotten to the end point just yet.
June 26th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
As for Jackson, my take is that he’s biggest achievement was that when he dropped dead “Everybody had an opinion.”
June 26th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Great little Memorial for Michael:
EternalPage.org
June 26th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Kurt Cobain and Lew Puller, Jr. killed themselves in the same month of the same year.
One, the one who got the ink, was a washed-up second rate rocker.
The other was a “who?”
Eff celebrity worship.
June 26th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Sad, it was just sad, to me Michael was the musical version of Howard Hughes. Brilliant in his field and then went off the deep end.
June 27th, 2009 at 4:24 am
Talented black singer/songwriter who was also a child molester , serial narcissistic plastic surgery user, maybe also Gay and drug addict dies and the whole worlds MSM goes in to an orgasmic never ending orgy of grief. What this says about the MSM and the idiots who pour out their heartfelt sorrows is that the world is a dumb dumb place . Now you know how a buffoon like Obambi can get elected the same dumb dumb people who cry and eulogise over Plastic Michael believe in the Green NAZIS and the moral equivalence of all religions voted for him and the same dumb dumb MSM gave him a free pass.
June 27th, 2009 at 6:19 am
MJ was a brilliant entertainer but I believe his drug addiction eventually eclipsed his talent and killed him. After so many drug-related celebrity deaths, I keep hoping for an honest debate about the real dangers of drug addiction (especially narcotics). Yet the hypocrisy continues. Elvis, Heath Ledger, Michael Jackson – how much of their bizarre behavior is due to ther being stoned out of their minds? With all their money and fame, why can’t they afford the best rehab? Where are their family and friends to step in when it’s quite obvious they are killing themselves? After days of media hype bewailing yet another preventable “tragedy,” why is no one putting the blame on the celebrity him/herself? Another “celebrity suicide,” as Slate puts it. Poor, poor Michael (fill in the blank). He was a tortured artist who just couldn’t help himself (as opposed to the junkie who OD’ed in the alleyway). RIP Michael.
June 27th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Jackson was to the 80′s-90′s what Lennon was for us in the 60′s-70′s and what Elvis was in the 50′s-60′s: musical/cultural icons.
The difference was Presley and Jackson were drug addicted, faded stars desperately trying to regain their superstardom.
John had never lost what he had and very much had his life together.
June 27th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Pragmatist,
It just wasn’t the MSM – I was getting the same from FOX News. Now I would expect this from Geraldo and Greta gets into these things from time to time but for the other shows I was surprised how much coverage they gave it.
June 27th, 2009 at 10:40 am
adagny: Lennon had a history of lifelong drug use of one sort or another. Drugs most definitely did not kill him, but I think it’s a bit of a stretch to say he very much had his life together.
June 27th, 2009 at 11:17 am
The interesting question is, What does the icon represent in the minds of their, is the right word “admirers?” The image, not the reality, has some powerful meaning in their lives. The concrete achievement of great men like Puller has none.
Bad things happen to people who lose touch with reality.
June 27th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
It is such a great loss that a man with great talent like Michael Jackson dies. RIP King of POP.
June 27th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Thousands of people far more worthy than Jackson died that same day.
June 28th, 2009 at 10:13 am
My only observation is that his life seemed to be a modern day adaptation (perversion?) of The Picture of Dorian Gray, with his body replacing Dorian’s portrait. His pact with the devil was to keep him forever in the limelight of celebrity, even when disgraced. In return, his “picture” became more and more disfigured and deformed. In the end, he was a mere caricature of himself. Now that’s real irony.
June 28th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Deathless Michael Jackson lyrics from HiStory album: “Jew me, sue me” & “Kick me, kike me”.
http://www.IsraelNationalNews.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/2
June 29th, 2009 at 2:52 am
On a connected point The Plastic One’s children are patently not genetically his and that means he just BOUGHT them as they were not adopted orphans or anything like that totally unlike those of Madonna and Angelina Jolie. Plastic Jackson’s kids were just PURCHASED because the paedophile wanted playthings.. That being so what distinction is there between a PURCHASED child and a SLAVE because for the life of me I can’t see any. Oh and it matters not a jot that he loved them and protected them as that is what anyone does with prized POSSESSIONS. Also why do his family and parents have any more claim to them than their true genetic parents or are they to be handed over with the rest of their sons POSSESSIONS which if it is so will be just what they are.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:00 am