The Importance of Being Michael

"Why aren't you talking about Michael Jackson more?"

The question, from a caller to Larry Mantle's KPCC-Pasadena public radio program "AirTalk," interrupted a discussion of the budget mess in Sacramento. Actually, it was more a wail than a question -- a crack about the Michael mania that had hijacked the news media.

Ninety-three percent of cable news on the days after he died was given over to Michael Jackson, according to a study by the Project on Excellence in Journalism. At the start of the week, nearly a third of the stories monitored -- 58 outlets, covering print, online, network, cable and radio news -- were about the protests in Iran. By the end of the week, the velvet revolution wasn't the only story that had largely been abandoned by journalism. The economic crisis, health care reform, the energy and global warming bill: you'd need an FBI investigator to find coverage of them. Only Governor Mark Sanford's soap opera could compete, barely, with the death of the King of Pop.

By going all-Michael-all-the-time, cable news wasn't jamming this story down America's throat. Even though nearly two-thirds of Americans said last week that the Jackson story was getting too much coverage, the same HCD Research survey said that four out of five people were engaged by the Jackson stories they saw. If people were more interested in the president's trip to Russia than the singer's memorial at the Staples Center, then the news would drop Michael for Moscow in a heartbeat.

You can't blame audiences for the addictiveness of the Jackson melodrama. As stories go, the tragedy of Michael Jackson has everything: death, mystery, celebrity, pop, money, custody, revenge, sex, drugs and arguably the weirdest superstar in history. Shakespeare would have killed for a broth this rich.

The question for journalism, though, isn't whether people are interested. You'd have to be brain dead not to be interested; our synapses are hardwired to pay attention to that kind of stimulus. Instead, the right question for the news media has to do with proportionality, importance, judgment, compared-to-what? trade-offs and service to the public interest.

Sensation has always been a part of the news business. A business must make money. Until broccoli is as popular as ice cream, journalism will keep on covering entertainment, sports, gossip, crime and plenty else that's part of being human and proven to drive circulation and ratings.

But until the news business decides to throw in the towel and admit it's just another branch of show business, until freedom of the press is as irrelevant to journalism as it is to Disneyland, covering what's inherently important is as essential to democracy as covering what's inherently interesting.

In the summer before September 11th, 2001, the big news was Chandra Levy and shark attacks. As the economic crisis incubated, Anna Nicole Smith got more media attention than the housing bubble. Today, while the world's attention is riveted by Michael Jackson, who knows what rough beast slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?

Important doesn't have to mean boring. If you've heard the Planet Money guys on National Public Radio, you know that credit default swaps and collateralized debt obligations can be as interesting as Natalee Holloway's disappearance. When Arnold Schwarzenegger suggests that negotiations on California's fiscal crisis should be broadcast ("Budget talks as a reality TV show?" was the headline in the Los Angeles Times), there's a truth lurking about the intrinsic drama of public issues that the news media ought to pounce on.

The rise of the Internet, of course, has meant a profusion of channels for news and opinion. Any motivated Web surfer can be well-informed about the debate on cap-and-trade, the public option in health care, California's credit rating or the rift within Iran's clerical leadership about the legitimacy of their presidential election.

But the impact of journalism on the health of American democracy is too important to depend on the aggregation of individual consumers' appetites. Just because everyone can now be their own editor doesn't mean that editors no longer have something crucial to contribute to the meaning of being an informed citizen. "Pull" news is marvelous, niche news is swell, but the audience is not yet so fragmented that "push" news is irrelevant or that mass media don't matter. Twitter is a wonder, but if you look at its trending topics, the majority of the crowd's tweets are about pop culture.

On the same morning that the "AirTalk" caller complained, tongue-in-cheek, about the program's neglect of Michael Jackson, the New York Times ran a story about the daily 4 p.m. meeting where the paper's editors decide what stories warrant front-page treatment. In the Times' Page 1 conference room,

"[T]he belief remains that editing isn't tyranny but perhaps a little closer to curating. Pick whatever metaphor you like: wheat from chaff, signal from noise, gold from dross. Without that process of selection, one is left to find the news on a Borgesian online map that is as big as the world itself."

I'm glad that anyone who needs to can Google the meaning of Borgesian. I'm just a teeny bit less glad that no one on the planet needs to Google Michael Jackson.

This is my column from The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles. You can read more of my columns here, and e-mail me there if you'd like.

Follow Marty Kaplan on Twitter: www.twitter.com/martykaplan

Comments

[raker]

The Michael Jackson story was very interesting for ten minutes. Since then it has been slightly interesting for about five one-minute increments, even though TV news has covered the story to the exclusion of all other news for days on end. The nadir had to be Matt Lauer's leading viewers on a tour through Jackson's bathrooms.

But TV News is not shoving the Michael Jackson story down anybody's throats. No one has to watch. CNN's audience is an all-volunteer army. What will it take after The Runaway Bride, Natalie Holloway, wife-murderers named Peterson, and all the other lurid dreck that they rely on to fill the hours, before people realize that these programs are news in name only. You don't have to watch.

Cable news is not allowed in my house ever, and NBC only in small doses and under protest. Consequently it's a virtually Jackson-free zone. I highly recommend it.

[flatus]

Just remeber, Marty, that:

the Media is there to keep you there until the commercial gets there.

[divakarssathya]

Any consideration of Michael Jackson's awesome oeuvre has to include his angelic triumph over his brutal childhood. Clearly, his music was his triumph. A writing in the sky iteration of his love and sanity.

No question, Michael Jackson was one of the sanest human beings of the 20th century.

All thinking human beings have to be shocked that even America and other 'developed" societies have such primitive systems of social ordering and governance, that individuals of such epochal inventiveness and productivity are no more protected than the person on the street. From the latest reports, it would appear that Michael was attacked and overwhelmed by a swarm of Bernie Madoffs. This is sad and scary and speaks of fatal errors in the way we live our lives and do business.

Dr Deepak Chopra appears to have confirmed that MJ was afflicted by vitiligo.

This is a disease that drastically reduces the colouring in the skin and is commonly seen in India. I am surprised that few in the US appear to accept this obvious explanation. Personally, being black is not just about skin colour. It is about the willingness to assert the dignity of life in the face of ignorance and injustice.

Let's not blame the consumer, Shri Kaplan.

Instead if the media sell brocolli as brocolli and ice cream as ice cream, maybe it will not be regarded as an awful, oppressive force.

Welcome to India's Musical Salaam To Michael Jackson
http://spriteleesathya.blogspot.com/

[PlanetKansas]

All good points Marty,

I think the underlying power behind the Micheal Jackson story is the creation of a new mythology, and the MSM loves a good icon. The best news editors, entertainers and politicians know the power of the myth sells ad space, moves product, and creates political movements.

We have primitive brains, and even the best attempts at language and communication are only symbolic. Sure, it would be ideal if we could focus on what is really important, like respecting and preserving our environment, or living in peace, but our brains are wired to resonate with images and icons, not abstract ideas.

[daddysboy]

I was working in a record store at the time of Frank Sinatra's death. I remember receiving the largest shipment (of his entire catalog) I have ever seen immediately following the announcement. This is a classic running joke in the media business about sales of a dead artist's catalog (and there are even songs about it). Michael Jackson's estate is actually in the black now thanks to millions of people running out to buy his catalog (after-the-fact). I told this story at my current place of employment and no one around felt the need to harp on his death any longer. Thank goodness, because I think Michael is in a better place now and can maybe finally get some peace or has moved on to another important journey. I appreciate your use of the word proportion, but that sort of classiness doesn't seem to exist any longer in the mainstream culture as most popular movements these days seem to me like watching a hoard of crack-addicted moths swarm from one pretty shiny glowing thing to the next.

[carolontheweb]

we are not addicted.... we are force fed -

because this story and the Palin resignation fill the GAPING HOLE where there should be indignation over the McKinney KIDNAPPING.

but then.... who cares if a former congresswoman was kidnapped by 'our only ally'.....?

hey, what's a kidnapping between old friends, eh?

tomorrow.... more on Jackson... Palin.... and, the evil of ISLAM!!

[Levittown]

Michael Jackson was a great talent. I did not always understood the lyrics but the dancing and productions were first class. His personal life style was something else. The fact that he did not comment on my lifestyle I never voiced opinions on his. The tremendous turnout for him was the appreciation of
millions who saw him as an entertainer and a comrade against society. His time has run its course
and this is the final curtain. His detractors can now stop bitching about him and let history be his resting place. So long Michael. When you were good you were very good. Rest in peace.

[JerseyGirl4Obama]

"His detractors can now stop bitching about him and let history be his resting place. So long Michael. When you were good you were very good. Rest in peace."

My sentiments exactly. By the way, I did understand his lyrics.

[EngineerBill]

After reading the comments I must say this article must be a "meshugah" magnet. Your point that sometimes the media needs to push the Broccoli even though the ice cream sells better is well taken. I just wish the commenters paid attention to what you are saying rather than go off on their own tirades.

[GrainOSand]

“I” (I never presume to speak for anyone but me) love Michael Jackson. I do not believe he was a pedophile. If Michael Jackson molested a child that I was associated with in any way such as to have a legal voice in the outcome of any decision to prosecute or not, Michael Jackson would have spent years in jail or worse. Thus, absent hard evidence I can verify myself, the media enjoys no credibility concerning Michael Jackson (pro or con). If Michael Jackson was a pedophile he was a sick individual. If he was not, then his untimely death is more compelling in light of the sick society that might have exacerbated his death, in which (mind you) survivors of his death still exist.

I read (not much TV as a rule) the coverage has been expansive and ad nauseum. That is to be expected given the culture. The level of coverage has nothing to do with Michael Jackson and everything to do with the fickle culture that made him a superstar and then sought to systematically destroy that created...because it was scary. Yet, the culture did not make him a superstar for those who truly appreciated the man’s gifts, for them he was already special just from the music sampling. MTV did not introduce me to Michael Jackson and I need not see his crib or his ride to enjoy his music (oh the gangstas do make me smile).

[GrainOSand]

II
There is no hint of fanaticism or idol worship in such appreciation of an artist’s music. “I” do not worship any human being and I bow down before no earthly master. There is only the universal story of lives lived on a planet and touched by a singular event or person that makes for a sheen on the thread that binds us all. Michael Jackson illuminated the very excellent possibilities...for many, through music and song. One’s ability to buy into that may be an indication of one’s ear, one’s indoctrination, one’s whatever... Diminishing another’s ear because your ear is what it is...is a head-scratcher (WTF) at best. Excessive coverage is a cultural problem not a Michael Jackson problem. My initial response to word of his death was all I ever needed to say concerning him -- he is free now. Since I realized that...it has been a cultural issue concerning any further comment on Michael Jackson...having nothing to do with him and everything to do with the culture that creates and destroys for sport -- oh, and profit. Let us never forget profit!

[Nommo]

In case you had not been paying attention, people have been talking about MJ for a very long time. It might be news to you, and my guess is that it is, but MJ was fundamentally the first trully global superstar.

[wingman1]

Jackson was far from the first "truly global superstar". Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Muhammad Ali and The Rolling Stones, among many others, were global superstars, known the world over, long before Michael. And Stevie Wonder was merging black soul and white rock music ten years before Michael's solo breakthrough. Michael was a supremely talented individual but some of the claims made for him are ridiculous.

[Nommo]

Not assuming, of course, your global awareness, but MJ went places and busted records that all you mention didn't touch. That you place Presley and Ali in the same sentence suggests that you are reaching. Merging Black soul and white rock? What do you think white rock is but soul without a backbeat? Geez.

[youknow]

Surely you must be joking! A great piece of satire or just mind numbing dumbness. If you want to defend the MSM then you are one of them probably making a bunch of money. The MSM does NOT provide news, any news organization that is profit based can not be a true news outlet. The MSM is the cocain of information for the American Public. No wonder that the American Public is so misinformed. The fascination with Michael Jackson is tantamount to rubbernecking.

[elkabong]

I think you completely missed Marty's point.

[SeaBlood]

During these turbulent times, I often fear for our civilization. I fear Al Qaida bombs or North Korean missiles. or anyone that hates our civilization and wants to destroy it. Lately, however, I've been asking myself: "What civilization? We don't got no civilization!". And now I've learned to stop fearing Al Qaida and Kim Jon Il . Let the bombs and missiles come! I'm ready.

[persimmon8]

You are absolutely right...we have little to no civilization. Now that the world is interconnected in all kinds of ways...it is urgent that we create a cooperative global system. This would be the beginning of a real civilizing process whereby we stop waging battles with each other and deal with the urgent business that humanity has in common.

I am not taking about a world government-type deal but where all the countries practice the civilizing process of global cooperative community.

Michael Jackson as visionary spoke of this in his lyrics over and over. 'It's just a turf war on a global scale" "No matter if you're right or wrong! Just BEAT IT." Stop the fighting! We desperately need the civilizing effect of an inspired culture based on compassion and cooperation.

[Uncle Kudzu]

agreed, we ain't got no civilization. when Michael Jackson is the measure of greatness and genius, you know you're in trouble, or, you don't know and that *is* the trouble.

so, i'm with you: get yourself some popcorn and enjoy the circus while you can. bring it on!