"Thriller" Gone, ABC and NBC "'Bad," They "Beat It"

It's rare that television moves me to take action but it did while I was watching the ABC and NBC "specials" on the death of Michael Jackson. They moved me to take a shower. Made your skin crawl at more than just a few levels didn't it?

First, strictly as pieces of television, the production values were terrible. Doesn't an "icon" deserve better? Secondly, what is an "icon" anyway and who makes that editorial judgement? Is Michael Jackson an "icon" now? Or is he a piece of strange musical and pop culture history to anyone under say 50? Think about that for a second.

Imagine how Barbara Walters felt when she heard that Michael Jackson had died. "What!?! And upstage my Farrah Fawcett special????" Just what the world needs, more shots of an overweight Ryan O'Neal crying. Could that have been the reason she "fronted" the ABC special for about 3 minutes and then handed it over to Martin Brashir? Skin crawl moment number two.

This is the fellow whose entire career apparently is based on his interviews with "The King of Pop." Not that they were all that good mind you, but, during one of them Jackson actually admitted sleeping in the same bed with young boys. Kudos to Brashir. I think. But there is something terribly self-serving about a reporter who does a few interviews with someone and then claims to know his soul. Suddenly he's an "expert" with "insight." You gotta love TV news. Where else could Anderson Cooper tell a creepy story about going to Studio 54 when he was 10 with Jackson? At least it wasn't another haiku. And is EVERY day a "....sad..sad..day...." for Larry King?

There were a number of "over-heated" moments in both specials, anchors and reporters breathlessly trying to turn Jackson's passing into the death of Lady Di (don't get me started on that one). Helicopter shots of the "..gathering crowds of mourners." But the reality was tough to mask. The "crowds" at the UCLA medical center and at the Apollo in Harlem were small and not over wrought. Shucks. The "out pouring of emotion" by those "mourning" his death was more of a trickle. But hey we've got an hour to fill here, let's go back to Brian Rooney outside those gates again. Call Madonna, she, "can't stop crying." And whoa -- can Anne Curry fake sincerity or what? How about that lower register in her voice when she wants to ooze a bit. Soap please.

The real question is who and what was Michael Jackson. I'm no Martin Brashir, but I'll take a crack at it. He was an entertainer, and an extremely talented one. His list of musical successes is long, his athletic ability in performance is unchallenged. "Amazing" is not an overstatement. One of a kind is spot on.

He was an accused child molester, like O.J.Simpson was an accused murderer. Jackson of course was accused more than once. He was a very strange man with some dark places in his psyche. It was all part of the same package. His real life and his stage life can't be separated. They go hand in hand and in a way are responsible for each other. Does that make him an iconic child molester?

His music was the sound track of millions of lives, but while his popularity may have forced MTV to play black artists' music, he was more Tiger Woods than Jim Brown, or Marvin Gaye. And while I will play his records -- I've got them all -- and remember the good times past, I sit here and wonder why? Why all the coverage for someone whose career effectively ended more than ten years ago? Who was in most circles considered a social misfit at best, a pervert at worst? What are we doing on television?

I'm going to stare at my Farrah Fawcett poster and ponder that one.

Follow Mike Hegedus on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MikeHegedus

Comments

[Uncle Kudzu]

excellent article! why you would admit to owning his collection of mildly fun little pop confections is a bit confusing, but other than that, great insights into who we are as a culture.

[BassMent]

I find all of this MJ coverage disproportionate and exhausting.

He was an okay singer, a talented songwriter, and an amazing dancer. Did he "change the course of popular music forever" as so many are saying? Well, he did an excellent job of taking the urban contemporary genre and polishing it up to make it more appealing to a white audience..­. and then completed that circle by trying to make himself white. But I don't see how he can be placed on the same level as people who truly altered the way that our culture perceives and consumes and enjoys popular music (Chuck Berry, Dylan, Lennon & McCartney, Hendrix).

He had a lot of fans who bought a lot of his product which allowed him to lead an excessive lifestyle that seemed to range from the merely eccentric to the downright bizarre and perhaps even the amoral. And yes, his sudden and unexpected death has left those fans saddened.

But the media coverage has been hyperbolic to a disturbing degree. I think the effort to cannonize him as sort of icon or hero is overreaching.

[booktone]

Michael was the black Elvis. Consider the parallels:

1) His early music rewrote the cultural landscape.
2) His later music was irrelevant.
3) He became a very, very strange man
4) He was surrounded by enablers
5) Odd wardrobe
6) The pills got him in the end.

[AmericanWarrior]

Except one. Elvis stole most of his material from less fortunate African Americans who were in no position in those days to sue him. Look at his biggest hits then see: Chuck Berry, Little Richard and Billie Holiday. Elvis was more thief than King...

[BassMent]

Stole? Hmm. Most famous singers in the late 50's and early 60's were just that: singers, who sang other people's material (cf the first couple of Beatles records). Songwriting credits appeared on records back in Elvis' heyday. And the fact that songwriters made less money than the singers who performed them held true whether the songwriters were black or white or male or female or whatever.

Furthermore, I seriously doubt Elvis had that much say in the choices of songs for his own early catalog. He clearly had a taste for both country and gospel music, but he was no songwriter himself and did not have the musical breadth to "create" rock and roll. No, he was a singer, and handlers at record companies told him what to sing in his formative years. I think you'd be hard pressed to show that Elvis had some grand scheme to cheat the African American community.

And I would love to know which of Elvis' "biggest hits" were written by the songwriters you mention. I know for a fact that he never covered any of the handful of songs that Bilie Holiday wrote, and I'm rather doubtful about Little Richard as well.

[anghiari]

The fact is that Elvis did record the music of a lot of black singers. The problem in those days, whites didn't buy black music...so only blacks heard black singers...­Elvis could record those same songs and be heard by a bigger richer white audience and he did. Others did the same and some very few paid some of the black artists for using their songs. Because of Elvis' style, that was more black that the traditional country music...he helped open the market for whites to start listening to black records. But there is no doubt that he and other white singers were able to make their reputations and career off black music and musicians.

[anghiari]

No he was the Black Michael Jackson...­.his single biggest selling record album still holds the record for having outsold any record album by elvis, beatles and madonna.

[JazzSax UT]

I thought the best coverage was on MTV. They just played his music videos Thursday night. All night. No commentary, except a small text scroll on the bottom. They showed his influence in the proper way. Just showing his music.

[PatA]

I cannot think of anything specific about Michael Jackson that "impacted" my life. I do remember switching radio stations when I was on a photography shoot in Montana...­....didn't care for his music.
To say that the whole word was impacted by Michael Jackson's music is a huge stretch.

[luckynewman13]

someone lives in a bubble

[anghiari]

NO...NOT A STRETCH ACTUALLY ITS THE REALITY...­THE WHOLE WORLD INCLUDES JUST THAT, BUT DOES NOT REQUIRE A NOSE COUNT OF EVERY SINGLE PERSON LIVING IN THE WORLD. YOU DIDN'T LIKE HIM FINE! BUT 82 MILLION PEOPLE BOUGHT TICKETS TO HIS CONCERTS IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS...JU­ST THINK IF HE'D HAD MORE CONCERTS TO SELL TICKETS TOO.

[enzosmom]

THANK YOU for having some perspective and for publicly saying what I've been telling friends and family. Michael Jackson was a talented man but the 24/7 coverage and insta-eulogy has made me retreat to my DVD library. Did nothing of real newsworthiness happen all weekend?

[Emmy2]

I kinda like it when the media all get stuck on a note that I don't care about. During the OJ trial and the Diana Spencer drunk-driv­ing-accide­nt hysteria, I found that I could zip through, say, Newsweek in about 5 minutes. Ditto the daily paper and the (recorded) news shows. I consider it a nice holiday from all the news that I generally feel compelled to keep up with, so I'm pretty much OK with occasional bouts of excessive infotainment.

[carolr51]

Fans of Michael are very defensive.­..I was called "inhumane" and told to mind my own business on another post when I said that there should not be a big public party for MJ's funeral.

[booker52]

Kudos on this op/ed. My feelings too on the overkill of the coverage given to him. Enough. I am now watching non news channels as it's sicking with the saint like stature given to him in death.

[DonTampa58]

I too am done with the news channels until they become something other than "All Michael Jackson, all the time"

[Melissa]

Great article. I'm watching movies until all the hype is over.

[kesiac]

Tinges of the OJ trial abound.

As you are stare at your Farrah poster (who I love - but feel forced to go here) remember she also had her demons. Out of respect I wont conjure them all up, and Im sure you wont either when you seem to be so involved conjuring up MJs

[anghiari]

Is it tinges of the OJ trial because Michael is black and that is the only reference you can think of, or are you 12 and weren't old enough to pay attention when Diana died? The media chases stories so they can feed "content" to their particular media effort adinfinite­m....Farra­h Fawcett may have been courageous but she wasn't a superstar.­...Few of the people on their blackberries and iphones saw her in the "burning bed" or on broadway..­.to them she was just another cute actress from a long ago sitcom.

[mlaiuppa]

What are we doing on television?

We're selling commercial time with ratings.

Next question.

[contemporarymom]

Great points on the media coverage. Although I did go thank God Anderson Cooper came on because everyone else stunk - Charlie Gibson talking about Beat It and Bad on his ipod just gave me the creeps but then like you I thought Cooper you were 10 going to studio 54? Where are the adults in this world? Once again creepy.

Talent undisputed, mental stability way off but I did feel he deserved the coverage and the out pouring was just right. A damaged soul with too many "yes men" around him. When they announced they were searching for his doctor who was there earlier I thought, just flash his picture and ask the fans to find him, they'd find him in a snap.

And for the record, Ann Curry sounds like that every day on the today show, she'd find a way to tell you that you won the lotto and she'd make it sound like a terrible curse.

[abbeysbooks]

What is so wrong about sleeping in the same bed with children. It is done all over the world. It does not mean you are sexually abusing them. It just means you are sharing your bed with them.

Michael's bed was almost the size of his room. Huge. It would be very natural for everyone to play on the bed and sleep in it. French babies get to sip wine at the table and so do young children. It's a way the French have of communicating their culture of fine wine drinking and conversation at the dinner table over good food. It is not about getting drunk. Or getting some six packs and a sleeping blanket in the back of a pickup and going off somewhere.

As a teacher in the 60's in a free school, some of my students visited me in my small apartment. I slept in the same bed with them. There was nothing improper. Today in this repressive sexual climate contrasted by its open porn and strip bars, I would have been put in jail.

I really don't believe Michael ever did anything really abusive to a child, and I believe those parents saw a way to cash in.

[marijam]

Tells us something about ourselves as a society, doesn't it? These days, everything is reduced to "fear". Fear of everything and nothing.

[pissedmichael]

Thank you. The coverage in all instances is a sad commentary on the integrity of our media. Last night I was flipping through channels trying to find real news. I know the program has been around for awhile and I hate to reveal my ignorance--but I 'stumbled on 'World Focus' on PBS. Isn't this what real news reporting is supposed to be? No corporate ads every 5 minutes, no commentary or editorial posturing, no Michael Jackson or Mark Sanford (unless it was so brief that I missed it--which is how it should be), and what appears to be evenhanded reporting from different worldwide news agencies, sans Fox 'News.' I was impressed and will be watching this almost exclusively. I will continue to 'monitor' the others, but now realize there are alternatives. Watching these is like watching 'reality' TV--heavily scripted drivel that owes it's roots to the premises of 'pro-wrest­ling.'

[CarolMajeshort]

“DON’T STOP TILL YOU GET ENOUGH”. In the movie "Almost Famous" about 15 mins in as the kid (hero) goes to interview the rock band, his mum yells out "DON'T TAKE DRUGS". That movie clip is never very far from my consciousness and is often provoked by stories like this as it has taken on a medical meaning in my head supplanting the recreational one. I've become a bit of a zealot (a health Nazi my brother in law calls me) but the damage these things can do distress’s me. We avoid them in my house and use LLLT (Low Level Laser Therapy) for our back and neck pain, creaky arthritis joints sports injuries etc. It's is much safer and improves healing (rather than making injuries worse like some pain relieving drugs do). If you don’t know what I'm talking about you can look it up here http://www.thorlaser.com It's not improved my moon walking but it’s much safer and improves healing rather than making injuries worse like some pain relieving drugs do. Anyways MJ you ROCKED MY WORLD in this life, no doubt YOU WANNA BE STARTIN' SOMETHIN' in the next.