michael jackson hysteria put in perspective

mad max beyond eggdome

i thought this letter to the editor in yesterday's washington post pretty well puts the michael jackson hysteria and all the press its getting pretty well into the proper perspective!!. ...

A Life of Worth, Overlooked

My nephew, Brian Bradshaw, was killed by an explosive device in Afghanistan on June 25, the same day that Michael Jackson died. Mr. Jackson received days of wall-to-wall coverage in the media. Where was the coverage of my nephew or the other soldiers who died that week? There were several of them, and our family crossed paths with the family of another fallen soldier at Dover Air Force Base, where the bodies come "home." Only the media in Brian's hometown and where he was stationed before his deployment covered his death.

I remember Brian as a toddler wandering around in cowboy boots and hat, not seeing the need for any other clothing. He grew into a thoroughly decent person with a wry sense of humor. He loved wolves and history. Most Christmases, I gave him a biography or some analysis of the Civil War. He read such things for pleasure.

He had old-fashioned values and believed that military service was patriotic and that actions counted more than talk. He wasn't much for talking, although he could communicate volumes with a raised eyebrow.

He was a search-and-rescue volunteer, an altar boy, a camp counselor. He carried the hopes and dreams of his parents willingly on his shoulders. What more than that did Michael Jackson do or represent that earned him memorial "shrines," while this soldier's death goes unheralded?

It makes me want to scream.

MARTHA GILLIS


Springfield

lilaccityhearth

So True Thank you for posting

bitslammer

Chalk it up to the "E" channel mentality. I's sad that as a country we have an entire cable channel devoted to the likes of Paris Hilton, Lindsey Lohan, Brad Pitt and his wife. Meanwhile soldiers, nurses, teachers and other such people who are devoted toward making like ofr others better are underpaid and largely ignored.

TXTriker

One reason I ride with the Patriot Guard and why some of our eggheads cook and do things that show respect for our troops who put themselves in harms way.

Thank you for posting that.

Celtic Wolf

My thought eggzactly....

stike

i'd bet dollars to donuts that what they are mourning in jackson isn't jackson, or even (directly) his music.

we are a nation of infants sometimes. i firmly believe that much of the "mourning" is people mourning the loss of their childhood. they identify with his music because it was a soundtrack for the tweens and teens or whatever... who knows. it's nostalgia.

i don't count it as willful disrespect to the troops, i think it's a case of ignorance and running away from reality. unless you have been in the service (and i haven't) you can't identify with what the troops do. and it always takes place "over there somewhere". folks are literally ignorant of it, partly willfully. for them, remembering the day they ran home to watch the "thriller video" on MTV is one of the seminal moments in their lives. that's pathetic, but it's also a product of their parents and grandparents having done their best to protect them, give them "what they didn't have growing up" and the increase in prosperity and leisure.

i don't know if it is a case of rome falling. but diversion and disconnection and ignoring reality (whose version of reality, i don't know), is a common theme as a society enjoys the hard fought benefits that came about as a result of the hard work of its previous generations.

you don't get to sit around watching videos and playing atari games unless your father and grandfather have created some relative ease for you.

question is, was that relative ease good for you in the long run? many folks are stunted emotionally and intellectually because they haven't had anything difficult to go through. are they to blame?

it's a rhetorical question.

i don't know the answer.

Celtic Wolf

Good thing I mourned the lose my of childhood many years ago.. Now I can focus on those that give their lives so some people can have the freedom to be a no-nosed, pasty faced celebrated pedophile..

stike

judge not, lest ye be judged.

and yes, we know about your feeding the troops.

consider the back patted.

Celtic Wolf

I don't need my back patted.. Those brave men and women do..

My point is I'd rather spend my energy on what is really important..

stike

and to remind us of it as often as possible.
:laugh: :woohoo: :laugh: :woohoo: :laugh:

Celtic Wolf

Yes Sir!!!

ranchonodinero

Kumbaya, my Lord, kumbaya...

stike

oh that's horsesh!t

plenty of people are questioning it. i think it's immature and idiotic. the covergae is ridiculous.

i'm just saying the guy is not a pedophile as far as any court of law has proven.

you might think he is, based on what you heard "in the media" (that sword cuts both ways). but that doesn't prove he is one.

just in case anyone oversimplifies things, i am not defending him against accusations of frigging pedophilia, (i think pedophiles ought to have certain parts of their bodies cut off, frankly). but i'm saying it's awful simpleminded to sit there in your armchair having seen no evidence and making a judgment.

you are basing the pedophilia claim on next to nothing. because there's no way you will admit you followed that case every minute all the way through on television, and you sure as hell aren't going to admit you followed it closely in the papers and read transcripts.

but if you didn't, well then, you are guessing. and i'm sorry, but if you are gonna drag servicemen into the discussion, well, they are protecting the constitution as well as us. and that constitution says that "freak" jackson is innocent

do i think he's innocent? that's not my claim. my stance is i'm smart enough to know i don't know enough.

too bad so many other folks are quick to pounce.

judge not, lest ye be judged.

mad max beyond eggdome

well said stike old boy. ...last i checked, you are innocent till proven till guilty in this country. .. i remember my kids asking me if OJ was guilty or not. .. . my response was it didn't matter what i thought, a jury of 12 men and women found him innocent in a court of law, and thats all that mattered. ...in MJ's case he was never found guilty of anything. ....as i recall, one case was settled out of court and one case was dropped for lack of evidence. ... and what i think doesn't matter a one whit. ...i think if you look at the weight of what he did for underprivelaged kids in LA, the evidence that is out there on the record shows him doing a lot more good than bad (of course if did hurt even one kid, that probably outweighed all the good he ever did unfortunately). . .i'd like to think that he was simply trying to make up for his only lost childhood. ..did he let kids sleep in his bed. ..probably. ..did he touch them inappropriately? ...we'll probably never know for sure. ..would i let my kids go to his house? no ...did some woman let her kid go sleep at his house even after the first trial? yep. ..think she was out for a buck? . .probably. ...my only point in posting that article was the slanted way in which we choose our heroes in this country and the way the press deals with these things. ...anybody even see a single report on the iran elections in the past week?? or the marine push in afghanistan?? . . .you know 7 americans died there yesterday, the most in the past year? . .. thats the point. ..

Semolina Pilchard

I am still amazed the way people who have done nothing but bash a person will speak of them as a saint after death. I don't like speaking ill of the dead, especially those who are not even buried yet, but I don't believe in doing a 180 either. The coverage is over the top, but who would have expected otherwise? What has the media done in the last 10 years except overdo things such as this? The biggest two-faced flip flop was the reporter Diane Diamond. During the child molestation coverage she was all over it, and soon it became personal between her and the Jackson camp. She portrayed him as a definite child molester. Then, I see her tonight giving him glowing praise. I certainly did not expect to see her bashing him tonight, but to do a complete flip flop makes her look like a total fraud. If you really believe a person is a child molester then I don't see how a person being a great entertainer overides that. I have no idea if he molested the kids or not. If he was indeed innocent, he unfortunately painted a giant target on his back because there is no way a millionaire can have kids over, sleep in the same bed as them and not expect mom or dad to see dollar signs. And innocent or not, what parents allow their kids to go over to an adults house and sleep in their bed? I guess in this day and age where so many parents want to be their child's "friend" I guess that concern overcomes common sense.

HolySmokes

you're a voice of reason, Stike.

if you (pl) think you have an opinion about the guy, then don't bash the media coverage he's getting now because that's how you got your opinion about the guy. pretty undeniable logic.

i didn't particularly like jackson, i suspect much of what was claimed about him was true, and i do know i don't doubt the validity of his court verdict as much as i doubt that of oj's, though i didn't have any knowledge other than media input of that either.

doubt or bias aint proof... blatant accusation aint smart, and the original post was a commentary on what our media focuses on, not what or who the subject was.

there was enough judgement in the original letter to make that post biased as well. with the recent loss of a loved one in iraq, i'll forgive a little bias there. other than that, it's an OT rant.

HS

Little Steven

Max,

What burns me has nothing to do with the guy's alleged indiscretions. Today was the most watched broadcast in history. What about Gerry Garcia, Richard Manuel, Lowell George, Morrison, Sid Vicous, Syd Barret, Steve Goodman, Janis, Lennon, Joe Summner, Hendrix, Keith Moon, Johnny Rotten and so many others that made huge contributions to music and got little more than a couple of paragraphs in the papers.

Steve

mad max beyond eggdome

well steve, i was a huge fan of some of those guys, (you left terry kath of chicago off your list) but even i have to admit that MJ might have been bigger than all of them put together.. .."thriller" was the single biggest selling album of all time. ...go take a look at i-tunes and billboard and see how big he's selling again in the past 10 days (i saw somewhere that his estate has grown by something like $200M this week with the bump in music sales). ..its pretty amazing... .he may be the biggest crossover artest ever. ...i mean, what other motown singer could have eddie van halen play guitar on his song? ("beat it") .... heck, i'll admit to going to a special party the night the thriller video made its debut and being blown away by it. ...and watchinng him moonwalk that first time on the 25th anniversary motown special. . .forgetting his personal issues, he was a very amazing, special talent. . .my only real point in posting that letter was to try to put in perspective all the press over his death against other newsworthy events of the day. . .heck, its also sad that farah fawcett, who really was heroic in the way that she tried to publicize her fight against cancer, got shoved to page 10 the same afternoon she died, after he died that day. ...

Little Steven

Max,

I agree the guy was huge and different (in a good way) but if you look at the combined talent that has been lost through the years, whether accidental or self-induced, I don't see him stacking up against them all. There was never this kind of fanfare, except Lennon maybe.

Steve

mad max beyond eggdome

and maybe jim morrison. ...i hear they still trample the graveyard in paris where he's buried....to the point where they threaten to have him moved cause of all the damage to surrounding graves. ..

elvis may be a close second. ...look at how they still flock to graceland and worship at the shrine there. ..and all the elvis impersonators, etc. . .talk about a cult and cult worship .. .

stike

thanks max. the only reason i felt comfortable taking the tangent i did was that i knew you would know that i wasn't denigrating the letter you posted from the editorial.

i think one of the many great things about the Constitution is that it presumes innocence, because the human tendency is to presume guilt.

in that sense it is very much like the bible. except those who say they believe in it the most always seem to be those most likely to beat someone to death with it.

i think celebrity worship is ridiculous....

but so is far less dangerous than self-righteousness.

stike

you know. you didn't capitalize any proper nouns, and you use parentheses, commas, apostrophes, and ellipses.

most folks are gonna think you are me posting as you.

hahaha

thanks for the vote of confidence.

stike

hey. just noticed. frequent use of ellipses also. plus the "no-caps" thing, rhetorical questions, parentheticals.... hmmm.

either you TOO are me posting as you, or you are also incredibly handsome and intelligent.

bwa ha ha

FSUScotsman

That letter made it to a couple of the news shows on Fox tonight. I've been upset about what the MJ coverage blasted off the air already and this only made it worse. :(

FSUScotsman

Very true. In the grand scheme of music MJ isn't very far up there. Look at total album sales. MJ is right around 10th or so.

ranchonodinero

I love MJ and want to profess my love for him-I want to marry him.

stike

lennon's death wasn't even announced on CNN at the time.


:blink:

>>>editted

damn. i was wrong. hahah

cnn was launched in june 1980.

trying to make the point that maybe lennon didn't get as much coverage because it wasn't possible to give him as much coverage.

bitslammer

ranchonodinero wrote:

Oh wait-he paid a family MILLIONS to keep quite about it-the guy was a pervert. He had boys sleep in his bed, he LOVED kids. And by the way you don't have to be convicted in order to be a pedophile-it doesn't take court action; it only takes the preferential desire to be around children. By the way, there are plenty of pedophiles that are unconvicted and yet they ARE pedophiles. And I suppose Pete Townsend WAS doing research. Yea, I can judge folks like that and I will-that is what separates us from them. Somehow I don't think people would have swooned if Elvis or John Lennon had even a smudge of the dirt MJ had on his glove.

"The term pedophilia (or paedophilia) has a range of definitions as found in psychiatry, psychology, law enforcement, and the vernacular. As a medical diagnosis, it is defined as a psychological disorder in which an adult experiences a sexual preference for prepubescent children." Hmmm... ...never heard of a guy getting convicted of pedophilia...

Paying people off does NOT equal being or admitting guilt. I work for an insurance company and we frequently pay out of the cost of paying out is far less than the costs of going to court. The one exception is when there is the appear of fraud. We have a zero tolerance policy on that.

I don't know if MJ did anything or not. I wasn't there and I'm not going to draw a conclusion based on tabloid headlines and online speculators. I will however say that given the widespread publicity that was out there I think the parents of these kids are 100% at fault. They were either incredibly stupid, or possibly trolling for a big fat check.

stike

the reason we have a Constitution is to guard against thinking like yours.

all your accusations may be true, but until you prove them, you are in no position to do anything about it.

by the way. i love the irony of you mentioning pete townshend (whose computer was scoured for evidence of pedophilic images, etc.), and now, on your own computer, is evidence that you were researching "a sexual preference for prepubescent children". hahaha

better scrub that stuff from your history files man.

would hate to have anyone accuse you on such thin evidence

stike

yep.
the last mother who sued had sued a few other people before for the same thing. of course, i just heard that on television, so it's probably bunkum too.

whether he's innocent or not, he's presumed innocent.

i love how people are crabbing about "the media" tearing their candidates apart, and then getting all their info about MJ from the same media.

Kokeman

The media has to fill 24/7 now. They will move on as soon as everyone gets bored with it and turns the channel.