Too much Michael, too much of the time
Not everyone's on board with the round-the-clock, round-the-dial Michael Jackson coverage.
Some people — perhaps a large minority, or even more than that — have had it with the all-Michael, all-the-time coverage surrounding the death of the iconic pop star.
Read the full story.
It's a fascinating story, to be sure, the rise and demise of arguably the world's most famous person.
But many people have had enough and are hoisting the "No Mas" sign. Some of those who have put away their TV remote controls until the tidal wave passes are people who work in the fields of child sex abuse and law enforcement.
They just can't forget the volume of accusations about Jackson.
As one person, Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita, put it, most people can deal with Jackson's weirdness and eccentricities.
"But when you're talking about accusations of abusing children, that's a universal taboo that crosses all lines — generational lines, racial lines, gender lines and socioeconomic lines," Sedita said. "It is the universal taboo."
— Gene Warner
finally, Ive been hoping people would start saying like it is. Jackson was a sick pervert. I actually saw a black guy on MSNBC say that Kings comments were tinged with racism. Unbelievable. When I flip through TV channels and see coverage on the perv I immediately change the channel. This country is so messed up. Our priorities need to change.
Posted by: Sicofitall | July 08, 2009 at 07:17 AM
When I saw the 4 million dollar price tag for the funeral madness I was appauled. Without a doubt, the Jackson family won't be contributing a dime to that bill. I understand he was a "superstar", but come on. He's gone, he's buried, can we get on with our lives now??
Posted by: Jeremy | July 08, 2009 at 07:55 AM
I feel very much for the unemployed, the sick, the elderly and the children of a city whose millions of dollars worth of tax money went to a memorial instead of the very services they need.
Posted by: Tom | July 08, 2009 at 08:59 AM
The laugh is on the media, and those disturbed at the MJ story.
Michael Wolff, founder of Newser.com, on Tech Ticker
explains "America's Love Affair with Michael Jackson: The Mainstream Media Getis It Wrong (Again)."
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/274860/America's-Love-Affair-with-Michael-Jackson--The-Mainstream-Media-Gets-It-Wrong-(Again)?tickers=twx,cbs,nws,yhoo,aapl,ge,dis
Posted by: Al | July 08, 2009 at 09:02 AM
The media will embrace any bad guy - a pedophile or a bank robber like John Dillinger, if they can sell more air time or newspapers.
I watched Michael Jackson admit to Diane Sawyer that he slept with young boys. He said it was 'beautiful'. I don't care if he wasn't convicted of a crime. Neither was O.J. or Robert Blake. His admission makes him a pervert-pedophile in my book.
Jackson's passing was a black eye for the no-integrity media. There were too many media whores who couldn't refuse the bait, and too few Gene Warners who wouldn't bite and stuck with the ugly facts.
Posted by: BobbyCat | July 08, 2009 at 09:37 AM
One wonders if maybe the media is just as sick and perverted as Michael Jackson was.
Posted by: Buffalo Libertarian | July 08, 2009 at 09:43 AM
You can call me a racist, I don't care. All this media attention for a crotch-grabbing pedophile is beyond ridiculous.
And the huge bill that the taxpayers will now pick up (probably with federal anti-poverty money) is as sick as the "King of Pop" was disturbed.
May he rot in hell, with the rest of his kind.
Posted by: OPMike | July 08, 2009 at 09:49 AM
Finally people are getting fed up of all these "false idols" we have in our society messing up the heads of our "future". After the almost bankrupt Californians foot the bill for the funeral circus costs and MJ's family walks away with millions of their future earnings perhaps a little hunger will set priorities in order and halt this ridiculous idolization of mere mortals who can barely figure out how to live a full life let alone a day to day existence without pills to enhance whatever ails them. Please do rest in peace. Sorry for your children.
Posted by: Observer | July 08, 2009 at 10:56 AM
Rep. Peter King should be sued for slander!!! Has it ever been proven that MJ was a pedophile? No!!! Yet, he wants to play God and pass judgement. Boobycat needs to go back to retention learning classes, because he said he slept in the same bed with the kids, but there was no inappropriate behavior!!! A court of law here in Amerioa acquitted him, so I guess that wasn't good enough. I mean what a jerk!!! And for those of you that don't like the coverage...The world does, you're in the minority, which I'm sure you don't know what it's like. The man was the greatest entertainer ever, and just because you're so caught up in your bitterness, that's your problem. Your sorry comments can never detract from the truth!
Posted by: Jadedbycolor | July 08, 2009 at 11:32 AM
Here we go again. Jadedbycolor is back on his bandwagon. Considering the way he feels about homosexuals, I'm surprised he can tolerate an androgenes freak like Michael Jackson. If a celebrity like Michael Jackson and all his strange ways was white, you can bet your life that posters such as "Jaded" would be singing a different tune.
Rep. King was merely practicing his freedom of speech. Plenty of people are thinking what he had the guts to say outloud!!
Posted by: Cathy | July 08, 2009 at 11:55 AM
Round the clock coverage by the electronic media? How about the News putting on the front page about someone getting tickets? Or todays'coverage? Front page! Did the News miss the whole Albany issue? Enough already. He didn't find the cure for cancer. He was an entertainer. That's it. Move on.
Posted by: Dave | July 08, 2009 at 11:59 AM
Jadedbycolor wrote: "A court of law here in Amerioa acquitted him, so I guess that wasn't good enough." He was acquitted only in one case. There were other cases that were settled out of court - at least one for 20 million dollars. You'll have a hard time convincing me that an innocent man pays 20 million dollars to keep something out of court.
Besides, Michael's own words suggest that his behavior toward young boys was, to say the least, inappropriate. Did you see the interview where he was talking about how beautiful it was to sleep in a bed with little boys? There need not be any sexual activity going on for the behavior to be questionable.
Then there was that whole thing about giving these young children "Jesus juice" (not that allowing children to drink wine occasionally is necessarily a bad thing but it was just the whole context behind Michael referring to it that makes it seem strange).
Whether Michael was specifically a pedophile (someone whose sexual "orientation" is toward pre-pubescent children) or whether he simply suffered from what some have called "Peter Pan Syndrome" may be subject to debate but, in any case, his behavior with regard to young boys was sometimes inappropriate to say the least.
Posted by: Buffalo Libertarian | July 08, 2009 at 12:05 PM
America is absolutely sick with celebrity worship!
Posted by: Neil | July 08, 2009 at 12:15 PM
Let me guess, you guys that don't think much of MJ get your entertainment from PBS:
The decades old Lawrence Welk Show. I will let you rock (to sleep) in peace. Keep your asinine opinions to yoursleves while we Rock With You's Michael Jackson's Thriller. Just Beat It.
Posted by: ActionJackson | July 08, 2009 at 12:26 PM
A court of law also acquitted OJ....and we all know what the majority of the US thinks of him...People that aren't guilty don't pay tens of millions to someone not to talk.
Posted by: Dave | July 08, 2009 at 12:28 PM
It truly is sad that writers like Cathy, who I'm assuming is a White Lesbian (correct me if I'm wrong) since you want to go to race, the first thing you want to mention is the same sex marriage debate, which is really not a issue here. And for the writers that conjure up OJ as a reference point for wrong jury verdicts. Remember this system was set-up by your White Men and when it doesn't work in your favor, it is wrong!!! I get the impression that you people would've been part of a the lynch mobs that handed out justice (just-us). Cathy, I would've had the same opinion if he were white!!! It's about his genius as entertainer, I'm surprised that someone like you that is a supporter;particpant in a deviant lifestyle would back some conservative idiot like Peter King, but I guess it goes without saying that as evidenced by your deviant lifestyle, you're a confused, mixed up, sick indivdual. Perhaps you need to be exorcised of your demons.
Posted by: Jadedbycolor | July 08, 2009 at 01:21 PM
Lots of people rallied around Hitler and look what he ended up being. One should never be driven by the mere moment of enthusiam of others. It takes a whole life to define a person's character and a person's character is defined by what he does with his life and his actions. RIP MJ and Amen!!
Posted by: Observer | July 08, 2009 at 01:21 PM
Refering to MJ, Jadedbycolor said that "The man was the greatest entertainer ever". Wow, that is some endorsement of his genius.
What exactly made MJ "the greatest entertainer ever"? Was it his iconic crotch grabbing move that brings him this exulted status? Monkeys at the zoo do this all the time. Does that make them great entertainers, too?
Posted by: OPMike | July 08, 2009 at 01:37 PM
First of all, I'm a happily married straight woman. Second of all, I didn't bring up same sex marriage, you did. Jackson was a perverted pedophile. A great entertainer? Yes, I'm not disputing that. However, the point of this blog is weather or not the media went overboard with the coverage, and they did.
Obviously there is something wrong with you if you don't think that Michael Jackson was a sick individual.
Posted by: Cathy | July 08, 2009 at 01:47 PM
Good point, OPMike.
I think that Jaded is just a bitter, angry man with a chip on his shoulder.
Why would black people stick up for Michael anyway? He wasn't black at the end. He was born a black man, and died a white one.
Posted by: Jeremy | July 08, 2009 at 01:56 PM
I think Paris-Michael and Brooke Shields, who actually knew Michael Jackson, have the credibility.
Posted by: Alicia | July 08, 2009 at 02:59 PM
OP Mike gabbing his crotch did not allow him to sell more albums than any entertainer in history (Elvis, Beatles, Sinatra,etc.)talent did. Just because you don;t like him or his talent I hope you took a look around the world and saw what people here in America and the world saw. Monkeys in the zoo are probably better entertainers than you, but i don't think that is saying much. Cathy, you did bring up same sex marriage with the following quote "Here we go again. Jadedbycolor is back on his bandwagon. Considering the way he feels about homosexuals, I'm surprised he can tolerate an androgenes freak like Michael Jackson. If a celebrity like Michael Jackson and all his strange ways was white, you can bet your life that posters such as "Jaded" would be singing a different tune." First of all I think the word you were looking for is "androgynous," your word "androgenes" doesn't exist. Also, weather and whether are two entirely different words, and spelled entirely different, which leads me to believe you don't know the difference. A little schooling wouldn't hurt you at this stage of life, especially since you're so happily married, at least you say so:) Jeremy, I feel sorry for you because unlike homosexuals that go through sex change operations, Blacks always remain Black no matter how much make-up they have on. Cathy, as far as me being sick, take a look at the woman in the mirror...You're the one on the soapbox supporting debiates getting married to one another, now is sick or what?
Posted by: Jadedbycolor | July 08, 2009 at 03:49 PM
Jaded,
PLEASE go crawl back under whatever rock you live under. Go be an angry black man somewhere else
Posted by: Jeremy | July 08, 2009 at 03:53 PM
And people wanting to get married isn't sick. A grown man saying it's beautiful to share your bed with 12 year old boys is. Unless you're one of them.
Just because someone made a spelling error doens't make them stupid, and in need of more schooling. By the way, Mr. Professor what is a debiate?
By the way, that wasn't makeup he wore...He bleached the color of his skin! He also totally changed his face!! The whole world (Me included) has wasted enough time talking about this weirdo-freak-of-nature.
Posted by: Jeremy | July 08, 2009 at 03:57 PM
What floored me is when Jesse Jackson Jr. asked for and recieved a moment of silence on the floor of our house of representatives [Congress} for MJ,, I wonder if they all grabbed their crotch when they stood in silence ? This country is sick, now we have Al Franken to add to the list of Morons like Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, Barbara Boxer, Maxine Waters, at this time in history and having these morons in power is sick, sick, sick.
Posted by: jd | July 08, 2009 at 06:57 PM