I've been watching some of this media coverage that has been non-stop since about 4:30pm yesterday about the now, late Michael Jackson.
I remember being in elementary school when "Thriller" came out. Many of my friends got their hands on "Beat-It" jackets or ran around with a sequined glove. I was never that much of a fanatic, but I did own "Thriller" on tape and even had that poster with Michael Jackson and the tiger on my wall. I loved the Thriller video and especially P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing). I could listen to that over and over again. In his prime, he was extremely talented and should be remembered for that.
In his later years though, he was just completely bizzare, engaging in various antics such as the baby-dangling and "possibly" child molestation. He was never convicted, so we may never know for sure, but it appeared at that time that he may have engaged in some inappropriate conduct in one form or another, even if he didn't think it was wrong.
What I do know though, is that the media takes everything and blows it up. They are annoying. Their coverage starts off as helpful, but sooner or later it is just redundant and repetitive. From about 8:30 last night, central time, to about 1am, they were having live coverage of the situation, but absolutely nothing new was said- just the same pictures over and over again, along with various interviews of people who had come out to dance at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem and the Hollywood Walk of Fame- they were putting flowers on his star, but it wasn't the right star after all, his had been temporarily covered for a movie premiere.
Annoying too was the way they treated the late Farrah Fawcett. I know that she was certainly not the mega world-wide star that Jackson was, people were fainting in Hong Kong over him after-all, but many people in America had enjoyed her talents. Most of the news shows were discussing her around 12:30pm until Jackson went to the hospital. Then all of a sudden she was an afterthought. "Oh, by the way, Farrah Fawcett died today, too bad..."Of course, most people suspected she was on her way out, but still. In the end, it was probably good for her family to get out of the limelight so they could grieve privately.
If anything, Michael Jackson was a very tragic figure. He was very talented, but was never allowed a normal childhood. He always had to perform for the cameras from the time he was 6 years old. He once told Oprah that he would cry, watching all the other kids at the playground, that he had to go to work. He is the poster child for why children should not be "forced" into the spotlight at an early age. Let this be a lesson to all those stage moms and dads, and reality moms and dads. Yes, I'm looking at you, Gosselins.