Jeff Poor, NewsBusters, July 2, 2009
Feeling a little overwhelmed by the amount of media attention the networks have given to Michael Jackson? You’re not alone, according to a recent Pew Research Center poll, and that fact puzzles MSNBC contributor Touré.
Touré and David Wilson of TheGrid.com appeared on the July 2 broadcast of Nancy Snyderman’s MSNBC’s show “Dr. Nancy” to examine the premise that Michael Jackson’s death was getting too much attention. Snyderman cited statics from the Pew Research Center for People & Press July 1 poll about the Jackson coverage.
{snip}
The poll broke down the statistics by race and other prominent news stories, but Snyderman focused on the racial aspects of the poll.
“But let’s take a look at the coverage and how it’s seen through different eyes,” Snyderman continued. “African-Americans versus white Americans—70 percent of whites thought there has been too much coverage compared with just 38 percent of African-Americans. And another way of breaking down these numbers, more than half of African-Americans said the coverage has been just right compared with only one in four whites, 25 percent.”
The breakdown was unfathomable to Touré—who failed to understand why “white Americans” or anyone might be experience fatigue from the coverage of Jackson’s death.
“Michael Jackson was the biggest star, not black star—the biggest star, period—of his period,” Touré said. “{snip} This is a major American story. It’s not that the media shoving it down our throat, people want to hear about it.”
Wilson noted how abrupt Jackson’s departure was and said that may have played a role in the onslaught of news coverage.
{snip}
“Maureen Orth, who contributes to Vanity Fair and NBC, was pretty damning in what she said, you know, early on,” Snyderman said. “This man was a pedophile, this man had drug abuse, we are, forgive the pun—whitewashing all of this.”
Wilson countered that Jackson had never been found guilty of pedophilia, despite settling out of court in 1993 in a civil case for $22 million when those accusations were made. {snip}
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on July 6, 2009)
Comments
If Jackson had been white (really white, I mean - no artificial colors added), I would be just as turned off. He has to be the weirdest guy who ever lived.
It is apparent that Michael Jackson wanted nothing to do with Blacks.
To the extent possible, he preferred to keep his Black side well-hidden.
His hair, lips, nose, skin color, his whole physique in general, were not those of a Black man. He chose White standards for his appearance, and underwent extreme plastic surgery to achieve as White a look as possible. His voice was not that of a Black man,
Let’s not forget the White women he chose to be the mothers of his children. (And he evidently chose white men to be the sperm donors for “his” children!)
About the only times Jackson expressed some solidarity with his fellow Blacks was when he’d hurl the “racism” charge at record company executives if things were not going his way.
Now Blacks are circling the wagons in an effort to support this “Black” man.
Rather like the unwavering support they gave to OJ Simpson, another Black man who preferred the company of Whites.
The news media have given us “all Michael Jackson, all the time,” for the last two weeks because (a) they’re afraid not to for fear of being called “racist” for not giving him blanket coverage (no pun intended); and (b) most media types are the sort who would view Jackson as a huge talent and a misunderstood man, instead of an over-hyped “weirdo” who had an unhealthy obsession with children, and a raging drug addiction.
If the polls show that 70 percent of Whites think the coverage of Jackson’s death has been overdone, compared to only 38 percent of blacks, that just shows that blacks are out of step with the majority in this country. And for anyone to make the bald statement that Jackson was “the biggest star of his period” takes a giant leap of faith — one that many, many of us are not about to make.
“The biggest star” comment is very revealing, and reflects my own experience with black co-workers. Every time I offer up the information that I don’t own a television, my black co-workers are astonished, and look at me as if I had two heads. They can’t imagine anyone not owning a television. I’ve even been pointed out in the halls of my office, as that “white guy who doesn’t watch TV!” Since their standards of artistic excellence come from (sheesh!) television, no wonder they think he was “the biggest star.” On the other hand, consider the competition found on television for that particular title. When everyone’s standards are set very low, it’s easy to get to the top.
Frankly, I’ve never seen any of Michael Jackson’s videos, and every time I overheard one of his songs, I thought, gee, how boring, simple-minded and repetitive. I’ve even seen web news reports that he was some kind of “musical genius,” which I find, as a classically-trained musician, absurd. So far as I have been able to find out, he couldn’t read or write music! It’s like calling someone a genius writer, even though he was illiterate!
I did read, several times, of the allegations of child molestation, his long-standing drug addiction (which eventually killed him), and his weird plastic surgeries which transformed him from a black man to a bizarre imitation of a white woman. This is what passes for “the greatest star” in America? And people ask me why I don’t own a TV!
Thanks, but no thanks. I wonder if, 100+ years from now, people will be playing the music of “the biggest star” as they continue to play the music of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Strauss, Grieg, Elgar, and all those other dead white guys. You know, those losers who never made it onto MTV.
“Wilson countered that Jackson had never been found guilty of pedophilia, despite settling out of court in 1993 in a civil case for $22 million when those accusations were made.”
This wasn’t the only accusation and if he weren’t guilty why did he pay the hush money?
The fact is that the coverage of Michael Jackson has been racist, disrepsectful and a disgrace!!! The media did not trash Elvis, John Lennon and other extremely famous muscians the way they have done Jackson. They made up all sorts of lies, allegations and nothing ever stuck. In fact, most all of it was false!
It is because they are resentful, jealous and angry at all the accomplishments he made in music. 4 RECORD BREAKING ALBUMS. As far as they feel , Michael Jackson accomplished something that only White people (more specifically White men) are supposed to do. They have never forgiven him for it!
But that is okay, Michael Jackson made his place in history. There will no one like him for at least the next 100 years.
REST IN PEACE MICHAEL JACKSON!!!!
A cousin of mine back in STL e-mailed me w/something he saw on a credible news source. In 1977, when Elvis died, the Walter Kronkite-anchored CBS Evening News didn’t report the death of Elvis until 17 minutes into the half-hour newscast. Now, Michael Jackson was wall-to-wall on almost every MSM outlet. Can anyone confirm?
What I’m about to say will be controversial, and might be wrong in the long run, but I don’t think Michael Jackson ever molested a single child. Yes, I think there was a lot of inappropriate behavior, but I’m just crazy enough to think that MJ was weird enough to where he could exist around children and act weird around them and not “penetrate” them, to use diplomatic terms.
The reason I say that is that the one and only time the issue went to a jury were “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” proof was needed was the trial in Santa Barbara earlier this decade, and the jurors acquitted him. That jury actually did what it was supposed to; they told the media that their job wasn’t to answer whether they think that MJ ever molested any child, it was to see if Tom Sneddon proved beyond a reasonable doubt that MJ did these particular actions to that particular minor at that particular time and in that particular fashion. And the answer was no, Sneddon didn’t close the deal. There was the earlier civil lawsuit, but that never got to formal court proceedings b/c of the settlement.
Michael Jackson suffered from a condition that the psychologists call neotony. That is, he was stuck in youth. From what I saw, he matured to age 11 and then stayed there for the rest of his life.
There’s not any level-headed, sane person who isn’t aware that this man was a pedophile and shouldn’t be glorified at all.
The coverage of such a low-life is not only excessive it’s disgusting.
Actually I don’t think (that to date, at least) the MSM coverage of Jacko’s death exceeds that of Elvis’ death during the same post-mortem time interval. Both died from prescription drug abuse and other lifestyle issues and both were rather weird with pelvic fixations and material world fantasy lifestyles. (although no evidence of pedophilia or obsessions with change of physical appearance via medical procedures with Elvis)
Thanks, AR. It is comforting to know that others are just as sick of Michael Jackson as I am. I wouldn’t have walked across the street to see him when he was alive. I wouldn’t walk across the street to see him if he were to rise from the dead. Put that pederast in the ground and get him off the tube!
The man was a has been pop star carrying six quarts of weird in a gallon jug, nothing more. Would it not be a decent thing to allow him the dignity in death that eluded him in life?
I was never a fan of his music, but the freak-show aspect of Jackson’s story has fascinated me for years. Just seemingly endless layers of weirdness, with sadness on top. It would be nice to get to the truth, especially about the autopsy report, but that probably won’t happen.
RIP, weird little fellow.
This Comrade Touré, like almost all blacks, reminds of a little 3-year-old closing his eyes and covering his ears while chanting: ‘La, la, la, I can’t hear you; la, la, la, I can’t hear you; la, la, la, I can’t hear you…’ when confronted with the harsh realities of one of their idols’ or demigods‘ outrages.
Michael Jackson was a meagerly talented one man freak show, who had his zenith by his late twenties and then from there became a surgically created “trans-racial” oddity who seems to have had a taste for children sexually. After all, one does not payout 22 million dollars and have an enticing multimillion dollar amusement park for a home, and admit to “innocently” taking children to bed, if something abnormal isn’t going on, right? If he were simply Michael Jackson the auto worker or postman, who had more modestly engaged in such activities at hearth and home, and not Michael Jackson the multicultural “superstar,” would he have been so “exonerated?”
Much more likely, he would be sharing a cell with OJ the hypothetical accountant or janitor, and not spent the last decade laughing at the world in tandem with OJ the freewheeling football “hero” and double murderer.
In the end, here is a video that Michael Jackson might appreciate in more ways than one, enjoy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_jRUk_cSYM&feature=related
I don’t watch TV myself, but somebody I live with does and the Jackson frenzy has been hard to avoid. The fawning, panting, adulatory, non-stop coverage of this washed-up, kiddy-diddling, plastic-surgery mutant has been one of the more nauseating spectacles I’ve ever seen.
The Jackson frenzy is yet another symptom not only of the terminal state of this sorry country but the absolutely pathetic state of our so-called “media watchdogs.” H.L. Mencken must be rolling in his grave. This isn’t journalism. It’s infotainment, but it’s a sinister infotainment that I can’t help but suspect is designed to distract our attention from something else.
The media was banging the drum non-stop for a long time there, trying to demonize Iran to get us all pumped-up for the next foreign adventure, then, suddenly, they dropped everything to fall all over themselves praising Michael Jackson. You’d think nothing else was happening in the world—like the Cap And Trade tax grab or the ongoing collapse of the American economy or the escalation of the war in Afghanistan.
This country has gone insane.
This freakshow was a pedophile. He probably molested his chimpanzee “Bubbles” as well.
Its over for this country.
Seventeen thousand people attending a service for a child molester. God will not be mocked.
Also, I have heard of Tooki. Never heard of somebody named Touri. Are these people so poor that they can’t afford TWO names?
Could it be that whites are more likely to find the Jacko media coverage excessive because they’re more likely than blacks to favor hard news over celebrity gossip?
Yes, Yes, I was so upset to find this out. Looks like his catalog is worth the same amount of money to both of us. When was the last time you received a royalty check from it?
A Proud Cracker
13 — Tell It Like it Is!!! wrote at 9:58 PM on July 6:
Ha Ha Ha to all you Jackson haters!!!!!!!!!!
Even weirder than Michael Jackson is his legion of fans. Most of them, God help us, appear to be white.
The man has met his maker, and America’s children are just a little bit safer.
Also, this “RACIST CRACKER” was indifferent about Jackson’s purchase of the Beatles catalog. After all, if he didn’t buy it some rich white person would have, and would no doubt have spent the royalties promoting diversity, illegal immigration, and affirmative action. Not a dime would have gone to the New Century Foundation. So what difference did it make?
To: Tell It Like It Is..You are quite wrong when you say we must be mad as hell that MJ bought the Beatles Catalog and will continue to make millions from it. You see, we white crackers are long used to the black man depending on us to support you either with our talent or our hard earned tax money for welfare. Nothing new here. Although, I’m not really sure MJ was black anymore, but you get the point.
Elvis is about to get some payback for all those sick things Mikey Jackson did to poor little “Lisa Marie”! King of Rock gonna roast the King of Pop, on the end of a very big pitchfork. :)
Why would a man make tugging at his genitals a staple in his dance routine after twice being accussed of kid-touching? Tells you quite a bit about the Fruitloops of Islam that were managing him. He was a miserable sexual queer, immature ,who put that misery to rest with drugs. Big shocker. Look at the mans family. Every single one has excessive face surgery. Of course the black community doesnt understand. Who understands them. They are one big disfunctional ‘family’. Of course, have already heard it was the pressure that whites put on blacks to look white.
If you add up all of his music that I like you’d get about 30 minutes worth. He had a few really cool tunes but most of it was a waste of time. I don’t understand how people are so worked up about it. He made multi-millions and his fans are fanatics. They go crazy when he dances for Pete’s sake. I don’t get that part of it. Get a life people!
To Terrance, and others,
How has the coverage of MJ been racist? The media is doing its job, which is to report on the facts concerning MJ’s death. This includes the alleged drug use, and his history of lawsuits concerning children. There has been near non-stop coverage of his death, and documentaries on his life. What more do you want? And if the media DIDN’T cover his death, it would be racist. We just can’t win, can we? There’s just no satisfying some folks, is there?
As for his contribution to music, well, let’s just say he is no Mozart. Talented, sure, I agree with that,sure. But he hadn’t put out anything all that great in 20 years, IMO. So, to me he is basically just a has-been. By record breaking album do you mean broke sales of previous albums, or an album that has contributed to the development of music? An album with lots of sales does not a musically significant album make.
I am not jealous of MJ or his success. There are many other black musicians that are far better than him, who deserve the recognition they get, if not more so. MJ will never be one of them, at least not to me. Remember the fable of the emperor’s new clothes?The king of pop is not the king he has been made out to be. The king (of pop) has no clothes!
6 — Terrance wrote at 7:02 PM:
His place in history?
Move over Napoleon! The above post is a good example of the cultish hero-worship that has marked all of this incredible charade. The entire spectacle is strongly reminiscent of the passing of Princess Diana. Same thing. Same cult. Another demi-god has passed.
In this case, however, the wailing and gnashing are enhanced by a strong racial component. That is particularly ironic considering that everything about Jackson and his life constituted a disdainful rejection of blacks and blackness. He couldn’t do enough to separate himself from them, and to extirpate blackness out of himself. Nonetheless, they still worship him!
Some people are just too dumb to take an insult.
Many have said that Jackson was talented. I dispute this. What little of his that I have heard was childish, repetitive, and tedious.
XM Radio used to have a channel called High Standards. Their promotional slogan was something along the lines of “…music of high quality, not necessarily of high sales”.
Did the channel play music from black entertainers? Yes, it did. But they were honest talents like Johnny Hartman, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat Cole, and Carmen McRae. Jackson couldn’t have carried suitcases for any of these people, much less match their talent.
What I find so profoundly sad about all the hoop-lah is seeing all these weeping, fainting, wailing fans. It was the same thing when Elvis Presley died. The sadness comes not from their losing someone they worshipped. What is so sad is that these people have such empty, dull lives that the death of a celebrity affects them so deeply.
I was a great fan of real talents like Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and Jo Stafford, and yet their deaths did not cause the tears to flow, etc.
I think it is pretty clear that Jackson was a castrato and that it was done to keep his voice from changing at puberty.
16 — C. Konev wrote at 11:29 PM on July 6:
You’re not alone with that weird speculation, C.
Elephant in the room with no clothes. MJ was THE weirdest person ever to become famous, in human history.
Quincy Jones made this guy. MJ wasn’t a great singer but was a talented performer with great promise back in the 70’s-80’s. Quincy, the guy who put him “on the map” as a supermegastar is barely mentioned in the weird lovefest CNN coverage, even though he chose the tunes, hired the musicians, wrote the arrangements, etc. etc. Three-hit wonder—Off The Wall, Thriller, & Bad. All Quincy Jones productions. Similar to George Martin & The Beatles. Except—the Beatles wrote most of their material, played most all of the instrumental parts, & had way, way more hits than did MJ.
Sorry for drifting off there. All I’m saying is that MJ is mediocre as a musical figure, except for the Quincy Jones-produced LP’s.
Michael Jackson was extremely rich as a result of being a “pop star” and therefore could afford his wacky lifestyle.
In show business for every one success, there are many failures. For every one Oliver Stone or Steven Spielberg, there are many aspiring filmmahers who cannot get a foot in the door.
For every musician who achieves fame, there are many aspiring musicians who fail to get a foot in the door and make it to success.
As if that is not bad enough, if you make it in the hard-as-nails show business profession, you are always in danger of becoming a “has been”. Miley Cyrus, the Sprouse Brothers, and the Jonas Brothers will most likely end up soon forgotten like David Cassidy, Donny Osmond, or the New Kids on the Block.
The Jackson 5 was successful in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. If the Jackson 5 faded into obscurity and Michael Jackson become a “has been” by the 1980’s, instead of a smash success, I wonder what would have become of Michael Jackson. If Michael Jackson failed to continue to achieve success in the popular music industry and faded away as a “has been” like David Cassidy, he would either have to find a regular job or go on welfare, like so many blacks, latinos, and poor whites. As a regular man on the street, his wacky behavior would not be tolerated everyone around him. It was being a rich and famous pop star that enabled him to get away being the wacko he was.
For example, Mick Jagger could trash a hotel room, break things, pay the hotel a lot money so the hotel could still make a profit, and still be allowed to book a room at that same hotel, or hotel chain. If you or I trashed a hotel room and broke things, the consequences would be getting evicted, being made to pay the damages, and being banned for life from being able to book a room at that same hotel, or hotel chain.
Jackson is just freaky. In any decent country, the media would look away in embarassment, not conduct wall to wall coverage.
“14 — Tell It Like it Is!!! wrote at 9:58 PM on July 6:
Your post would have been much more effective if you had added one more exclamation point. As it is, it fell far short of the derisive taunt that you intended.
Too, I might add that if you think that most people care one whit whether the pedophile’s estate makes a nickle, you’re delusional.
Black’s will never learn that money does nobody any lasting good if he doesn’t know how to manage it or spend it. How many do we see who are older now and have made huge sums, but are destitute, in rehab or in prison?
The important thing about this incident is that another pervert is off the streets, which makes things at least a little safer for male children.
If Michael Jackson lived in the Roman Empire, he would have been accepted as a normal Roman citizen. This is because the ancient Romans considered women and boys to be part of a well-balanced sex program.
Terrance said “The fact is that the coverage of Michael Jackson has been racist, disrepsectful and a disgrace!!! The media did not trash Elvis, John Lennon and other extremely famous muscians the way they have done Jackson…”.
There has been non-stop coverage of MJ’s death, the bulk of it positive. It is similiar to the death of a head of state. Of course the negative stuff is going to be mentioned. Why do you confuse that with racism? Why is it that you confuse truth, or at least an honest and truthful account of the past with racism?
So here’s the thing that really confuses me. Blacks in general seem to have much disdain for any one of their own who, in their words, tries to act ‘too white’. Michael Jackson is the epitome of trying to BECOME white. Why are they not furious with him as a traitor to their race?? Such a double standard. The being known as Michael Jackson was simply a deranged freak.
The basic modus operandi for main steam media is; “… simplify and amplify”. Further all points of IQ bell curve understand entertainment, not all points understand news analysis, thus a natural media bias to the entertainment celebrity side. And lastly, increasingly the media, to differentiate themselves from an abundance of other media material, go for the sensational. Even if they have to make it bigger than it is. Everything is racial, events are more important than the would be without media attention, glorify or vilify. And remember, you will never hear that it was a slow news day and hence cartoons will be shown, no the regularly scheduled shows must have material to hawk. And the populace sucks up to bread and circuses.
So here’s the thing that really confuses me. Blacks in general seem to have much disdain for any one of their own who, in their words, tries to act ‘too white’. Michael Jackson is the epitome of trying to BECOME white. Why are they not furious with him as a traitor to their race?? Such a double standard. The being known as Michael Jackson was simply a deranged freak.
To be honest I thought/assumed that before this media storm, blacks weren’t too wild about the freak either but I guess I was wrong—Blacks will rally to the defense of their own no matter the circumstances, OJ, Michael Vick, Kobe Bryant, Marion Barry etc. Child molestation, murder—you name it.
With regard to MtJ’s particular crimes, maybe a tiny part of it, is blacks don’t really seem to believe in the concept of child abuse. Who hasn’t seen the awkward scene where an enraged black woman is smacking her hysterically crying young child to the horror of white onlookers in a supermarket or other public place? It seems to me the black concept of child rearing involves copious amounts of abuse and it is understood to not meddle in such things, whereas most whites are hypersensitive about any kind of abuse.
Another thing I have been wondering is if there is some kind of OJ component here. I assume the kids he moltested where white so I wonder if like OJ, he just automatically qualifies for hero status for committing crime against white folk.
http://twitpic.com/8y2sa
My only regret about the passing of MJ is that he was probably the last black person in America who aspired to be white.
Instead we are now left with a mixed-race President who denies his white half at every opportunity — and who aspires ONLY to be as black as he can possibly be.
Michael Jackson has beem described as “the cute little Black boy who grew up to be an ugly White woman.”
He spent his life abusing himself and abusing little boys. He has looked like death warmed over for years and the biggest surprise is that he didn’t die sooner.
I wish him well in the life to come, but I do not think that he can expect very much.
With all the fuss being made over the passing of this “great genius”, you would think Beethoven had died!
It just shows what a warped sense of values some people have.
Question Diversity wrote:
“Michael Jackson suffered from a condition that the psychologists call neotony. That is, he was stuck in youth. From what I saw, he matured to age 11 and then stayed there for the rest of his life.”
This is entirely possible.
His having been a child star makes it even more likely.
Child stars often find it difficult to morph into adult roles.
Like Peter Pan, they wish to remain forever children.
I can think of one or two other former child stars like this, though their cases are far less extreme than Jackson’s. However, I shall refrain from mentioning their names.
The point is that if one found fame and glory as a child, it could facilitate the wish to remain forever a child.
As a musician, though, Jackson’s talent also remained childish. He never matured into musical greatness.
27 — Anonymous wrote: “I think it is pretty clear that Jackson was a castrato and that it was done to keep his voice from changing at puberty.”
For years, when the blacks at work played his music, I always assumed that this was a girl, with that high-pitched little girl voice of his. (Someone above likened it to Jackie Kennedy; I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what he was imitating.) It was only much later that I learned that this was really a he, not a she! (Not that he didn’t try hard enough to be a she!)
I personally don’t regard him as contemptible or laughable, but rather as quite pathetic. What a tragic mess of a person! Someone who didn’t know his own race, gender, or age! He lived in a child’s fantasy world. Even his home, “Neverland”, says it all. And his ideal: Peter Pan. This for a 50-year-old “man”!
But how can a whole group of people take such a twisted, screwed-up, nutjob and put him on a pedestal as one of their “heroes”? Just because he made a ton of money? Evidently. And yet, despite his obvious rejection of blacks (which was crystal clear), they still adore him!
Who is crazier in this case: Wacko Jacko, or his fans?
“Michael Jackson was the biggest star, not black star—the biggest star, period—of his period,”
Perhaps. But at the end of the day he was still just some guy who sang and danced, albeit a weird one.
It’s not that the media shoving it down our throat, people want to hear about it.”
Hate to tell you this folks, but that’s entirely true. Sensational stories like this, which appeal predominately to the lowest common denominator of society, are huge ratings and money makers for just that reason.
I wonder if, 100+ years from now, people will be playing the music of “the biggest star” as they continue to play the music of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Strauss, Grieg, Elgar, and all those other dead white guys.
Hate to tell you this, but yes, they will. Could Jacko shake a stick to any of those dead white guys? Oh hell no. Nonetheless, while the niche market for their music will go on, it will never be more than a fraction of his (or Elvis’s, the Beatles, Stones, etc.).
You couldn’t find three people on the street who could name or even recognize a piece of music by anyone on that list. I couldn’t name anything by a couple of them.
In all probability, Jacko had more fans and was heard by more people in the 80s alone than by all of those guys collectively in the last 300 years (though that may have been different had they enjoyed the same technological advances).
Does this bode well for our society, or humanity as a whole? Probably not. But that’s how it is.
34 — Shawn (the female) asks:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When you’re worth half a billion bucks, you can do anything you want. People will still love you. Blacks worship money. Jackson is proof of it.
“Touré” was either named by or named himself after Kwame Touré, formerly Stokely Carmichael, noted black racist militant. Needless to say, its not surprising at all that someone named Touré would have a racial chip on his shoulder. What a perfect place MSNBC is for such types.
Terrance wrote at 7:02 PM on July 6:
“The fact is that the coverage of Michael Jackson has been racist, disrepsectful and a disgrace!!! The media did not trash Elvis, John Lennon and other extremely famous ……… blah, blah, blah,….”
Ha! Were you there? The media did trash Elvis as “Elvis the Pelvis” and censured his dancing in the 50s. The media had a field day with the gossip about his weird ways locked up at Graceland - with all the rumors of his excesses and lewdness masticated over and over. And they did that to Errol Flynn before him! It was done to Marlyn Monroe, Judy Garland, and countless other Whites over the years. Most of them were innocents who only wanted to act or sing and did what they were told to do in order to make it - like Judy Garland who was fed drugs until she was no longer of any use to her handlers, or Carol Farmer who had a problem with her mother and saw it escalate into a straightjacket at a home for the insane - police beatings and publc trials, etc. The media just fed on her blonde beauty until it was all gone. I could go on and on and on and on!!! Racism!
But thanks to Elvis, who took his cues from Blacks, he opened the door to Michael Jackson, who not only got his pelvis past the censors, he was able to dance around with his hand on his crotch and get called “an artist.”
This morning, a story on CNN has it that a face has appeared in a tree somewhere. They are trying to figure out if it is the face of Jesus or Michael Jackson. Thanks to John Lennon, Michael Jackson is now unashamably compared to a world religion’s god-man. (You may not recall the big world wide flap over John’s comment that The Beatles were bigger than Jesus. It began the fall of the group into seculsion and eventually the split up). The only thing I can think of that MJ and Jesus have in common is that they both said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me.”
That young White women and anyone with any sense of decency, reason or taste can support let alone idolize such a sick and deranged product of pop-American perversion personified is very much in need of real culture and real life purpose. This is the result of the elimination of a liberal arts education. That means an education that required studies in the classics of literature, art and philosophy - that is as a way of advancing free thought - as part of the requirements for ANY degree.
Professor Allan Bloom explained this well in his book, The Closing of the American Mind. This is a blade that cuts in more than one way; the selfishness of the Objectivist impulse is just as dire as the rejection of discipline and order that brings descency to any cultural model. Anyway, this is how we got to the point that even the critics of MJ and his liberal fans and famous supporters so often live debached lifestyles in secret; there is no real heart in any aspect of American culture any longer.
It is not the individual Michael Jackson that is to be criticized - he was a human being who lived a sort of scripted life projected onto him by a bizarre entertainment culture. No, it is the thing that keeps giving us his continuation in the public debachery of the human soul. MJ, Madonna, Christy Love, so called “art forms” like hip-hop and rap that have brought our pop culture to the lowest possible point short of actual and violent copulation in performances - to the incessant television commercials telling people - mainly men, that they need some sort of snake oil pill to “get it up,” “keep it up,” “make it bigger,” or be rejected in all aspects of life…. The cheat machine is in full flight. Pop culture is about selling stuff - any stuff that will get money from YOU. The news media is betting right now, that they can make more money with this unending Michael Jackson funeral celebration than giving us more news on what just killed eight servicemen in Afghanistan.
They’re fiddling while American burns (out).
Rather strange indeed that this black African, who spent at least thirty-five years of his life trying to turn himself surgically and with bizarre skin treatments into something that looked like a lisping, mincing white homosexual, is still revered by his fellow blacks.
Our popular culture has descended into a grotesque and perverse madness.
Every once in awhile talent’s basis in genetics becomes perfectly clear. I refer to the meagre talents displayed by the Jackson “family” versus the abundant talent displayed by that very special singer, Nora Jones. Compare the beautiful, melodically haunting poetry of “Go away with me” to ANYTHING the Jackson circus managed to market.
Check this out from his wikipedia page
“In 1996, upset that a feature story he’d written for The New Yorker was rejected, he enrolled in the graduate school for creative writing at Columbia University. He took a fiction writing class and wrote a story about a black saxophonist in Harlem named Sugar Lips Shinehot who loses the ability to see white people.”
Yeah. This guy is a rational voice.
I offer a different perspective. Three White children were created (I say ‘created’ not sired) by this man and now they will inherit his estate. I wonder how the black community feels about that?
Tell ya what “Touré” - it’s not hard to believe you’re confused about anything when using a pretentious one-word moniker like that.
I may be an “exkc resident,” but I’m not an exkc employee. I work in midtown KC, where the workplace is definitely diverse. Some black women decided to honor MJ by playing his music and dancing to it last week. One of his songs had the lyrics “you’ll never be alone!, You’ll never be alone!” I blurted out, “I wish that I was alone right now!”
To Jew Amomng You2:
You have a valid point. I consider myself to be a big Pink Floyd fan - in fact going to a Pink Floyd concert was one of the three things I wanted to achieve in my life, I did so on July 12, 1994 at the old Soldier Field in Chicago. Now, Richard Wright, Pink Floyd’s organist died of cancer in June 2008. As much as I liked the band, I didn’t go into convulsions, or freak out after hearing of his death. Same thing with John Bonham of Led Zeppelin, after HIS death either; even though I also liked Led Zeppelin.
To Whiteplight:
I remember the flap over Lennon’s statement about the Beatles being bigger than Jesus. Lennon was an avowed atheist you see, who also said that ‘God is an instrument, by which we measure our pain”. But later in life, I think he got some sort of epiphany regarding religion. One a cable station that plays classic rock 24/7, on one occasion, it had a song by John Lennon, along with ‘music facts’ (shown while the song is playing) one of which said John Lennon would watch the “700 Club”. He would also get down on his knees and pray whenever it came on. He also had a cat named “Jesus”.
“…The reason I say that is that the one and only time the issue went to a jury…the jurors acquitted him…”
QD:
Yes, maybe so, but money talks.
Larry Elder writes that Michael Jackson dodged a bullet:
“…Getting a conviction in a child molestation case or rape case is inherently difficult, absent physical evidence…. In listening to the jurors, many considered Jackson a child molester, and undoubtedly some even felt Jackson likely molested the accuser. But the prosecutors couldn’t overcome the very high burden of proof required in a criminal case….”
As the mother of a young boy, I could not for the life of me understand how ANY parent could allow his/her innocent young son to attend sleepovers with and sleep in the same bed as an ADULT male! Michael Jackson passed this off as ‘completely innocent.’:
“…Jackson told Bashir that he had slept with many children unrelated to him, but insisted, ‘It’s not sexual, we’re going to sleep. I tuck them in…It’s sweet’….”
Are You Kidding?
I became convinced that Michael Jackson was a pedophile after reading the following on The Smoking Gun:
“…. Chandler gave [The LAPD] a roadmap to Jackson’s below-the-waist geography, which, he said, includes distinctive ‘splotches’… The boy’s information was precise..It wasn’t long after law enforcement’s photo session that Jackson agreed to settle Chandler’s civil claim for north of $20 million….Tom Sneddon is quoted as saying that Chandler’s pre-search description (and a drawing) ‘corroborated’ photos taken of Jackson and observations made by officers who examined the body of evidence….”
http://tinyurl.com/nmk4o4
Also from the Smoking Gun, the sworn statement of Chandler (it was too lurid for me to find a quote):
http://tinyurl.com/vrsg
The court case in question involved another boy, stricken with cancer who, through the Make A Wish Foundation was able to meet Michael Jackson. Later, a ‘Child Abuse Referral’ was phoned in… by a ‘school official’ of sexual abuse by ‘an entertainer. The school official identified both the cancer patient, then 13, and his younger brother as the ‘referred children.’…”
http://tinyurl.com/l7kv8a
http://tinyurl.com/yf06
Bon, Hater of Pedophiles
In time, MJ’s music will be relegated to the small little radio stations/shows such as college radio or public broadcasting, you know, the ones that play the pop music of yesteryear. It will take time, but it will happen. Think of all the wonderful and popular entertainment of the first half of the 20th century that are now largely forgotten,even if they are of importance. This is MJ’s fate as well. As for the classics, well, true genius lives on forever. You probably could indeed recognize some classical music. At least it will be played in the future. Works by Vivaldi, Handel, Debussy, Chopin, Copland, Satti,Beethoven,Bach, Handel and many more will endure. Heck, even good ole country music will be around. It is difficult for me to think of MJ’s bizzarely feminine, high pitched whoops, ooh-ahhs and such as great music. His dancing reminds me of a siezure of some kind! He sure doesn’t qualify as the worlds greatest entertainer. For contrast, do a search on Fred Astaire and see all that he accomplished for entertainment. Do we even hear about him?
tobytylersf I have a tv, and I have cable, but I don’t watch tv that much. I switch back and forth between cnbc, cnn, foxs news, Turner classic movies, Discovery, History channel, tv land and any old channels with old programing.
I’m 18 but I can not stand the feminism, black and hispanic nationalist ideology that’s on most news channels especially CNN. Don’t get me wrong I support womans rights, feminism on the otherhand becomes annoying. I also support Blacks and Hispanics aving their own channels, but the media is entirely saturated even the old channels like TCM I can’t watch sometimes because of their politically correct motives. Whites need their own channel which deal with only white woman and men issues, blacks and Hispanics need their own channels to deal with their issues.
I try to avoid Foxs news, but I do spend most my time if any watcing news on Foxs just because it isn’t swamped with blacks just yet. I try to avoid CNN but I do watch it once and a while to see what they’re talkin about, MSNBC is no longer aired in my area I uess because of low ratings.
The media is saturated with things people should in a healthy society should not bear witness to. Michael Jacson deserves no more attention then any other humanbeing, infact no media star deserves more attention.
Why should people honor people like Paris Hilton, and Michael Jackson? Why because influence, fame, money, entertainment value?
2 — Mike NY wrote at 6:22 PM on July 6:
To the extent possible, he preferred to keep his Black side well-hidden.
His hair, lips, nose, skin color, his whole physique in general, were not those of a Black man. He chose White standards for his appearance, and underwent extreme plastic surgery to achieve as White a look as possible. His voice was not that of a Black man,
Let’s not forget the White women he chose to be the mothers of his children. (And he evidently chose white men to be the sperm donors for “his” children!)
About the only times Jackson expressed some solidarity with his fellow Blacks was when he’d hurl the “racism” charge at record company executives if things were not going his way.
Now Blacks are circling the wagons in an effort to support this “Black” man.
Rather like the unwavering support they gave to OJ Simpson, another Black man who preferred the company of Whites.
Another thing I would like to point out aside from what Mike from NY has stated in his comments: I am almost inclined to believe that “Jacko” has faked his death before the world stage in order to generate the much required and needed funds to expunge all of his exorbitant and increasing debts! Sounds a bit harsh or far fetched? Well, consider this: Can anybody actually say that they have actually seen the corpse of Michael Jackson since his “putative” death on June 25th? From the arrival of the ambulance to his rented home to that “bogus” homegoing service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, no one will unequivocally say that they have actually “seen” the remains of this “musical genius.”
And if you look at the body language of some of his relatives and so-called “celebrity friends”, they really don’t seem too shaken up about the “passing” of the begloved one. Another thing, where was that Diana Ross, Lisa Marie Presley, Debbie Rowe, Macaulay Culkin, Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minelli, Tatum O’neal and those other so-called white female “friends” he use to cuddle up under like a little girl and whimper like a sick puppy when he got his feelings hurt by the grizzly media?
I may be a bit off with my analysis, but I betcha one thousand dollars that somebody is somewhere making a KILLING off all of this media blitz madness! One more thing in closing: LETS DO THE DNA TEST OF THOSE KIDS OF “HIS” AND DEBBIE ROWE! I am almost certain that this would be “quite” a revelation within itself. And where will this character be “burried?”
Stay tuned for more of this global “Wacko-Jacko” madness to come!
54 — multi-culti no more wrote :
Of course! In time, he’ll be forgotten — except for a few hard-core cult fans and by musicologists and pop culture historians. Josephine Baker was once all the rage in Europe, and (according to Wikipedia) the highest-paid performer of her time. She earned a fortune (although she died broke). But how many people today could tell you a single song or movie for which she was known? And how many ordinary blacks today could even tell you who Scott Joplin was?
These pop entertainment stars come and they go. They are celebrated for a brief moment of fame and then forgotten. They are entertainment, not art. There is huge confusion about this, and many people cannot tell the difference. But time sorts them out. Bach, Chopin, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Schubert, Brahms …. are timeless and live on. Two hundred years from now, even fifty, nobody will know who Michael Jackson was.
As an afterthought, I could compare him again to Princess Diana, whose cult was remarkably similar. Fifty years from now, nobody but historians and a few old ladies will remember who she was. Jackson and Diana will both be faded relics of the bizarre celebrity cults at the end of the 20th century. They will be interesting topics for anthropoligists to study, no doubt, but interesting to no one else.
Mike from NY:
You’re right, and another example is when he was on trial for the molestation in Santa Barbara County. He hung out with the Farrakhan crowd then; all of a sudden, he rediscovered his “blackness.”
If you think Michael Jackson’s death was overhyped and overreported, just wait until Muhammad Ali dies.
#21 - Morals and Dogma - I doubt MJ did anything sexual with Lisa Marie Presley! I think he married her because he wanted to create “designer children” by having her womb artificially inseminated with the sperm of a white man (as he later did with his nurse Debbie Rowe). I believe he hoped that at least one of these white children, with Lisa Marie Presley as the natural mother, would be a boy with the looks, charisma and talent of Elvis. What a coup to then claim the child as his!
This is why I think he married Lisa Marie. When she figured out his plan (it was a very short marriage), and when she noticed he wasn’t attracted to her but instead to little white boys, she divorced him.
58 — Question Diversity wrote:
Just like OJ.
Another example is Mariah Carey. A few years ago she was having her “troubles”. Her career was in the pits, almost over, and she suddenly discovered her “blackness”. I remember picking up a black magazine (Essence, I believe) in which she proclaimed that she was [quote] “America’s most mis-understood black woman!” That was news to me, and doubtless to many other people.
It’s indeed odd how they distance themselves from their “blackness” when they’re on top of the world; but when troubles come and their careers fade, then they seek shelter among other “blacks”, claiming to be victims of racism. (That ploy always works.)
But it’s much odder still that those blacks are gullible enough to fall for this and take them back.
Well Mr. Jackson has been laid to rest and I think his talent was appreciated by many. One does not get to sell millions of albums and have one of the most successful touring careers by not having talent. People of all races adored Michael. You may not personally like his music, but you are being academically dishonest if you do not see his innovation in pop music. AND he was a great dancer too!
Do I think the media went overboard with the coverage? Of course they did, but I kind of expected it. After all, he was in music for 40 years and had some type of scandal or another for almost half of that time so you can expect the media to go buckwild on the coverage.
I stopped caring for Michael Jackson after the child molestation charges. I never purchased his music or attended his concerts. I felt that after his album entitled Bad his work was not as good (except for the song “Remember the Time”) I almost felt bad for him because he seemed to never progress to a mentally healthy functioning adult. I mean really, what kind of grown man feels it is okay to sleep in the same bed with children!!! Why did he deny his plastic surgery and make up that he had a skin disease when he was paying to have his skin lightened? And why did he cry racism when his previous album did not sell as well? He seemed not to realize that people like myself who grew up with his music became turned off by his weirdness and he was not as relevant as he was 15-20 yrs ago.
I do not hate on anyone for who they chose to hang out with. If he wanted to associate primarily with Whites, than that was his bag. If he wanted to be White (and in a physical sense became White) then there is an issue. Everyone should be happy with the way God made them….Like I said, I ALMOST felt sorry for him…. BUT he made enough money to get into any kind of therapy to deal with his issues instead of indulging in his craziness.
To Primavera:
You wrote a most eloquent comment. It’s pretty much the same way i would sum up the man.
But you forgot to mention the most important part of this sad story: THE LIVES OF THREE MORE WHITE CHILDREN HAVE BEEN SCREWED UP BY THE ONSLAUGHT OF BLACK PEOPLE.
Primavera
Quote: “This is a major American story. It’s not that the media shoving it down our throat, people want to hear about it”. If he means Blacks, then the answer is ‘yes’, but if he means whites, the answer is ‘no’! People with a rational value system (non-Blacks) can see that we have much more important issues right now such as North Korea, the hate crimes bill, cap and trade, Iran and the economy. Any one that thinks that the media hasn’t overdone the M.J. story must have the intellect of a child.
