Recently the music world was rocked with the sudden death of a legendary entertainer: Michael Jackson. Only 50 years old, the entirety of the entertainment and news world rushed to share the shocking news, and immediately an obsessive amount of wall-to-wall coverage was seen concerning all aspects of his personal and professional lives on all the news channels. Soon, weeks had passed, and people began to complain that the news cycle was being interrupted from reporting more pressing matters than discussion of his death and tributes to him. Those complaints were flawed- late in coming, and missing the mark over what the complaints should be about.
Certainly Michael Jackson was a major player in the entertainment world, and combined with the sudden surprise of a relatively young death, he deserved a week in the spotlight to be heralded for his achievements. The real issue of complaint is the level of praise upon him became overwhelmingly inappropriate in scale to his talent and legacy as an entertainer, and have placed society- particularly news sources- in an awkward position. They committed a blunder with their excessive attention to the self-proclaimed “King of Pop”’s death…
He’s a pretender to the throne.
Michael Jackson was one of the most legendary entertainers we’ve encountered. Yet what measure of skill did he truly have? And what talents did Michael fully possess? Is what he did truly something no one else could do? There’s nothing wrong whatsoever appreciating the legacy Michael leaves behind as an amazing entertainer. He should be heralded for the trends he set, honored for his fun and amazing music videos he starred in, and it is a loss to the world of music when compared to so many faceless bands and artists that come and go today.
In other words (and let me make this quite clear to stave off the inevitable Jackson-fans-with-blinders-on attacks that have already occurred, without any backing facts) this is not a Michael Jackson bash session. It’s simply an accounting of the facts. I enjoy some of Michael Jackson’s music and videos- so this is not a hate session. It is simply pointing out the backwards reality we’re now faced with after his passing.
By showering him with so many weeks of praise, covering his funeral memorial live on the news while allowing it to last weeks on end, a problematic situation arises in the future for society, and the news organizations…
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