The Top Story

By Shamus Posted Wednesday Jul 8, 2009

Filed under: Random 143 comments

Yesterday the news reached maximum saturation levels with stuff about the death of Michael Jackson. I know I said I wasn’t going to write about it, but the question is driving me crazy:

Do people really care this much?

The CNN homepage. The main story, and the first seven top stories are all essentially the same story. Is this really a picture of what people want to know?
The CNN homepage. The main story, and the first seven top stories are all essentially the same story. Is this really a picture of what people want to know?
Among all the blogs I read (and my reading covers politics, technology, anime, roleplaying, and videogames, as well as some personal sites) nobody has written about him. (Except for Steven, who brought it up explicitly to announce he wanted nothing to do with the story.) None of the people I’m following on Twitter have mentioned him, even once. None of the people I talk to during the day bring it up. When I mentioned how I wasn’t going to write about it, the only response I got was “I’m sick of hearing about him” from a couple of people. So the only reactions I’ve seen to the story were all more or less an expression of lack of interest that borders on annoyance. Yet the news (by which I mean news sites, since I don’t watch TV) is wall-to-wall with coverage. They’re even doing the news wank thing where they invent more news by simply going out and asking famous person A what they think about what happened to famous person B, and reporting that as news. A reaction to the news as news, yea, even unto the fourth generation.

I’ve seen this effect before, where the news is obsessing over something that doesn’t seem to interest people. In the past I’ve always assumed it’s because I’m part of an atypical subculture and my interactions are limited to people who are just as screwy as I am. But the delta between observable interest level (zero, or even negative) and actual news coverage (intense and sustained) is so massive that I’m starting to wonder if the “atypical subculture” is actually the people who make the news. In general, most of our mass media and news comes from New York and LA. Maybe those folks are just a lot more interested than the rest of us. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the world really is riveted by this stuff and I’m simply a member of a deviant nerd cult.

Do people really care this much? Is this the central conversation around the water cooler and the dinner table? Is this monopolizing people’s thoughts like a space shuttle disaster or the assassination of a world leader?

I apologize for bringing this up while some people seem to be grieving, and I apologize again for bringing it up if you’re sick of it, but I really am puzzled by this disconnect.

 


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143 thoughts on “The Top Story

  1. Pheonix says:

    Nope. Nobody I know cares. Pedo deserved to die.

  2. Nope. Mentioned it a few times, but it’s not a big news thing. Most of me and my mates are more concerned with UCAS applications, or China riots, or computer games, or sport, or… you get the picture.

  3. Joshua says:

    I think you’re spot-on here. I’m 32 and remember Michael Jackson from his Thriller days. I don’t remember him doing anything significant in the past 20 years or so, at least not in a good way. I read CNN.com in the morning, and see Fox News on the television at work. Both of them have done exhaustive coverage of this guy like he was in the zenith of his career. However, apart from a few casual conversations, no one I’ve talked to has really cared that much, as he was not all of that relevant in today’s world, except in a creepy way.

    Reminds me of seeing the tabloids at the supermarket and all of their stories about Liza Minelli and Elizabeth Taylor.

  4. Mike says:

    And now for something completely different…

    Why does this site and this site alone have a very slow scroll rate? I’m using FF 3.5, and I’ve noticed that with either the scroll wheel on the mouse or using the scrollbar on the right, the page moves one line at a time, very slowly. Hitting page-down works normally. Wierd.

    Not a complaint, just wondering what’s up. :)

  5. antsheaven says:

    Well, seeing that the memorial tickets are sold out, and all of those “tribute to MJ” events, I do think people (in Indonesia, at least) care.

  6. Alberto says:

    Just do a quick search on twitter on #mj. You’ll see that a lot of people apparently do care.

  7. Debaser says:

    Nope. Nobody.

  8. Yamael says:

    Same thing in Spain, apparently half the news is about MJ’s death, funeral, will, or any minute detail you can think of.

    Among the people I know, be it friends, coworkers or family, the only reaction was the day it happened, and it went along these lines:
    – “Hey, have you heard? MJ is dead”
    – “Yes, I knew/Oh, I didn’t know.”
    – “Anyway, …”

    And that was all. RIP. Forgotten. Back to things we actually care about.

  9. SireCh says:

    well, at least while they are talking about MJ they are not scaring everybody with the latest world crisis. By the way, is it just me or is the bird flu already forgotten? How many times (SARS, flu , …) will this happen before people wise up?

  10. UtopiaV1 says:

    My girlfriend cares, so when she’s around I have to pretend he was an excellent singer/songwriter/whatever.

    Bottom line was, there wasn’t any way for MJ to top the headlines ever again after all the other publicity stunts, so he killed himself so he’ll be to top story for months now…

    Ahh, the lengths some people go to. Now THAT’S dedication…

    Quick PS: The exact same thing happened when princess Diana died, so I think it’s actually the newspapers listening to what the loudest members of the public want to see. They want to see tears, a national (nay, WORLD) funeral, and some really shit conspiracy theories.

  11. Jonathan says:

    Nobody I know cares. The dinosaur media (print news, TV) is a subculture all its own, with significant ideological/political/social biases. Now that we have the Internet, those biases are contributing to their downfall.

  12. Ian says:

    It reminds this particular UK resident of the fuss when Princess Diana died — utter madness on a national scale.

    It seems as though, given enough media coverage, certain people can start ‘grieving’ over the death of a complete stranger. Perhaps the media gets scared to not cover it (because they believe that everyone actually cares that much), and as a result of the saturation, some people become sensitised to it? Perhaps similar to how every time a suicide becomes news, the suicide figures go up.

    Anyway, I ramble: I for one don’t give a monkey’s left testicle, much like the rest of you.

    Edit: I see I was beaten to the punch by @UtopiaV1.

  13. Vladius says:

    Like, srsly, let the old pedophile die.

    I was hoping for some coverage of the cap-and-trade bill, which will probably ruin the children’s future a lot more than the death of Michael Jackson.

  14. JFargo says:

    I’m a transcriptionist working for a large telecommunications agency that I can’t name exactly. I listen to people (previously recorded) complain about their service, and I type it into a little box.

    I did almost 1000 calls yesterday. I’d say roughly 400 or so of them were people crying that their TV wasn’t working, so they couldn’t watch the MJ funeral.

    And by crying, I mean that literally.

    We were just told to expect more calls today than we’ve ever received in one day, because of the funeral and people calling in with complaints about not being able to watch it/TIVO it/whatever.

    So yes, some people care. But not me.

  15. D10 says:

    As for the pedofile thing, you can check the wikpedia for facts and decide yourself.

  16. Vegedus says:

    Yup. Guy’s songs has always been a small part of my life, even though I didn’t actually listen to it. He influenced too many parts of the pop culture I grew up in to count. I can do a decent moonwalk. I’m not grieving, as such, because I don’t grieve for people I don’t know, but I do see it as an important event.

    Likewise does a number of people in my internet circles and real life circles, though not overwhelming.

    Also, I was just at a music festival where you could occasionally hear his music being played in the tents, and a couple of the artists played tributes as well.

    The media have been over-exhaustive and tiring in ther covering of the event, but it usually is when something big happens they can milk for a lot stories.

  17. Harvey says:

    Wait until OJ dies

    “Hall of Fame football player & Hollywood actor”

    “Murderer and armed robber”

  18. Zukhramm says:

    Caring much is ok. And “Michael Jackson is dead” is certanly news that should be reported. But when the front cover headlines say “Michael Jackson to be buried without brain”, I really start to wonder what’s going on.

  19. Ben says:

    Who died?

    I think people tend to attach way more significance to the death of someone famous than is necessary. 99.9% of the people I’ve seen (on the news) hysterically grieving never met the man, never knew what he was really like behind closed doors and never had even the remotest chance to do so.

    Maybe that’s why there are all the hysterics? Shattered dreams of one day meeting the dude? The “If he ever really knew me, he’s like me and I’d be accepted by a famous person” syndrome?

  20. Annika says:

    Well, people I know (not only “nerds” although I do know a few tech people) but also my family, colleagues, friends from decidedly un-nerdy subcultures and so on are mostly indifferent. So am I. At 24, I’m probably too young to be a Jackson fan anyway… but I don’t know older people who really care, either. Reactions range from downright annoyed at the coverage to amused at the crazy things people do because of this. Personally, I do feel a bit sorry for the poor man, but I’d have to lie to say I really care that much. So your observations seem pretty much right to me.

    EDIT: YES, I rolled a critical! (Sorry, but this is my first comment here… loved your LOTR webcomic, btw!)

  21. Mari says:

    Exactly one person I know cares enough to follow the “news” coverage. I found it vaguely sad and almost shocking the day he died. I did comment on it at that time. Since then I haven’t really cared much, though.

  22. Harvey says:

    The reason it takes the MSM so long to cover this is that MJ’s memorable works last about 3 minutes each and there’s at least 10 of them that everyone has heard multiple times whether they liked him or not.

    Farrah Fawcett had a poster.

    Most movie actors have, at most, a handful of memorable lines.

    So when it comes time for the news to cover every reason “why you’ve heard of this guy”, Jackson is going to take longer.

  23. nilus says:

    Well for a lot of people MJ was very important to them when they were young. We listened to his early stuff and we liked it. Say what you will about his later life but he was a great performer, an amazing musician and a hell of a good dancer.

    To a lot of people his death is a bit of there childhood dying. So yeah just because you don’t care don’t assume the rest of the world doesn’t.

  24. JohnW says:

    I care in a roundabout way. When Thriller was all the rage, I was 10 or so. I hated MJ with a passion verging on the incandescent. So did all my friends (well, all one of them). We would sit around complaining about how he was so girly, so wierd, and all the girls loved him for some reason, and it was completely baffling, and you could not escape him anywhere – he was always on TV, or on a poster, or the cover of a magazine. My parents took my sisters and some of their friends to one of his concerts, I slept over my friend’s house in protest. We had alot of fun playing D&D and GI Joe.

    So it is definitely odd to have such a fixture from my childhood die suddenly. I even like the music from Thriller and Off the Wall quite a bit now. Nothing else he did ever was any good.

    So I care, but certainly not so much to justify even a small fraction of this wall-to-wall coverage.

  25. Chris says:

    It’s easy news (MSM Malibu Stacey says “Investigative journalism is hard!”). Gotta have something to fill the 24-hour news wallpaper channels.

    “That Jackson chappy: still dead is he? Right-oh. Carry on Sergeant-major.”

  26. Fuklaw says:

    MICHAEL JACKSON BREAKING NEWS:

    still dead

  27. Lalaland says:

    It’s the ‘grief tourism’ industry all over again, the same industry that makes commemorative plates every so often gets to break out and sell to the masses. As has been noted Princess Diana was the last outbreak of this and at least MJ had talent unlike Diana who merely married an heir apparent. I found the wheeling out of his 11 year old daughter at the DVD moneygrab memorial ceremony particularly distasteful.

    There is another side to this though if you actually use the news (however you consume it) as a window into issues and the lives of others welcome to the minority. News has become info-tainment in the US (as far as I can tell from rebroadcasts of CNN, ABC and MSNBC) and is fast getting that way in Europe too. It makes sense for them to cover what is an celebrity driven entertainment event as if it were more important than say the growing ethnic tensions in China or complicated discussions of economic theory.

  28. Richard says:

    I also have negative interest in it. I only know enough about it to know that he took a sedative powerful enough that when it’s used under carefully controlled conditions in hospitals, with the dosage calculated precisely, there still has to be a larger team than would be normal monitoring the person to make sure that they don’t die of it.

    To be blunt, he died of incurable stupidity. This makes him a really good Darwin Award candidate, methinks.

  29. Ben says:

    @Richard – or addiction, which has nothing to do with stupidity. I’ve met enough very smart addicts to know.

    It’s a media event. Remember Shark Summer? This is Michael Jackson is Still Dead Summer.

  30. Mark says:

    The news has pretty much been an echo chamber for a while, yeah.

  31. houser2112 says:

    @28 – Assuming his kids really are his, biologically speaking, then he’s already contaminated the gene pool and made himself ineligible for a Darwin.

  32. Randy Johnson says:

    The real major story of our time is Star Wars the Old Republic.

  33. Sesoron says:

    A couple of technical friends on Facebook have posted several things about it, so there are obviously some people who give a crap. I assume it’s mostly the people who don’t have real hobbies and therefore have nothing better to think about when their brains aren’t engaged in some task.

  34. lazybratsche says:

    Apparently, CNN (and probably the other news networks as well) have seen their ratings increase dramatically, on the order of 4x as much as usual. So a lot of people care enough — more than enough to make it profitable for the media to make a huge spectacle out of this.

    But in the sample of people I know, I haven’t met anyone who cared. The sum total conversation at work was “oh, that’s why there were so many helicopters during that conference in LA.”

  35. Neil Polenske says:

    Shamus, don’t take this wrong way but…

    You have a site whose entire design theme is centered around Dungeons and Dragons. Yes, yes you are part of a atypical subculture who are going to have almost no interest in Mr. Jacko.

    I am also part of that subculture (if not to your extent…I will admit I’ve never played D’nD once in my entirety of life), but my job has me interact daily with the demographic the news now caters to. They exist, in large quantities and they generally do not peruse the internet unless it’s to buy something and obtain more viruses that they’re oblivious to.

    Point is, they exist, they exist in large numbers – large enough for mass media to indulge them – and they don’t intersect with your subculture AT ALL. In short this:

    “In the past I've always assumed it's because I'm part of an atypical subculture and my interactions are limited to people who are just as screwy as I am.”

    …right on the money.

  36. HeadHunter says:

    Farrah Fawcett died the same day – after courageously battling a terminal and incurable cancer. Her death was not in any way a result of excess or indiscretion on her part… yet there’s relatively little coverage compared to the media circus that has for years accompanied the train wreck that is MJ.

    If he truly was this newsworthy, people would have been talking about him a lot BEFORE he died. Yet, he mostly lived in obscurity, unless we were hearing reports of his alleged illicit activities, or his betrayal of Arab investors, or something equally sordid. I didn’t even know he had a comeback tour in the works until he DIED. That’s how truly obscure he REALLY was.

    Perhaps there are some people who truly care – but I’m sure a larger portion are the sort who latch onto these things to appear compassionate and sympathetic to others. You know the sort – they’ll tell you how you should feel about the victims of this tragedy or that disaster… but they can’t even NAME one victim, so how compassionate can they truly be?

  37. Anonymous says:

    You perceive a seeming disconnect because you believe that the purpose of the media is to inform people. You now have glimpsed a glimmer of the truth behind the curtain.

  38. Chris says:

    I don’t want television, so I only run into MJ news 5th hand (or more) from stuff like this post or from my wife.

    I guess I don’t really talk to too many people either. No Facebook or other online accounts. Hey, being antisocial pays off!

  39. RPharazon says:

    I’ve seen a few people get really all up in a huff about this. Yesterday a coworker literally started crying as she saw the memorial service, and I asked her why she was crying over a person she’s never met, and who’s never met her. She called me a bastard and left off in a huff.

    Later that day, when mentioning that episode of weird drama to a friend, said friend also left in a huff after insulting me a few times.

    On the other side of things, all of the remaining people I know can’t be bothered to care about Michael Jackson’s death. Some of them are in fact happy about the death.

    What I just cannot understand is the hypocrisy surrounding the situation. For the past 10 years, Michael Jackson’s just been a really weird and creepy figure who hangs babies off balconies and may or may not have molested several children. Nobody cared about him at all, except to publicly criticize or make fun of him.

    But now, when he dies, they all suddenly love him and consider him the best musician of their time? Where were these people when he was alive? If you really loved the guy, then why didn’t you do these kinds of memorial services and celebrations before he died? Surely it is a bit weird to show love and appreciation towards someone only immediately after their death.

    It seems to be a very polarizing issue, and I hate seeing people get all up in a huff about it. Unless you knew the guy, personally, as a friend, and vice versa, then you don’t really have the right to mourn for him this much. No, your childhood did not die. A childhood’s death is much, much more drastic and personal than a mere celebrity figure dying. Trust me on this.

    Last note. Billy Mays, I believe, died the day after. Right there is a figure that should be mourned.

  40. Eric(Ninjews) says:

    To the black community, MJ’s death is a big thing, my mom was telling me stories of how she went to a couple parties for the debut of thriller. Most of Europe, and practically all of Asia loved him to death.

    @RPharazon: If you haven’t realized by now that the fact that death changes everyone’s perspective on the deceased, to me that’s pretty weird. Alot of people like to look at the good said deceased have done in their lives. Even though I believe him to be a pedo, he still did a lot of charity work for the world, and to the people who still love him(God knows why) he delivered a message of peace, and unity.

  41. WWWebb says:

    Anyone with a BILLION fans is always newsworthy. But is it newsworthy when other celebs talk about the uber-celeb? Well lets think about other people with a billion fans. There’s Jesus, Mohamed, and… well that’s about it. And yes, the news spends a lot of time covering fans of those two, so we shouldn’t really be surprised about the coverage MJ is getting.

    But what’s not to like? The man made good music and layered brilliant production on top of it. Based on the archives some outlets are reporting, we’ll have more post-mortem music out of MJ than Biggie Smalls, but without his touch on the production and presentation, it won’t be the same.

    PS – I would have thought that the internet grinding to a halt during the webcast of the memorial service would have been bigger news. It was like during Obama’s inauguration but longer.

  42. Penn says:

    I was impacted in three ways.
    First, the radio said that about a billion people watched the memorial. That’s a big number. I doubt it includes anyone I know.
    Secondly, one of the bloggers I read posted this message, and I decided to tell this story. :)
    Thirdly, according to my Tivo it was recording Better Off Ted, but when I went to watch it, it was the memorial. Darn you, networks, you preempted a great show for something I deleted out of hand!
    That’s about it.

  43. chabuhi says:

    The most eyes were going to be on the MJ memorial. More eyes means more ad dollars. More ad dollars means media focus. Follow the dollars.

    A lot of people do care. The question is should they? Or, perhaps, should they care quite so much?

    Certainly friends, family, and close acquaintances. Even fans can be forgiven their feelings of loss at the death of someone they didn’t even begin to know personally.

    But, you’re right, the fever pitch is a bit much.

  44. RPharazon says:

    @Ninjews:
    I am merely taking the Diogenes version of death to heart when it comes to people I don’t know. Yes, Michael Jackson did a lot of good in his life, but how many people truly thanked him for being good whilst he was alive?

    If they gave him one of these celebrations for all the good things he did while he was alive and well enough to hear and see it, then it would be fine. But what use is it to hold these celebrations after he’s dead and decomposing? Maybe it’ll make his (gold-digging) family get through these tough times, but the effect is lost on the one man who should have heard and seen it.

    (If you didn’t know, Diogenes was probably the first cynic. When asked what they should do to his corpse after he died, he responded with something to the effect of ‘Throw it over the wall because I’d be dead and wouldn’t care about my corpse anyways’)

  45. Krellen says:

    The level of coverage is excessive, but so is the blow-back I’m hearing from the segment that doesn’t care about Michael Jackson.

    For one, the man was acquitted. Twice. Stop calling him a paedophile. So far as the law – and the rest of us – is concerned, he was innocent. Accusation is not proof.

    Secondly, the man’s influence on popular culture literally cannot be measured. It is too pervasive, too complete, to ever truly be understood. Most people alive do not remember a world before Michael Jackson, and no one alive can truly conceptualise one without him.

    Yesterday’s news coverage I can almost forgive, since it was more or less the global day of mourning for a man that changed the world. The excessive coverage of his life and legacy before that was a little over the top, but given the fact that he was a discredited and ridiculed figure for at least the past fifteen years, I can also see how it would be necessary; for those that remembered him for his legacy, not his lunacy, it was a cathartic period proclaiming that, yes, this man did matter.

    There is other news in the world, and news organisations really should devote a little more time to it, but the backlash from especially my peer community of nerds (as represented here) equally disgusts me. Whether you liked his music or not, whether you enjoyed his dances or not, it is undeniable that Michael Jackson mattered.

    Moments like this remind me why our subculture is so often ridiculed; we get what we give, and we give what we get.

  46. Ell Jay says:

    Have a news-orgasm when someone noteworthy dies, sure, but I don’t remember anything remotely like this when George Harrison (you know, one of the Beatles) died. Money says you won’t for Paul McCartney either.

  47. Kizer says:

    I come from Los Angeles. Even though I’m a part of the “atypical subculture and my interactions are limited to people who are just as screwy as I am,” for the most part, In LA the entertainment business dominates everything. The death of an actor or performer will permeate every level of society. On June 25, over 100 of my friends on facebook had posts about Jackson’s death. A few didn’t care, and posted such. The majority were shocked, stunned, hurt, and extremely saddened. I have only ever really listened to two of his songs, which I really liked, and I am a bit sad to see him go. But in the LA area at least, his death has hit harder than it might elsewhere.

    Also, his memorial service was held in LA, so many people cared solely to find out what the traffic was going to be like that day. People even drove onto the freeway going the opposite direction of the memorial motorcade to see it. Braving LA traffic for a glimpse of some Rolls Royces and Land Rovers . . . that’s a strong emotion shaping your actions.

  48. Lazlo says:

    So wait, you’re wondering if you’re part of a nerd subculture that’s disconnected from the mainstream interests of America… and you’re asking US?

    Personally I find it mildly interesting, at least insofar as it appears to be one in a clump of celebrity deaths. Apparently people do care about MJ more than I would have thought. Google trends is fascinating to use on this. Try finding something with more of an index spike than MJ in June 09. So far, Swine Flu in April 09 comes close, and Obama in November 08 edges him out if you restrict to the United States…

  49. Factoid says:

    I watch the news coverage with at least a tiny bit of interest. I used to be a big michael jackson fan, but then his whole creepy child-molester years happened.

    I’m not especially well versed in the topic, so I won’t pass judgement on either side. Thus I choose to remember him for the good years.

    He hasn’t done anything that was that great for about 10-12 years, but I was looking forward to maybe seeing him in concert one day.

    When I heard the news I hit up youtube and watched a bunch of his videos. I’ve read a story here and there. Watched a VH1 special, but I didn’t have a whole lot of interest in live coverage of peoples’ reactions to the funeral.

  50. Groundhog says:

    To me Jackson’s death was probably more of a relief than anything else. I’ve never had anything aginst the man, but for fuck’s sake; the man had problems, serious problems. At least now he’s finally getting some peace.
    This is a guy who went so far to distance himself from his own self as to horribly disfigure himself, trying to become someone else. He should have been in therapy, possibly medicated, but he wasn’t, and most of the weirdness he did can likely be contributed to his own misery.
    So, yes, I suppose I am kinda sad for him, not for his death, but for his life.

    That said, the media’s reaction to the “news” is still utterly vulgar and dispicable. They’re milking the tragedy for all it’s worth, and it disgusts me. As it should everyone, especially his fans.
    Not to mention the fucking hypocrites who were probably laughing at Jackson jokes two weeks ago, and are now getting up on stage and telling the world what a great performer he was(kinda true), and how the news of his death struck them. Utter bullshit. Those are the real scumbags, the media whores, using Jackson’s death to get in a few minutes of screen time for themselves.

    I suppose that’s enough ranting for now. Feel free to tell me why I’m wrong.

  51. Maddy says:

    It wasn’t like this when John Lennon died either, but then we had more serious journalists (covering real events, not chasing down celebrities for quotes) and no 24-hour nooz networks desperate for easy ways to kill time. We also had fewer pundits, and those pundits had more control over what they yapped about during the brief time/printspace they were given. They didn’t have to weigh in on and pretend to care about things that likely didn’t interest them.

    But the Lennon coverage was still excessive and brainless. I remember reading stories about alleged fan suicides, but there was no investigation as to whether the suicide rate had actually risen, or if the people had really killed themselves over his death. Perhaps they had chronic depression problems already and Lennon’s death was just an additional reason why they were sad.

    There was more hysteria when Elvis died, though, and that was even before Lennon. The press can always make time if a story is juicy enough. Presley and Jackson both had a sideshow element to them, and that’s what really brings in the advertising revenue. Still, even with Elvis, most of the attention was in the form of network specials and special newspaper/magazine editions, not crowding out the “real” news.

    As to whether people care – I don’t know. I care slightly, because he was part of my childhood, but I only care about the facts. Some of those facts (like the tox report) will take a while. That’s fine. I don’t need an all-you-can-eat Jackson news extravaganza while I’m waiting. It will take about thirty seconds to report the results.

    Meanwhile, I’d rather hear about important things that are actually happening. All the other stuff – weeping fans, celebrity reactions, innuendo from insiders – can and should be covered on the entertainment shows/sections/mags where they belong, watched/read by people who crave this “information” and ignored by the rest of us.

  52. The S Ninja says:

    I cared more about the death of Billy Mays then MJ to be honest. I didn’t care a whole lot, but I cared more nonetheless.

  53. TehShrike says:

    I unfollowed @cnnbrk because of the incessant MJ tweeting.

    I don’t care, none of my friends care – but we could just all be of above-average intelligence.

    Was in a restaurant and caught some CNN last week – was completely disgusted by all the MJ coverage, and reminded of why I never watch TV.

  54. Eric(Ninjews) says:

    @Krellen: I agree with you that through the law he is not a pederast, but like O.J., I think he’s guilty, and at the very least if I had kids and he was still alive, I wouldn’t let them near him.

  55. Bryce says:

    Well, he mattered enough that there is a post devoted to him on a gaming blog…

    In all honesty though, the reason that this is so big is because it was so out of he blue, and so tragic. Although George Harrison’s coverage wasn’t as large, but he had been battling lung cancer, and people were preparing themselves for when it was going to happen. Remember when John Lennon died. The shock and the unanswered questions? The NEED for answers?

    I grew up in the 80s, and I really didn’t pay much attention to him when he was big then. I made fun of him in the nineties. Laughed at him like a cool kid in the early 2000s, but now that he is gone and will never come back, I am remembering about his performances and I have to concede that he was a one of kind performer. World changing…I forgot how big Thriller was in 1983.

    Michael Jackson’s music was a big part of my adolescence, I didn’t realize it at the time, and now I am starting to appreciate it only when he is gone. Plus, after sniggering at him like a edgy ironic hipster kid, I feel bad after being reminded that he was a real person. I don’t understand why he would change his appearance so much that he looked like a gray alien near when he died. Then again, I didn’t have access to that much money. I’ve done plenty of stupid things and I shudder to think about the heights of stupid I could reach with 50 million dollars.

    However, I do understand that he was a father that was leaving behind three grieving children that he did everything for. He was someone’s “daddy” and they loved him dearly. That resonates with me, and it resonates deeply.

    So, call me hypocritical, but I am looking at his music and his life a whole lot differently than I did in the last 10 years. He didn’t matter much to me last week, but now he does. I do miss him and I feel bad that I didn’t appreciate him or his work when he was around.

  56. pnf says:

    Part of it, I think, is that setting aside Thriller and the period of his career immediately surrounding it, he was an extremely popular child performer, and I think people tend to become strongly attached to those. Besides, the kid could sing.

    I own a few of his albums, but felt no need to follow the news or watch the memorial. What he had been as a performer had been lost for a long time, and if I take anything from his death, it’s it reinforce the idea that if I were ever to have a child, and some agent-type came up to me and said, “That kid has a real talent, I can make him famous,” my response would be, “Over my dead body.”

  57. Annikai says:

    On my facebook I’d say about 50% of my friends cared when he died (this is an estimate based on status updated) and it’s just gone down from there. Yesterday during the memorial I had two friends even mention it and one was just making fun of Al Sharpten. So I think there are some people out there who still care but they are few and far between.

  58. Deoxy says:

    @Krellen,

    As far as the law was concerned, he was NOT GUILTY, not “innocent”. So was OJ, and no sane person believes he didn’t do it. There actually is a way to be declared legally innocent, and it’s actually harder than being proven guilty. If you look at the facts of the case, it’s quite reasonable to say that he’s a pedophile, even though the level of proof didn’t reach the VERY VERY high level we have in this country for the courts to find him so. In fact, it would be unreasonable to say that you think he ISN’T. It is reasonable to say that “we aren’t SURE he is”, but it is the only reasonable explanation for some of his actions (including those documented in court records).

    Otherwise, your post was very good, by the way.

    Why MJ matters:

    Michael Jackson makes Elvis Presley look like some unknown yokel who never left his small hometown. He was the single greatest entertainer (as measured by number of fans, percentage of the world that were fans, and any other measure I know of that isn’t personal-preference specific) who has ever existed to date.

    He’s also a great case study in what immense fame and money can do to a child (horrendous things, obviously).

    Off-stage, he was very creepy (go find a yearly picture chart of him, and the physical changes alone are just nauseating), but on stage, he was without equal. I personally don’t care all that much either way (not a big fan, but don’t mind his music, either), but an amazing amount of other people do.

    Yes, I find this coverage really over the top. I would find this level of coverage really over the top for ANYONE, even the greatest musical super-star in the history of the world.

    So, to answer your question, yes it matters to an awful lot of people, but yes, the coverage is still obscene.

    Edit: Groundhog’s post is really good.

  59. Zel says:

    If nobody cares about Michael Jackson’s death, nobody would have watched his memorial service on TV. Nobody would have wanted to attend said memorial service. But wait, how many asked for a ticket ? More than a million… Didn’t somebody offer $100.000 for one of these tickets on a famous auction site ? I’m eager to see yesterday’s TV ratings, if people are really fed up with this they should be disastrous for the two major channels it was on last night (in France). But I wouldn’t bet on it.

    I don’t really know or care about MJ’s music or life, and neither do the people I usually talk to, but the topic eventually turned up and we discussed a bit about it. We didn’t mourn or anything, we talked about what was going to happen next, and how his death was a strong sign that the disc industry he helped grow so much was on its dying bed too. Then we went back to the rantings about DRMs, prices and the usual…

  60. Yar Kramer says:

    Most I’ve heard is “He’s dead!” followed by vague disinterest and Thriller jokes (“It’s just a publicity stunt so he can do a remake of …”)

    I should probably pay more attention to the news, but I recommend the BBC (and I’m an American). Apart from anything else, it doesn’t mention MJ anywhere on the front page.

  61. Anthorin says:

    Michael who?

  62. krellen says:

    Deoxy: “Innocent until proven guilty”. Your belief otherwise does not change the facts.

    Michael Jackson was weird. He was an unusual man with morals outside the norm. He engaged in inappropriate behaviour between an adult and a child. Whether that behaviour was sexual in nature or not is something we’ll never know, but I highly doubt it was.

    He was a child robbed of his childhood, and then blessed with great wealth that afforded him opportunity to reclaim what he lost. He was a strange, broken man, but I still think it is entirely unfair to assume and proclaim that he was sexually aroused by and/or sexually abused children. The burden of proof is to prove that he did, not that he didn’t.

    Michael Jackson never published a book called “If I did it”; he merely made statements expressing his confusion over why people thought what he did was so wrong. A guilty man does not do that.

    Parents share their beds with their children all the time. Michael Jackson had no biological children, but by every account loved his adopted children as much as if they were his own. Why then is it such a stretch to believe that he may in fact have extended that love to the children of his friends?

    He had ideals and interests outside of the mainstream, and was thus ridiculed and condemned for them. Something most of us here should be able to relate to.

  63. Ol'Timer says:

    I think the reply rate on this post tells you what you need to know – media is driven by site traffic and nielsen. This is on a site frequented by nerds (such as myself) who (probably) have disproportionately high disinterest in Jackson’s moonwalk off the mortal coil, and yet its per hour reply rate is clubbing your other recent posts like defenseless kobold hatchlings.

  64. Julian says:

    Indeed, Michael who?

    Anyway, it seems all of his fans were afraid of him, and now he’s dead they all feel confident enough to crawl out of their caves. His Facebook Fan count went from about 1 million to 4 million in about a week, for instance. Suddenly every singer seems to have gone “Oh! Oh! OH! Now I remember him! Yeah, let’s do some sort of tribute, even though I’ve never covered any of his songs, never featured him in any albums, and not even bought a single one of his albums.”

    You know what’s the best part about his death? Plants vs Zombies (WHICH YOU MUST BUY) has a Michael Jackson zombie that dances the thriller dance and summons backup dancers. It’s a lot funnier now that he’s dead for there to be a zombie version of him.

  65. Nathaniel says:

    Yes, some people care a lot. I was tagged in a facebook message that has now reached… *checks* 92 responses in 2 days from about 5 different people doing the majority of the posting. All about how bad it was that Michael Jackson died =/.

    Worst of all? I can’t find out how to un-tag myself.

  66. Galenor says:

    I haven’t heard much of it from my end. All that it really sparked is my sister watching his music videos on YouTube. Other than that, the death of Billy Mays had much more an effect on my group than MJ’s!

  67. Eric(Ninjews) says:

    @krellen: would you let your kids share the same bed as he?

    @deoxy: I would say that Michale was my generations Elvis(I’m 23)

  68. Rosseloh says:

    Never liked him, never liked his music. Neither did my roommate. We had a couple words the day after it happened, basically “Hey, did you know…?” “Yeah.” “Weird, huh?” “Yeah.” And that was pretty much the conversation.

    I see so much of it on the news…and half the office was watching the memorial thing online yesterday…Very tired of it, as you said. Now the question is, when are the articles going to be over?

  69. Kacky Snorgle says:

    Bryce @53: I've done plenty of stupid things and I shudder to think about the heights of stupid I could reach with 50 million dollars.

    QFT. QF so much T….

  70. droid says:

    As I see it the solution to all problems (including strange news priorities) lies in the expansion of this deviant nerd cult.

    I heard about MJ’s death just before I performed “Eat It” by Al Yanchovich on karaoke. Sure, MJ was significant, he was the only artist that Weird Al parodied more than once. That’s about it to me though. But if Al was to die I would mourn at his funeral. And I would bring a kazoo.

  71. RTBones says:

    I have little feeling on either side. His passing is sad, and I did momentarily dwell idly in memories of my youth, but that is about it. Regardless of your feelings about his personal life, there is little doubt the man could entertain us. His music shaped a generation, and in some ways, continues to influence today. What gets lost in the shuffle is that children lost a father, and a father and mother lost a son. If nothing else, those are two things that I think we ALL can relate to on one level or another.

    I _am_ however sick to death of the steroidial-hyped media coverage. It almost seems as if the media has decided to MAKE this a story, regardless of what else is happening in the world. Yes, he was a pop icon. Yes, his passing is sad. Yes, he could be considered controversial. Let the man rest in peace, already.

    I will say that I am glad it is July, for July means its Tour de France time, and I have Versus, and Versus has no MJ coverage.

  72. GH says:

    It depends on who you talk to as to whether or not it’s important, My cousin posted on facebook asked a week ago, “Why is everyone making such a big deal about a dead pedophile?” and mostly nobody else from that circle of friends ever brought it up again. This group is mostly sub-cultural: nerds, hippies, drunks, gamers, whathaveyou.

    I work in an office with some ladies who are completely absorbed by mainstream culture, they watch all the latest tv shows and follow all the celebrity gossip and seem to be the only sub-section of society that actually gives a crap about MJ. It just depends on how ego-involved you are with mainstream culture, how much of your sense of self is defined by mainstream mass media. I personally think these kind of people just live vicariously through tragedies and events like this because their lives probably don’t have much else going on.

  73. krellen says:

    Eric(Ninjews) asked “would you let your kids share the same bed as he?”

    Upon first meeting him, no. I didn’t know the man well enough to call him friend or to trust him to that level.

    I do have friends that I do trust to that level. I do not find the concept inconceivable.

  74. B says:

    Krellen: “Upon first meeting him, no. I didn't know the man well enough to call him friend or to trust him to that level. I do have friends that I do trust to that level. I do not find the concept inconceivable.”

    As a father I have to ask: ‘What in the name of frig would be a suitable situation in which your child would share the bed of one of your friends?’ I find that concept inconceivable…

    But that really is beside the point to this thread. MJ is way over-done. Bring back real news – or at least what passes for real news in North America.

  75. Nazgul says:

    I’ve said for years now that CNN has become Celebrity News Network. I assume they’ve chosen to go that way because it’s where the ratings (or page views) are, unfortunately. It’s a big reason I no longer watch their channels and only visit their site on occasion.

  76. Unbeliever says:

    The media TELLS us that we care about something.

    Then we believe it, each of us to the extent of our gullibility.

    People who remember watching the Thriller video once upon a time, and vaguely heard something about him doing weird stuff with kids more recently, are suddenly heartbroken over the loss of a True Artist — because TeeVee says so, and who are they to question TeeVee?

    THAT is the REAL tragedy…

  77. KarmaDoor says:

    Pertaining to Michael Jackson (loosely):
    His fanbase is global, so while there might not be as many in the U.S., there still are a lot of people who care.
    Paris was originally a male name.
    I have thermal socks made partly from mylar. I started referring to them as “M.J. socks” years ago in reference to the rhinestone encrusted glove he was known for. It was only during one [likely muted] newsbit that I saw that he also had sparkling socks during at least one tour. I had no idea I was accurate until then.
    M.J. did the public a service by bringing awareness to the skin condition, vitiligo, which had been a source of tremendous social embarrassment for many prior to that.

    Onto the more general topic:
    “The Media” have, in general, become their own culture, many of which promote their biases by lawfully (?) omitting parts of the truth. Finding a balanced / unbiased source in television news is tough and unlikely to be sought by the vast number of people who tune in every evening.

    The Internet makes it a lot easier to find factual information, including news, but few people utilize it in such a manner. All you can hope is that the tide is turning, despite there being little credence to the idea.

  78. Eric(Ninjews) says:

    @krellen: I don’t find the concept inconceivable either, but there are some friends I would be fine with, others I wouldn’t.

  79. DmL says:

    I’ve seen some brief nods in my family and friends on facebook, my neighbo across the street cared about the music. Otherwise, yes, it’s blown way out of proportion.

  80. Groboclown says:

    Unfortunately, I’m one of those who was upset by Mikhail Jackson’s death. Mainly because it means my favorite knock-knock joke is considered “tacky” now:

    A: Knock knock.
    B: Who’s there?
    A: Little boy blue.

    … you get the idea.

    But it did give me an excuse to play the song “Michael Jackson is in Heaven Now,” with the wonderful hook “Michael Jackson is shot dead in front of a live studio audience.”

    I guess I really don’t have any tact.

  81. HeadHunter says:

    @ Krellen: The fact that he was twice accused should give us some insight into the man. His behavior was inappropriate regardless of acquittal, yet he went and did it again. You’d think an adult would learn the first time. If he was innocent, he was also stupid.

    Also, someone who’s truly innocent wouldn’t pay a settlement to their accusers.

    And to borrow your analogy: Married people sleep with their spouses all the time. If someone didn’t have a spouse of their own, but really loved women, would it be OK for them to sleep with someone else’s spouse?

    When you’re famous and fear that people may be after your money or trying to slur your reputation, you DON’T put yourself into situations where there can be even the accusation of impropriety. It’s inexcusable.

  82. Nyaz says:

    Ugh, scary part is my mother actually sifted through all these stories, AND watched all the TV specials about Michael Jackson, AND the funeral, AND she kept her laptop on the kitchen table while cooking, watching a live feed on before his funeral.

    Being in the same house as that is VERY frustrating…!

    Espescially since I think his music was kinda “meh” and I don’t really care much about him being dead (okay, fine, it’s sad, are we done yet?)

  83. krellen says:

    “He was famous, so he should know better”? Seriously?

    Michael Jackson was a human – a talented, tragically flawed human whose life was forever marred by the way his father treated him and continues to treat him even after his death. If you want to hate someone, hate Joe Jackson, not Michael. The man has never viewed his talented son as anything but a business opportunity, even in death.

    Michael Jackson was publicly private; he couldn’t help but hit the limelight once in a while, but he valued his privacy highly. Highly enough to pay someone to go away and stop drawing attention to him. His settlement was not an admittance of guilt, but a desire for the whole thing to just go away.

    Sometimes my subculture disgusts me. This is one of those times. The level of insensitivity displayed by my so-called peers since the man’s death has been appalling. I am ashamed to be part of the nerd/geek culture right now. How about a little empathy?

  84. B says:

    Krellen: “The level of insensitivity displayed by my so-called peers since the man's death has been appalling. I am ashamed to be part of the nerd/geek culture right now. How about a little empathy?”

    You’ve, like… been on the internet before, right?

  85. krellen says:

    Seventeen years now, B. We used to be nicer on it.

  86. B says:

    Krellen:

    But that was back when the screens were in black and white, and you had to wind the CPU.

  87. krellen says:

    They were black and green, thank-you-very-much. :D

  88. Hipparchus says:

    I am going to mostly agree with Krellen. He was a great guy! He was a global humanatarian and donated the most to more charities than any other celebrity. He was battling Lupus, yet because of the attempted extortion against him, he had to perform. And it wasn’t like he didn’t have people who cared about him, either.
    He had 3 children, and to my knowledge, 8 siblings. He opened up his amusement park to sick kids for free (I think it was free), which he didn’t have to share but did, and got pennilized for it. On a sad note, the stress and things from his trials (caused by the horribleness of the charges, not guilt)he had developed insomina on top of his Lupus. Because he didn’t want to take perscription drugs, or drugs that were narcotic he took a sedative. Unfortunatley when little guys like Michael take drugs like this, it rarely ends well.
    Besides, the man gave his whole life to us, why not dedicate a few weeks to him?

  89. Viktor says:

    I don’t care. None of my family cares. None of the people I work with care. And none of those are part of our little aberrant group. So sanity is not limited to the nerds. Some people do care, but I honestly cannot understand why.

  90. SiliconScout says:

    Nobody I know cares either, really.

    I am part of a small group (perhaps 33% of the total that I know) who believes that he “lost it” as far as musical talent goes, and while you cannot deny what he had going in the 80’s in the end he was a once was pop star and a pedophile and the world is a safer place with him gone.

  91. Sylvia says:

    Someone cares:

    Paul Constant Reviews Twitter – Features – The Stranger, Seattle’s Only Newspaper
    The New York Times quoted a senior researcher at Harvard Law School: “Roughly 15% of all posts on Twitter mentioning Michael Jackson.”

    He continued: “Never saw Iran or swine flu reach over 5%.”

  92. Sam says:

    There are, in fact, people who do care, but they seem to get swept up in the 24 hour news cycle and grieve more than they actually should. There does not need to be a week-long grief process when somebody you never actually met dies. I didn’t cry and moan and curl up into a ball for a week when George Carlin died, and he’s one of the very few people on the planet I truly respect as a human being. I was sad about it for an hour or so, and moved on with my life. Sure, it’s obviously more personal if you actually KNEW the person, but if you just liked their music or their movies or their books, that’s no reason to turn inward for a week and grieve like your mother just died.

    Also, these grievers don’t seem to think about the obvious fact that celebrities are just regular people like you and I, only they managed to achieve some semblance of fame, either through hard work and dedication or pure luck, usually the latter. Thousands, millions of regular people die every day, but we don’t grieve over every one of them. If we did, we’d never leave the house and probably starve to death because we’re grieving too much. Pick and choose whom you grieve over carefully, because if you don’t, you’ll never do anything else.

    I wasn’t planning for that to turn into a “The More You Know” moment, but that’s what happens.

    As far as my opinion of the topic at hand, I refer you to comment #1.

  93. rofltehcat says:

    Well, information about him is easy to get.
    Now imagine, you could spend $1000 as a newspaper and get 3 pages of pointless ‘OMG TEH KING OF POP DEAD!!!” whereas you might only get a few lines of news about iran or the riots in western china and somebody might even be pissed at you for that.

    Also… who cares if there will be a new war or if our sneakers are drenched in sweat, tears and blood when we buy them at the store? After all some freakish weirdo that made good music before he turned completely wooogybooogy died!

  94. SatansBestBuddy says:

    The world is huge.

    Even if you tried, you would never meet every single person in the world once, much less get to know them well enough to know what their hobby is, what news interests them, who their celebreties are and even what their favourite food is.

    So, really, it’s no surprise that what millions of people talk about can be something you’ve never heard of.

    And what billions of people care about is… never just one person.

  95. LadyDarkWolf says:

    While I liked a lot of his music I currently care only as a social observer. I’ve been watching the whole thing with interest, and not a little amusement. I’m actually beginning to wonder if this isn’t someone’s sociology experiment for their Thesis.

  96. Master Jedi says:

    I don’t get why anyone is sad. it was never proven, but I think he was a pedophile. He was just plain creepy if you ask me. Look at his picture on the news.

  97. Hipparchus says:

    So we should just dismiss the suffering of his family and fans because his most recent pictures look creepy? …

  98. mookers says:

    I agree with Krellen. The amount of elitism showing up in the comments makes me a bit sad.

    I also think the media coverage is way over the top, but unless you live with someone who insists on keeping the TV tuned in, it’s actually not that hard to avoid. I let it fade into the background of my everyday experiences. Anyway, what else can I do about it? Complaining about it just makes the noise grow louder.

  99. potemkin.hr says:

    In Croatia the main news (especially in newspapers) was probably MJ for 2 days, then it faded. I simply hated the MJ news flood, they forced it like it was of utmost importance… MJ had a few good songs (at least that’s what I think) and that’s it. In my taste, they really shouldn’t have aired his funeral ceremony, it simply isn’t right or decent…
    P.S. – weeee, 100th post :P

  100. OneButtonMouse says:

    Given the choice of two soaps or coverage of the Jackson hoo-hah, the TV viewers of Britain chose… Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood. Top rated show of the day. Geeks 1, Celeb-obsessives 0.

  101. Hipparchus says:

    It’s not like MJ is announcing a new song or another rumor is coming out (well both are true but that’s beside the point), he’s DEAD. So if you don’t like his new music, fine, he won’t be releasing anymore. It’s not a good reason to dismiss another man’s death, nor dismiss his grieving family. The media coverage, sure thats dismissable, but his death? He isn’t just a personality, he’s a person. And insulting someone in the grave just seems low.

  102. ima420r says:

    My place of employment actually blocked all news sites and media sites for 24 hours due to the MJ service. No one at work that I know of even cares about MJ.

  103. MuonDecay says:

    I noticed this the day it happened: MJ is very nearly getting more coverage than 9/11.

    1 really famous person dying is nearly as significant to the American news media as 3,000 normal citizens dying. It makes you want to go out and round up 2,999 journalists and fill them with mortal terror to give a sense of perspective.

    And no, nobody really cares. I know a lot of very normal, typical people, and only one of them even gives a damn about MJ, and even that person thinks the media coverage is a boring circus.

    This is part of why a significant portion of the traditional media market is dying on the vine.

  104. Bryce says:

    105 messages full of declarations that “nobody cares”

  105. Maddy says:

    It’s very easy to accuse people of wrongdoing, especially when they’re “weird” or “creepy.” Many people are eager to believe the worst about someone who’s different.

    Besides, I don’t see how “would you let your kids get into bed with him” is an accurate test of whether I think someone is a pedophile. My decisions reflect on ME, not on Jackson or anyone else. FWIW, I wouldn’t let my kids get into bed with ANYONE, including people I trust, because there’s no need. My attitude and beliefs prove nothing about Jackson or anyone else.

  106. neriana says:

    I don’t know about LA, but I can tell you that people in New York don’t care any more than people elsewhere. I feel bad for Farah Fawcett, whose death was barely noticed at all because she had the misfortune to die on the same day.

    Remember when Princess Diana died? Huge media frenzy. Everyone I knew was like, “Hey, Princess Di died, that’s sad, especially for her kids,” and it was kinda depressing for a day or so, and that was that. This is like then, except there’s a lot less straightforward sorrow. It’s more like, “yeah, wow, he used to be pretty cool but he really messed up. But his music was really good for a while, and he just died, so let’s move on. Anyway, what do you think about health care?”

  107. Robert says:

    I noticed this the day it happened: MJ is very nearly getting more coverage than 9/11.

    1 really famous person dying is nearly as significant to the American news media as 3,000 normal citizens dying.

    To those of us outside the US, coverage of that event was bewildering (to put it mildly) from both the mainstream media and the amateurs.

  108. Matt K says:

    I’m a little annoyed that there is no other news coverage but besides that I’m with krellen. Besides it’s not like there’s much going on in the news right now and the man does deserve some pay back from the media.

  109. RichVR says:

    Robert@ 109. Maybe I’m not understanding you. Please clarify. Are you saying that you didn’t understand the fact that US media was covering the destruction of the WTC? If I’m wrong I apologise. Perhaps it was the use of “that event”.

    Which event are you referencing?

    If it was the Jackson thing, I wholeheartedly agree.

  110. toasty says:

    There is over 100 comments so I’m not sure if this has been said or not, but…

    According to the BBC (Yes, I’m american and read the BBC instead of the Communist News Network or Fox), MJ’s death crashed Twitter (because too many peopled tweeted) and caused Google to believe it was under a spam attack from the likes of 4chan’s [b]tards. Seriously.

    So yes, apparently it was pretty popular.

    Me? As a 17 year old who hates pop pretty hard I’ve never willingly or knowingly listened to his music. I did look him up on wikipedia a few days after he died though.

    Now, when Dio or Ozzy dies THEN I’ll cry. A lot. But until this, I’m gonna save my tears.

  111. Irandrura says:

    Ugh. I have a sister who gave herself a psychosomatic illness over this guy’s death; she’s had to take over a week off work because of it, and almost lost her voice.

    Me? I don’t care. It’s no worse than any other random person dying. What we have is a person who in my opinion made pretty awful music and who may or may not have committed sexual crimes (I don’t know either way, and don’t much care), but at the least was very creepy. And he’s dead. Okay. It makes no difference to me. Yes, I feel bad for the people who were close to him – and indeed I feel very bad for the person who is close to me who is obviously suffering because of it – but how many people, in the entire world, die every day? Do we mourn for each of them individually?

    We don’t. We can’t. So I don’t mourn for a man who meant nothing to me beyond ‘please change the music, I don’t care for this’.

    And as for the media… well, that’s what you get for paying the slightest bit of attention to mainstream American media.

  112. neminem says:

    Around here (and yes, this was LA), people were talking about it for days. And I work at a software company. I’m surrounded by geeks. It is news – he was one of the most famous people of the century, ater all; possibly even longer. Is it as big of a story as the Media is making it look like? No, but they do that all the time.

  113. Tesh says:

    Yes, the media is a separate culture, and a highly warped one at that. If the political coverage didn’t teach you that, this is another opportunity to realize it. ;)

  114. Pon Raul says:

    Media (not just news media) like things like this because it’s a cheap sell, especially to nostalgic people. You can air two hours of funeral or tribute footage for basically the cost of a cameraman a the scene and the airtime, whereas movies, sitcoms, etc all cost tons of money to make (and they have to pay royalties for re-use).

    I’m pretty sure nobody on here is black. I’m not, but I live in a predominantly black neighborhood, and everybody around here between the ages of about 22 and 40 all remember his music, and were probably more deeply affected by it than your average twenty- or thirtysomething gamer nerd. I mean, if we had been the type of kids that listened to pop music and break-danced a lot, we probably wouldn’t be here, right?

    When I lived near South Philly with a bunch of Italians, they had the same reaction to Frank Sinatra dying.

    So, the combination of a not insubstantial minority that is willing to be pandered to and the comparatively low cost of doing so (even vs. coming up with something to please everyone else) means that this kind of stuff stays in the news for a long time.

  115. Viktor says:

    I'm pretty sure nobody on here is black. I'm not, but I live in a predominantly black neighborhood, and everybody around here between the ages of about 22 and 40 all remember his music, and were probably more deeply affected by it than your average twenty- or thirtysomething gamer nerd. I mean, if we had been the type of kids that listened to pop music and break-danced a lot, we probably wouldn't be here, right?

    I’m not sure about that. Look at the internet RPG subculture whn Gygax died. There were tribute comics, and a couple of forum threads that ran for 2-3 days, but generally we were sad, and we moved on. This…isn’t moving on. At all. I could understand it making the nightly news, getting 30 seconds, then a new story on it when the coroners report comes out and when the funeral happens. I can understand radio stations playing memorials, and bands playing his songs. I can even get some channels like E and MTV running specials on him as soon as they can. I cannot understand near-constant coverage for 2 weeks. That’s far beyond what this deserves. Has anyone even heard Iran mentioned since this happened? Or any other news story involving, you know, news?

  116. Carra says:

    I hear his music more on the radio here in Belgium. And that’s a fine way to remember someone who died. Besides that, no, I don’t care about all the media coverage. He hasn’t been making any good music in the last fifteen years. So, musically it’s not a great loss. Not like a Kurt Cobain dieing who could still make music for decades.

    Yes, it was all over the news for a day or two. Interest seems to be fading however, was only a two minute story in the news yesterday.

  117. empty_other says:

    Who, what?

    What the news are doing is creating the most amount of content with the least amount of work, no matter if the content is just a hollow shell. And somewhy someone is paying them to continue with it.

  118. Zaxares says:

    @Krellen: Thank you. You said what I would have said much more eloquently than I could have. :)

    Was I interested in Michael Jackson’s death? Yes. I very much like a couple of his songs and think he’s a fantastic singer and entertainer. Am I saddened by his death? Yes, because again, the world has lost a very talented individual, the same way I would be saddened at the death of somebody like Einstein or Mozart.

    Do I grieve for Michael Jackson? No. How could I? I never met the man in person, I wouldn’t consider myself a die-hard fan by any stretch, and I’m pretty damn sure that MJ never even knew I existed. But I do feel great sympathy for his children and family for their loss, the same way I would feel sympathy for anyone who’s lost a family member.

    Rest in peace, Michael. You made a profound mark on the world, and you should be proud of your accomplishments. It’s far more than ANY of us here on this blog will ever achieve, I’m sure.

    P.S. For the record, I don’t know if Michael was guilty of the charges of pedophilia brought against him, but I doubt it. I think he is a very eccentric individual, and he suffers from mental problems where he is trying to relive his childhood.

    In any case, I’ve yet to know of a single great person who didn’t have some weird, bizarre quirk, flaw or fetish. Did you know that Gandhi used to sleep naked with young girls, for instance? Even after he was married and had children of his own? He insists he never touched them, that the sessions were purely to discipline himself and conquer the emotion of lust. Again, I don’t know if that was true, but knowing his rather extreme beliefs, I’m inclined to believe him.

  119. Avilan the Grey says:

    Deoxy: “Michael Jackson makes Elvis Presley look like some unknown yokel who never left his small hometown. He was the single greatest entertainer (as measured by number of fans, percentage of the world that were fans, and any other measure I know of that isn't personal-preference specific) who has ever existed to date.”

    Doesn’t say much though; Popularity, nowadays, is not a guarantee for talent. Just look at Britney. Or Madonna, for that matter, the single most overrated artist to have ever existed.
    Now, he did have talent, lots of it, but he pissed it way with drug- and surgery abuse.
    Besides, I would be very surprised if people in 30 years will talk about MJ as people still talk about Elvis.

    Anyway, I am getting really fed up with the talk about how he is the “greatest” of everything. I understand that those that are true fans go bananas, there is always a group (mostly female, for some reason) that feel “oh so connected” to the star in question (be it Elvis, or Lennon, or Michael Jackson), and even kills themselves.

    Now, examples I have heard from more than one place in the media, and that are NOT true:

    Michael Jackson was the first one to bring black music to a large white audience: False. The one that brought most black music to the white masses was Elvis. MJ WAS the most popular black artist ever among white people, but that is not the same thing. Besides, by thriller, and later, he just did standard pop, with little or none black influences.

    Michael Jackson was a great composer: False. He wrote very few of his songs by himself; the way it works is that according to contract, if the singer is sitting in the room when the song is written, and is consulted (gives any kind of imput at all) he or she is credited as co-writer of the song. (Beoncés father got nailed hard on this when he tried to put her as songwriter on all her songs).

    Michael Jackson is the modern equivalent of Mozart: False. Just… false.

    Michael Jackson was the most important pop artist to die to date: False. Elvis, Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Lennon all were more important to the evolving of popular music than MJ was.

    Add to this that his influence in general is very much overestimated right now. I can’t recall any artist I have listened to for the last 20 years that have had any influences from MJ in their music or performance.

  120. Jon Ross says:

    Late to this party it seems, but:

    1) I also have no real interest in Michael Jackson, thus the media machine spinning itself out of control over his death bothers me. If they had put a tenth of this energy into more important stories just think of the mistakes that could’ve been avoided, or at least more knowingly walked into.

    2) I, at 32, have never owned a piece of Michael Jackson music in any form. None of my friends have either. Outside of crude jokes the day of or just after the only mention of Michael Jackson now is ‘Why is he still in the news?’

    3) Like a couple of other posters, I believe him to have been a sick man that I wouldn’t allow near any child, mine or otherwise. If only because South Park called it correctly in their episode about him. His disconnect from the world around him made him very dangerous to himself and others.

    4) I really don’t understand the fame game. Just because someone is talented doesn’t mean I need to know what they had for lunch yesterday or what they were wearing. This becomes moreso as they distance themself from the products of their talent by time. I can think of a dozen people who I would like to tell in person, “I really like your work, please keep doing it.” (And other thousand or so I would like to ask, “why are you still doing work of that level? Please work a bit harder and make it worth my money.”) But I would not want to be kept up to date on what they are doing through out the day or even the year. When they present to me a final product of their talent I enjoy it and return to my own life.

    Come to think of it, I wouldn’t bug someone who is famous by even saying ‘Thank you for your work’ as I would only find such a person while out and about on my daily life and thus would assume they are busy in their own as well. Fame seems to mean that you lose all rights to your own private life. Michael Jackson lost his childhood (as he was always quick to say) to the fame game and now that he has nothing else to give the media (and the people who watch it) are still consuming his corpse for all it’s worth.

    At the time I started writing this there was 121 posts, about 100 or so saying they didn’t care and the rest saying that we shouldn’t sling insults at the dead (for one reason or another). That seems to be about the world average I think. 18% or so care with one or two in that being a very vocal caring member.

  121. HeadHunter says:

    Sam has a very good point in #93:

    Most of us (including all of MJ’s champions here) wouldn’t likely invest this much time and grief in the death of a relative, let alone someone they’d never met.

    Want to be ashamed of people’s lack of empathy? Be ashamed of a culture where we value rock stars more highly than grandparents.

  122. Hawkehunt says:

    I find that, while most of the people I know care that he died in the sense it’s something they wouldn’t want to be unaware of, none of them have a significant emotional investment in the fact. Most of them have a stronger response to the news coverage – frustration at being unable to find anything else on.

    When a famous person dies, it is a newsworthy event. The kind of obsession shown by media networks in this case, however, would earn any individual a psychiatric evaluation.

  123. Deoxy says:

    Krellan: “Deoxy: “Innocent until proven guilty”. Your belief otherwise does not change the facts.”

    That is a legal position, one I agree with (mostly, most of the time) – the problems it solves outway the problems it causes (mostly, most of the time).

    But the inability to get to “beyond a reasonable doubt” in a courtroom ALSO “does not the change the facts,” and the facts are MOST LIKELY (though not beyond a reasonable doubt) that he did molest them. EXACTLY as in the OJ situation (actually, an incompetent judge helped OJ quite a bit, too). That OJ published that book later does not change the situation.

    Again, I point out to you that there IS a legal means of being “innocent”, not just “not guilty”, and Jackson would fail that by MUCH MUCH MUCH farther than he failed to get “guilty”. To simply believe that someone didn’t do something because we aren’t so sure that we are willing to punish them for it is really, REALLY foolish.

    Example: you leave your canned beverage on the table and go to the bathroom. When you get back, the other guy sitting at the table (say, an acquaintance but not close friend) says that he didn’t do it, somebody just came by and drank it. Now, you would never get it to stand up in court that he did it, but it would be dumb of you to leave another drink there. But let’s say you did… and it gets drunk as well. Again, he says he didn’t do it, somebody else came by and drank it. Hello? Yeah, again, you can’t PROVE he did it, but to believe otherwise would be STUPID.

    So it is with Jackson. Just because we can’t prove to the court’s satisfaction (that is, to the level of punishing him for it) that he did it doesn’t mean the only reasonable thing to believe is that he did it.

    The “lots of people die everyday, and many people don’t grieve this much about their own family members” point is spot on, really. Though I must say, I didn’t grieve much when my great-grandmother died, but she was 92, had lived a very full life, HATE HATE HATED the nursing home she spent the last few months of her life in (not because they were bad, because she had lived on her own in her own house until then, and wanted to continue doing so), and really, it was her time.

  124. krellen says:

    Deoxy: you can prove the beverage was drunk. You cannot prove a boy was molested. Your analogy fails.

  125. David V. S. says:

    To me, the main cultural disconnect is less that we’re nerds, but that we’re Christians. If we’re taking our faith and savior seriously, we’re usually content. We’re not worried about the future. We’re not troubled by who we are, or who we are becoming. We know we are loved. We don’t use entertainment, time with friends, or drink to escape from worries and concerns.

    Most people don’t have that advantage. Most Americans not only are not content, but they do not know how to find contentment. Thus self-help books talk about “pursuing contentment” as if it was some incorporeal goal.

    If you did use entertainment or friends or drink (or combinations of these) to escape from worries or a troubled self-image then celebrities are hugely important, for they provide that escape while also modeling “success” without finding contentment.

  126. Puffinstuff says:

    Essentially, the mainstream media has become a lot of entertainment shows. The two reasons MJ’s death have monopolized the news are the media: 1) Milking it for all it’s worth, and 2) Mourning the passing of a great news source. MJ brought in great ratings, what with his bizarre plastic surgery fetish, dangling babies off balconies, accusations of pedophilia, building his own theme park in his backyard, etc. He was so weird and fascinating that he became a surefire way of boosting ratings.

  127. Viktor says:

    @127: I’m not christian, definitely not content, and stll don’t care about celebrities except as a living example that nothing is worth being famous for.

    1. Shamus says:

      Viktor: David was most likely talking directly to me and not trying to speak for everyone.

  128. David V.S. says:

    Ah, sorry about that.

    Yep, I was speaking for myself only, to Shamus only.

    I even started the blog post as an e-mail, to avoid potentially diverting the comment thread, but decided to try the comment thing.

    Why a comment? During my college days the Christians and the RPG-ers were the two groups notorious for avoiding the drunken parties. Both had found ways out of the “can’t find contentment” rut, and it was interesting to observe what was similar or different about the two groups. (At the time I was only in the RPG-er group, but had many friends in both.)

    So I made the reply public, expecting this gaming crowd to have meaningful things to say about contentment even if they largely disagreed with the exclusivity unavoidable in an overly pithy and inappropriately “private” response. ;-)

  129. Mentalepsy says:

    Nobody I know or work with seems to care. I certainly don’t.

    Other than a weak and disinterested joke here and there – which only lasted a day or two anyway – I haven’t heard about the guy except on the news, which is wallpapered with coverage, and on internet banner ads requesting that I honor his memory by buying something.

  130. DragonsMaw says:

    Death is a quirky critter. Personally, I fully intend to attach less outcry for my own fathers death, than what has been given to this man. I believe once someone has passed, you say your goodbyes, and then you show them real respect by moving on. But society, on one level or another, is dragging his name through the mud/wringers/whatever you drag names through. And frankly, that’s hard to do, given how relatively useless he has been to us.

    That said… good riddance to him, hope he enjoys whatever comes next, and good GOD get it off my yahoo news when I log in!

  131. Wayno says:

    Sorry if this has been commented on already, or if it’s no longer relevant, but I don’t have time to read all 133 comments :)

    http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/media/e3i0c7b757cfdc666c2bd4f24d2b551af6a
    Extract: “Nearly two in three Americans said news organizations gave too much coverage to the sudden death of Michael Jackson in the days following his June 25 heart attack in Los Angeles, according to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. ”

    Wayno, celebrating International Wayne Cook Day

  132. Irandrura says:

    I think David has an interesting point, actually. Mainstream culture in the West and in America in particular is, to be frank, rather insecure. One of the pitfalls of a strong consumer culture is simply that it needs to encourage the people to consume, and that means that satisfaction with what you have is a state that must be discouraged. Content people do not consume; thus the culture itself comes to try to oppose contentment.

    Naturally groups that aren’t part of, and indeed are somewhat opposed to mainstream culture, including serious RPG fans and some religious groups, are less likely to be affected by that.

  133. Avilan the Grey says:

    David:
    Personally I was never on any drunken parties because I was the stereotype Geek, which meant the girls laughed at me and the guys flushed my head in the toilet.
    I would have loved to go to those parties, myself…!

    Nowdays when our group meets up for some old-fashioned table-top gaming, quite a lot of beer is consumed (we are all adults). A regular gaming session starts somewhere around 3pm, and ends at about 4am in the morning, during at least a beer an hour has gone down. Along with food and other drinks, obviously… we are not wasted or anything, but yes, maintaining a healthy buzz is always fun, especially on quality beer.

  134. Kevin says:

    It disguste me to no end that more people flocked to buy Michael Jackson records than picking up their old US civics textbook (or renting the fantastic “The Fog of War” from Blockbuster) after Robert S. McNamara died. Man has done a lot more to affect American foreign policy than almost all SecDef’s that came after him combined.

  135. Felblood says:

    Meh.

    I didn’t really care, so when I heard he died I asked around people I knew to see how they felt about it. (I make a point of finding out who dead famous people were from people whose opinions I actually care about. The death of Don Knots got a much bigger reaction out of the people in my sphere of interaction.)

    Turns out, he doesn’t have that many fans left, and your enemies come to your wedding not your wake.

    I’m yet to meet someone who can tell me how this man’s death will impact me. As such, I have to conclude that his work in this world was done, and it’s for the best that he be moving on.

  136. hm says:

    I’m not sure if this is the word, but “hypocritical” comes to mind when people take the time to post a comment on an issue that they “don’t really care” about. If you don’t care, then why did you comment? I’m sad that MJ died. I’m sad that his life was so strange and full of scandals. I’m sad that his death has been an excuse for some people to wallow in a few more seconds of attention. I’m sad that the media is making a public spectacle of his funeral.

    Not a day goes by that I don’t see a stupid news article about one thing or another. “Banks charge these things called ‘overdraft fees’ if you have the *misfortune* of writing bad checks despite online banking, check registers, and account alerts to keep your stupid-ass from being irresponsible. They’re stealing your money!” — “Is Obama checking out this lady’s butt in this photo? Click the link to find out!” — “Alaskan asks Palin about 2012 run” — Hell, *anything* about Hilton, Spears, or Lohan…

    You don’t want to read articles on Jackson? Here’s a hint: don’t click on the link.

    1. Shamus says:

      hm: You missed the entire point of the article, which I made explicitly clear.

      And I’ll throw your own silly reasoning back at you:

      If you don’t like my article, don’t read it.

  137. briatx says:

    I did not read all of the comments, so I’m probably repeating something here.

    My guess is that the disconnect is not “news sites are reporting on things people don’t care about” as much as it is “people’s stated lack of interest is not being reflected in their behavior.”

    On an episode of the West Wing, a (fictional) polling expert said that polls during the Clinton / Lewinsky scandal showed people were sick of hearing about the scandal, while at the same time papers that featured the story prominently sold tons of copies. Of course I have no idea if the writers just made that information up, but I wouldn’t surprised if it were true, and I wouldn’t be surprised if something similar was going on regarding coverage of Michael Jackson’s death.

  138. David V.S. says:

    Avilan,

    I meant nothing against alcohol, nor social gatherings where it is served. My point was simply that gamers tend not to use alcohol “to escape from worries or a troubled self-image”, and I’ll add that in my experience they very seldom adopt that behavior in later years. We have no disagreement.

  139. Ardis Mease says:

    I didn’t read all the comments, so this may have been addressed, but I remeber some TV host from the time (maybe Bill O’Reilly) complaining about all the coverage. He was told that the producers didn’t like it either, but every time they changed to a different subject they could literally watch thier ratings drop.

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