Enough already on Michael Jackson!
HAVE YOU HEARD that Michael Jackson died?
Actually, let me rephrase the question. Have you heard much of anything else since Thursday?
Watching the news that night, I was floored at how much time was devoted to the developing story.
And Friday morning it was all Jackson all the time on the radio. After a few minutes of it, I sought refuge in the most reliable of my radio presets: WBUR and the edifying oasis that is “On Point’’ with Tom Ashbrook.
A guest host was filling in, leading a discussion about . . . Michael Jackson.
In the last few days, there has been story after story about his genius, his pioneering appeal as a crossover artist, the rapture that came over the audience that first saw his moon walk, the now-resolved ambivalence the African-American community felt toward him. I’ve heard how he virtually created the music video, how he was the last artist all of us listened to before the culture fractured into a thousand pieces.
Perhaps. I’m not an expert on pop music or Jackson’s oeuvre, so I don’t know, though I do find myself wondering if history will really judge him as epic a figure as everyone now seems to think.
But whatever his musical legacy, in his death, Jackson has gone from strange and troubling character to national icon in the blink of an eye. Yes, he was acquitted of charges of sexual molestation in his 2005 trial, but there was enough evidence that the verdict hardly cleared the cloud of suspicion - particularly since he had forked over $20 million or more to make previous molestation allegations go away. His bizarre activities also included paying for voodoo death curses, one of which supposedly included ritualistic animal sacrifice, intended to bring about the death of his enemies, or so Vanity Fair has reported.
Still, the weekend retrospectives and tributes were expected; that’s the natural arc of the news cycle.
But there it should have ended. This week, however, the latest “developments’’ (read: relative trivia) in the Jackson story remained breathless news on CNN, and the supposedly sober network news broadcasts started the week little better.
Would Jackson be buried at Neverland? Probably not, but Tuesday’s “breaking news’’ was that a public viewing and a memorial service would be held there. What legal battles would occur over his children - and his estate? Could Neverland come to rival Graceland?
Mind you, those were just some of the crucial matters TV pondered.
NBC led its Monday evening newscast with Jackson epiphenomena, putting it ahead of stories like the sentencing of swindler Bernie Madoff. CBS gave Madoff top play, but then went to Jackson coverage; a comparatively restrained ABC put Jackson third, behind Madoff and the Supreme Court decision about New Haven’s firefighters - but still ahead of the coup in Honduras and the news from Iraq.
Something’s afoot here that seems to have started with Princess Diana, whose death turned into, or was turned into, an epoch of mourning. Then came the death of John F. Kennedy Jr., and the endless hours of TV footage showing ships searching for the wreckage of his plane.
And now this. It’s as though the TV networks think we’re ever in search of a new celebrity death to bring us together and a spate of national mourning to offer us catharsis - and that such a death is a story that will keep people glued to their televisions.
Perhaps there are millions who have hung on every word of this orgy of excess, who daily reach for the TV remote saying, “I just have to know the latest about Michael Jackson’s death or the custody of his children.’’
And yet somehow I doubt that. I don’t hear Jackson talked about as much as I hear the obsessive coverage of his death decried.
So come on, news people. It’s time to cede this story to the inside pages, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, the celebrity mags, and the National Enquirer.
Real things - important things - are happening in the world.
Scot Lehigh can be reached at lehigh@globe.com. 