Friday 26 June 2009

Obligatory "Michael Jackson Is Dead" Entry

Who cares that Michael Jackson is dead? Why are people making him out to be some kind of saint? People seem to have forgotten that he endangered his child (out of a window!), the allegations of him being a paedophile that were only quashed in court by savvy OJ-esque legal wrangling, and that he had a monkey love-mate called Bubbles. A MONKEY LOVE-MATE!! He should have died, say, twenty years ago, when his career did. And to those saying it's too soon for horrific and crude MJ-related jokes? I say to you no. Nothing's changed. He's still an example of a celebrity breakdown, shown in excruciating detail by our modern media juggernaut. Respect his children, sure, but he was no Mother Teresa.


I'm also intrigued about the Ofcom rules* that purportedly state that you can't say anything negative about a passed celebrity 24 hours after his death. So, what does this mean? That bang on 11pm (or whenever), the insults are going to start rolling in? Is this a form of censorship? Because it's reporting like that which ensures that people *aren't* honest, doesn't it? So have Ofcom overstepped their position in the world?

*Apparently more of a guideline.


This entire situation is one I've watched keenly-- I've recently become more and more aware of how the media outlets report these events, and with that knowledge I realised how... how disgusting everyone is. The BBC, for instance, wheeled out the same specialists, called the same old people, and kept repeating the same two segments last night, as they scrambled for the death-porn that was the footage of the ambulance leaving Jackson's residence.

The world is going to shit.

6 comments:

  1. mate, i like this piece. i kinda agree with you, it's not like he was a saint. i mean you could say through his music he touched many lives, but at the same time he never, as far as we are aware reveal compassion, dignity and respect for other human beings. but who are we to judge him? the world is never going to perfect, hasn't there always been bad things in this world? so whats new, with making him out to be a saint, if its not hurting anyone, who cares? its up to you if you want to believe in it..

    but if so many people feel affected by this, then surely it is something of importance, no matter what you say about the media..

    also aren't you just adding to the MJ overload by even writing a blog about him? if he was someone who really meant nothing, why bother to write anything anyway, surely someone who can make people write a piece or talk about the disgrace of how the media big him up are just as bad as those who do? its all attention in one way or another..

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  2. You're right, of course, about me adding to the "overload", but this is culled from an email I sent to a radio station to show my disgust over the way his death has been reported. This is all my thoughts distilled, and I'm done with it now. Thanks for reading, Alice, love hearing from you :)

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  3. He wasn't perfect, but he did influence so many great things and touched a lot of people's lives in different ways. That's basically the whole point of celebrities; to put themselves out in the public eye and entertain/help people get through their days. Do we know if the pedophilia was true? No. On the one hand he was rich enough to get away with a lot, but he was also rich enough to draw in people trying to make a buck off of false claims. Maybe we'll never know.

    The reason he was such an easy target was because of both his love for children/the whimsical and his physical image which slowly deteriorated over the past couple decades. We may never know how he felt about humanity, but that's not really the point. If you're going to do good you do it because you feel it's right and not for recognition...or at least as much as you can. Despite his fame and fortune the man has sacrificed himself in many different ways and for the most part endured.

    Basically, he's no better than anyone else...celebrities aren't better people but they influence a more widespread audience than most and that's why they're celebrated. That's also where the audience comes into play with our demands for specific kinds of entertainment, and where someone like Michael Jackson is pushed to the point of having breakdowns, covering the faces of his children in public, and eventually having a heart attack in which high levels of stress had to have at least some doings.

    And I'm with you 100% with news sources being vulture-like and exploiting death to a pornographic level. People feel they need the information to the extent of wanting every single piece of knowledge regardless of how little it actually affects them. It's why media (which coincidentally affects the world a whole lot) is in fact going to shit and it's why places like Facebook and Twitter are slowly replacing actual human interaction. People just want short cuts. People like information, but not the person behind the information. People worry about how people see them, but don't worry about people who see them.

    Image is the king of pop, and the king of pop just died...end of the day you just need to focus on how it affected you, reflect, and get on with life.

    I feel like I just wrote a whole blog entry here...oops. I'm not really a big Michael fan...you just got me thinking I guess. It was a good, thought provoking read though Charlie, I stopped by here a few months ago...I understand time constraints on writing but whenever you update I'll probably give it a read. Oh yeah this is Dan (Johnson) by the way...I'll probably be stopping by the Pyschotronik page one of these days, otherwise take it easy man.

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  4. Wow Dan, you went all out here. I appreciate your comments, it's always interesting to see someone elses' thoughts on the topic (as you can appreciate, as you read mine) and I appreciate you taking the time on both. See you in the funny pages...

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  5. "the invisible man" has some good points..

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