Somewhere in Hell, Colonel McCormick and H. L. Mencken are snickering through tears. The media's two-week orgy of adulation and mourning over the late Micheal Jackson has, if nothing else, removed whatever lingering doubts I had that network news, including all the news-only cable channels, was about anything but entertainment, a kind of aggressively oversized and even more vapid restatement of "Entertainment Tonight" cloaked in a thin tissue of faux-journalism.
President in Russia, looking like a deer in the headlights? Micheal Jackson is dead!
Economy auguring in? Weeping mourners add flowers to impromptu shrine for Jackson!
Congress ponders massive restructuring of your health care? Live, high-definition coverage of the Jackson memorial service!
...And on and on.
I'm still waiting to hear the announcement that the CDC is launching a crash program to cure pederasty, to be named in the late singer's honor.
The irony is that Jon Stewart, ostensibly an entertainer, is starting to look more and more like a credible journalist.
ReplyDeleteJim
I am so sick of Michael Jackson's face that my stomach almost turns when I see him on TV. It really came home to me this week just how messed up he really was, and it made me sad.
ReplyDeleteNow can we please get back to the real events? Please?
There were moments of incredible black humor (no pun intended) such as when Brooke Shields told of being with Michael at Elizabeth Taylor's wedding...which one?
ReplyDeleteOr the irony of the Rev's Sharpton, MLK IV or whatever, MLK daughter, all ministers of some sort of cloth elevating the pederast to divinity without realizing their religious hypocrisy.
This is getting as bad as when Elvis died.
ReplyDeletePosting a comment on your other blog doesn't work like on here. Just thought you should know. Am I gonna have to open another account than just Google? Google option doesn't work for me with firefox.
ReplyDeleteI've changed it to be like this one now, James -- it was set so commenters had to be logged in.
ReplyDeleteBob G: I think it may be worse than when Elvis died. Will Neverland become Graceland West now?
24 hour news. Kind of like a desperate comedian who just ran out of material while still on stage - a dangerous thing. Even local can run on and on about trifling junk. And always with the on-the-scene report 12 hours after something happened, and it was all cleaned up and all you have are youths jumping around in the background.
ReplyDeleteI miss when the news was only 15 minutes, and you just heard the announcer while words like NEWS, SPORTS, WEATHER, were thrown on screen.