Bright Side to Media's Jacko Obsession: It's Time Not Spent Pushing Government Health Care

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Catching up on a short item I noticed over the weekend, conservative columnist George Will has finally found a bright spot to the media's wall-to-wall coverage of Michael Jackson over the past couple of weeks: at least it's time not spent pushing a liberal big government agenda. Will pointed out on ABC's This Week: "When the mainstream media is preoccupied with this, it's probably doing, on margin, less damage than when it's dealing with public policy."

At that, longtime ABC newsman Sam Donaldson interjected, "Oh, thanks a lot!"

During the July 12 roundtable, host George Stephanopoulos opened a segment on the media's coverage of Jackson (under the graphic headline "Michael Jackson: Media Overkill") with a clip of Republican Congressman Peter King decrying the lavish coverage given over to Jackson, who faced trial four years ago over charges he molested a young boy. Here's the full exchange:

Clip of REP. PETER KING (R-NY): He was a child molester, he was a pedophile, and to be giving this much coverage to him -- day in and day out -- what does it say about us as a country?

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: What does it say, George Will?

GEORGE WILL: I don't know. When the mainstream media is preoccupied with this, it's probably doing, on margin, less damage than when it's dealing with public policy. But --

SAM DONALDSON: Oh, thanks a lot!