Michael Jackson’s death offers a reminder that some old TV news encomiums were too gooey, even in their own time. On April 7, 1993 on PBS, MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour essayist Anne Taylor Fleming offered a tribute to Jackson as "The new-age Fred Astaire…an urban urchin with wings on his feet." Fleming was fixated more on the dancing: "I must confess that his singing has always seemed secondary to me, the leftover choirboy trying to rhapsodize about romance. It doesn’t ring right. It’s like Madonna trying to be soft and Monroe-like."
What followed became a Notable Quotable, where the liberal babble began:
If either of the two [Madonna or Michael Jackson] is the logical heir to Marilyn Monroe, it is clearly Michael Jackson, who is the more bruised and authentically vulnerable of the two....He doesn’t leave a single metaphor untouched. Not only is he black and white, male and female, but also young and old, hip and square, the crotch-grabbing self-appointed guardian angel of the world's children.
Months later, when allegations of child sexual abuse surfaced, Jackson was then compared to Ronald Reagan:
The explanation for this almost evasive coverage has to do with [Michael] Jackson's peculiar relationship with the public, and the interpretation of that relationship by the press. The feeling is: he may be a space cadet, but he's our space cadet, and we want to keep him. He's the Ronald Reagan of pop. -- Newsweek media writer Jonathan Alter, September 6, 1993.
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Timeline: Newsweek has been
June 29, 2009 - 12:59 ET by nolotrippenTimeline: Newsweek has been insane at least since 1993.
He was a pedophile, but he
June 29, 2009 - 13:01 ET by SickofLibsHe was a pedophile, but he was our pedophile.
Or do we have to wait for Tingles to inform everyone "he was us." (If he didn't already.)
Great, I was hoping Michael Jackson coverage would show up here
June 29, 2009 - 13:01 ET by alwaysconI haven't seen enough of it on CNN, MSNBC, or FOX.
Jackson
June 29, 2009 - 13:04 ET by east tennessee johnThe Ronald Reagan of pop, of couse after the pediphile accusations. Alter is nothing more than an asshole with a pen at the sinking Newsthreeand a half days. What is it with these cretins?
Ah, memories.
June 29, 2009 - 13:05 ET by Mike SargentAh, memories.
"... the crotch-grabbing
June 29, 2009 - 13:17 ET by Apodictic"... the crotch-grabbing self-appointed guardian angel of the world's children." This is precisely how liberals think. Enough said.
Flemming got it right
June 29, 2009 - 13:48 ET by GalvanicMichael Jackson was spawned, cultivated, and eventually victimized by the heartless media culture that feeds on celebrity and controversy, and he was certainly firmly planted in both.
This tragic figure -- the self-proclaimed King of Pop (ugh!) -- was a perpetual child, his arrested emotional and social development being that of an 11 year old, trying the build and sustain the childhood he never had.
But at the same time, he was a pedophile, and no amount of hit songs can offset the damage and destruction to young boys that he left in his wake.
The media made a lot of money off the living freak they had created, and now continue to do so after his death.
In the end, to parphrase Flemmings '93 description, he was neither black nor white, male nor female, young nor old. Similarly, I neither wished him dead, nor alive. He's gone, and I don't care.
Elizabeth Taylor gave him
June 29, 2009 - 14:56 ET by arkansaszippersElizabeth Taylor gave him that nickname, so he wasn't exactly (ugh!) "self-proclaimed"...
Galv... Amen. You
June 29, 2009 - 18:33 ET by bigtimerGalv...
Amen.
You summed it up well for me...thank you.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Victim?
June 29, 2009 - 18:41 ET by Radical1979Although part of me does feel a tiny bit sorry for Jackson, most of me feels disgust. Childhood fame and a fortune isn't the worst fate. I'm sure his father abused his children. But that doesn't excuse his behavior or failure to grow up. There were many children in WWII who suffered far worse during childhood, but who were able to become successful and productive adults. Even now I look at immigrants from other nations who suffered as children, but they come here, work hard, and are successful.
Some people choose to wallow in self pity when they have more than 99.9% of the world. I can't feel pity for them.
Rad... I feel no
June 29, 2009 - 18:58 ET by bigtimerRad...
I feel no pity.
I was agreeing with the destructive vultures in the msm...period.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Gotcha. You're refering to
June 29, 2009 - 19:00 ET by Radical1979Gotcha. You're refering to people like Perez Hilton, who got what he deserved!
LOL Rad...that works for
June 29, 2009 - 19:06 ET by bigtimerLOL Rad...that works for me.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Dear God, please, no Michelle Jackson stories on NB
June 29, 2009 - 18:23 ET by R D HelmI haven't been near a TV since the news broke of his/her/its passing.
Hell, even Hannity was playing it for bumper music on Friday.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhh!
-Dave
Obama's health care "reform" plan is to blow up the building in order to fix a leak in the roof-Herman Cain
You can watch Glen Beck.
June 29, 2009 - 21:52 ET by Radical1979You can watch Glen Beck. He occasionally comes on with a news flash that Michael Jackson is still dead, but that's about it. No mention of anything else. It's refreshing. Obama must hate that.
Hey Rad... I got a kick
June 29, 2009 - 21:58 ET by bigtimerHey Rad...
I got a kick out of that today too.
He did the same on his radio show this morning...what I caught of it that is.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
In 1993 who knew?
June 29, 2009 - 21:52 ET by nwahs20/20 hindsight is a wonderful thing.
From October 2004: http://www.prospect....
"Late in the summer, at the Republican national convention in New York, a movie billed as the conservative alternative to Fahrenheit 9/11 debuted for the party faithful. The film, George W. Bush: Faith in the White House,
opens with a montage of a billowing American flag, a softly lit
portrait of Jesus in Gethsemane, and a shot of the tawny profile of our
43rd president with his eyes gazing heavenward. Myriad times throughout
the film Bush is referred to reverently as a man of faith....
Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, has
met with the president and advised the Bush White House. “I sat down
with [Bush],” he told me. “What I do know is that … [the president] is
an honest guy who really believes what he says.”
"
So Bush believed in the good in Ted Haggard ( and I do think among the demons, there is good in Ted Haggard), and this reporter believed in the good in Michael Jackson ( and I believe among the demons there was good in Michael Jackson).
I understand why you wag your finger at others, Tim, and I believe among your demons, there is also good ( as there is good among my demons). Some will choose to see it to a point of being blind to your demons. That doesn't make them dumb. That makes them one who values your good, perhaps too much, I dunno. But its not dumb, its the value and perhaps attempt to encourage the good. IMHO anyway.
http://newsbusters.o...