Over at NRO, Jonah Goldberg offers some nice insights on the way the media have covered Michael Jackson’s passing. Here is an excerpt:
[H]is relatively early death wasn’t “tragic.” He was one of the richest people in the world. He spent his money on perpetual childhood and he was perpetually with children not his own.
Meanwhile, in the last ten days, we’ve seen or heard of remarkable people who’ve given their lives for freedom in Iran. We’ve heard of innocents killed because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. In the last decade, America has lost thousands of heroes in noble causes and thousands of innocent bystanders who were denied the simple joys of life through no fault of their own. Those deaths are tragic, and we’re hard pressed to think of more than a handful of names to put with the long line of the dead.
If anything, Michael Jackson’s life, not his death, was tragic….
I feel sympathy for Jackson’s family and friends who understandably mourn him. But I can’t bring myself to mourn him any more than I mourn the random dead I read about in the paper everyday. Indeed, I confess to mourning him less.
Every channel says this is a sad day for America. I agree. But not for the same reasons.
You can read the whole thing here.
June 26th, 2009 | 1:00 pm
Meh. If his life was tragic, then his death is tragic, since his life was tragic to the end. Was it likely that Jackson’s life might have taken a more positive direction had he lived? Probably not, but there’s still a difference between the open-endedness of a question mark and the finality of a period at the end of a paragraph.
June 26th, 2009 | 2:15 pm
[...] on the excessively pop-minded press by Francis [...]
June 26th, 2009 | 3:40 pm
[...] aspects is undeniable, but this media-sanctification is really going too far. As Jonah Goldberg writes: …let’s pause for a moment on that word “icon.” It seemed the consensus adjective for [...]
June 26th, 2009 | 6:43 pm
I totally agree with Mr. Goldberg. The praise of idol’s by others is fine when not carried to the extreme but most “hero’s” are likely known only to God.
June 27th, 2009 | 12:02 am
A Catholic chaplain has recently died of injuries from Iraq. Reportedly, he was the first chaplain to die who was a veteran of Iraq. His photo belongs in the headlines. Better yet, draft all the capable pop and pro-sports stars and send them to Iraq or Afghanistan so they can be real heroes. Brett Favre, I have a real job for you. . .
June 27th, 2009 | 11:39 am
[...] Jonah Goldberg on the Media and Michael Jackson’s death – Francis Beckwith [...]
June 27th, 2009 | 6:36 pm
[...] ~ ITEM: Jonah Goldberg on the Media and Michael Jackson’s death [...]
June 29th, 2009 | 12:15 am
Good points to think about. I posted something similar (www.abundant-blessings.com), reflecting on the media attention to celebrity deaths in general, as compared to the deaths of our everyday heroes. In my case, it was my own father, a WWii vet who died Father’s Day evening.
July 1st, 2009 | 11:40 am
Michael Jackson’s life and death were both tragic. The video retrospectives and cheesy remembrance specials, while trying to justify all of MJ’s deviant/bizarre behavior, only reinforce the sad obvious facts. Here was a talented young man, pushed on the stage at a young age by abusive parents, iconic yet troubled, and ultimately ruined by the usual demons as he and his celebrity grew older. I’m no great apologist of Michael Jackson and his ways, but there is something undeniably winsome about the young entertainer on the cover of Thriller. And there is something undeniably disheartening about the way his story played out.
July 23rd, 2009 | 9:43 pm
People in the service choose what they do as adults. They are paid to kill people and break things at the bidding of governments. Michael Jackson did not choose to be a child star. Soldiers can choose to be anything they want to be. Michael Jackson could only ever be Michael Jackson.
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