by Karl J. Paloucek
Well, it’s been four days now, and as of this morning his death is still the lead story across most of America. Even if we do get a break to hear about Bernie Madoff’s 150 year-sentence today, my guess is that just as soon, we’ll be back on the bandwagon of hearing more speculation and reiteration about the causes of Michael Jackson’s death and regarding the fallout from his messy estate.
It’s a peculiar phenomenon when news media outlets go into this mode — in which a story becomes so self-perpetuating that it continues to be the top story even when there’s nothing new or revelatory happening. In some sense, it’s no surprise, because, well, like any other media outlet, profitability is tied to viewer ratings, webpage hits and circulation. With the incredible focus of attention Jackson’s death received last Thursday and has retained since, it’s inevitable that the media is going to try to keep people’s attention as much as possible. Unfortunately, that means whether they have anything new to add or not.
Obviously, this isn’t the first time a particular headline has taken on a life of its own. The first time I remember pointedly being discouraged by aimless speculation in the news media was perhaps one or two days after O.J. Simpson’s arrest in 1994, when PBS’s NewsHour With Jim Lehrer — an outlet that at the time I still regarded as a pretty solid journalistic source — didn’t merely allude to the Simpson story at the top of its headlines, but proceeded to broadly speculate inconclusively for the better part of the program. I remember thinking to myself, “Never has so much been said in service of something about which no one really knows, and that ultimately won’t directly affect the vast majority of people watching this.” (Of course, this was long before the trial eventually would take its place center stage in American late-20th-century race relations.)
Like a lot of people, I’m sure, I’m experiencing a bit of a feeling of dejá vù — that we’re once again at the start of an investigation that, with the help of constant media saturation and endless talk and speculation on the part of the American public, might become something of greater significance. Mr. Jackson’s particular version of the American rags-to-riches-to-phenomenal debt story may simply end up as a detail in the sweeping saga of our country’s economic woes, or it may turn into something else entirely as a result of the sheer volume of discourse his story will no doubt continue to receive in the coming weeks/months and beyond. In the end, it won’t make any difference to Mr. Jackson, but likely will have a great impact on how we remember him — as the self-styled “King of Pop,” the rather creepy man/child some would allege, or the subject of a fantastically overblown media phenomenon that’s only now beginning to pick up steam.
