I’m a bit annoyed 1 Jul 2009 … that we give massive coverage to the death of a known child abuser and pedophile, and ignore the death of someone who lived a decent life and so far as we can tell was a good mother. There are more important things than the lives of entertainers, but given that we do care about them, why not care about the decent ones? trashcan categorial
Evolution Trashcan: chaotic remnants 7 Dec 2008 Siris has an interesting piece on the nature of the liberal arts. I loves me some 13th century, I does. Bora objects to Obama’s choices being characterised as “elites” and therefore bad. On the other hand, the term “groupthink” was coined to characterise the elite advisors of the first American… Read More
Evolution Bits and pieces 7 Jan 2009 I’m away from what serves as my computer these days for a while – off to Sydney to find a place to live. Also, the Seed Masters (whom I for one welcome) are upgrading Moveable Type from 3 to 4, so we can’t blog for a few days anyway. But… Read More
Ecology and Biodiversity A melange 14 Jan 2009 Chris Nedin at Ediacaran has a nice discussion of the metaphor of the adaptive landscape, “Climbing Pit Improbable“. It should be noted that the genetic notion of adaptive peaks is exactly the same thing as the AI notion of gradient descent learning., which inverts the “landscape” the way Chris describes…. Read More
Wow…first it was the Greatest Sidekick of All Time(1) departing for the unexplored country; then the Greatest Actress (and mother?) of All Time (2) got eaten alive; later the same day the Greatest Entertainer of All Time (3) began playing with the cute cherubim, and two days ago the Greatest Pitchman of All Time (4) started selling Oxy-clean to the choir invisible. When will this insanity end? And why is it that only dead people become “the Greatest”? — Martin (1) Ed McMahon (2) Farah Fawcett (3) Michael Jackson (4) Billy Mays
Who’s the “good mother” — Farah Fawcett? (You could be right; I don’t pay enough attention to celebs to know either way). But yeah: MJ was never on my personal radar except insofar as the media shoved him there. Back in his heyday, I was listening mostly to progressive rock, acoustic folk, and classical. And dance as an art form never did anything for me (ballet, RiverDance, MJ — *yawn*).
On the other hand, this comic sums up a bit of what I feel, and I was never a big fan of MJ. I agree that it’s extra sad that his death occluded the death of Farah Fawcett, who had a long a brave battle with cancer and whose experience can give us something to emulate. Michael Jackson was certainly a tragic figure, but it’s not the kind of tragedy anybody else is going to experience.
I sort of agree and sort of not. With Jackson, I’ve never given a hoot about him as an entertainer, but I acknowledge that there’s a very real and important story to be told. This story is not so much about the man himself, as about the lessons he holds for society. When I was in junior school, everyone loved Jackson, but when I was in not-quite-so-junior school, everyone hated Jackson, and there’s a story right there about how people judge people. Point is, different people’s deaths are noteworthy for different reasons, and few of those reasons have anything to do with how “decent” they were. On the other hand, you didn’t say that Jackson’s death shouldn’t have been covered, only that other, less tragic, individuals shouldn’t have been ignored. I can’t argue with that. Regardless of whether or not I’ve actually heard of the individuals in question.
“that we give massive coverage to the death of a known child abuser and pedophile” Maybe something more concrete will emerge after his death (particularly regarding the 93 case that he settled in), but I’m a “beyond a reasonable doubt” proponent, and there was doubt smothered all over those accusations. MJ was no OJ, imho.
MJ was important enough as an entertainer to warrant a 90 sec report of his death at the end of the news on the day that he died. The rest is superfluous bullshit and is in my opinion a sign of just how sick and perverted our society has become.
Whether you value certain genres of music or not MJ was as influential in music as Elvis was in his time. That he was a pedophile, serious as that is, should not cloud the recognition of his influence in music. Both should be acknowledged. MJ made a far larger impact on the entertainment industry than Farah did, that is why his death overshadowed hers. He may have been no more than half as deserving of praise as Farah because of her courage and spirit, but our society recognizes accomplishments more than how nice a person someone is.
I’m no MJ fan, and I’m particularly unimpressed by his “I like having children in my bed” philosophy, however, he was actually never convicted of child abuse, and technically, at the very least remains innocent. As a person who only gets information about him through the mass media, which, by all accounts should swing me in the other direction, I actually do not think he ever abused kids at all. His conduct with children should probably be labeled weird and perhaps inappropriate by most people standards, but I dont think he actually abused children. So to call him a “known child abuser”, (even if he is not directly mentioned by name, the context makes it obvious) is to me more than a stretch, and it is callous slander at worst. As I said, I am no fan of his, but to accuse someone of child abuse, perhaps more so if that person is dead and unable to defend themselves, is a serious accusation , and it is sloppy and unprofessional, in any context, even if that person is a dead billionaire superstar who bought himself free of such accusations earlier.