This past week was the last for a few iconic celebrities, starting with the death of "Tonight" sidekick Ed McMahon, followed by the sexy Farrah Fawcett and not-so-sexy Michael Jackson, then Billy Mays and his booming enthusiasm over OxiClean.
The world was struck by grief and frenzy as pieces of America's pop culture fell victim to the reality of death, which was more expected for some than others. The attachment to these figures, knowing the sound of their voice, the oddities and beauty of each individual, remembering their smile connected to simple taglines, like "Here's Johnny!" or "It's easy as ABC," and everything short of knowing their smell equated to a pseudo-relationship with these people.
And boy, did the news catch on to readers' attraction to popular culture. Since Thursday, the news has been pumping out MJ and Billy Mays stories as if the world depended on it, forgetting problems elsewhere.
Because fame results from our democratic nature to choose who is the next best thing or old and boring, it is no wonder why these celebrity passings, namely Michael Jackson's, are causing such a ruckus. Whether Jackson was in the limelight for moon-walking, a disintegrating nose or touching little boys, he made people scratch their heads as to what in the world he was thinking; he was godly at keeping people interested.
The New York Times, CBS, CNN and just about every other media source have each covered at least two handfuls of stories over Jackson in print and on television since his death. He is often found on the front page of newspapers and now dominates the internet.
On the day he died, Google's search engine crashed for 25 minutes, and Google and Yahoo both confirm record-breaking searches. Social networking sites Twitter and Facebook saw doubling and tripling in their respective amount of updates.
But despite the appeal gathered from a spectrum of audiences, how much is too much of this MJ craze?
TV and editors would be foolish not to have picked up on the public's interest in popular culture, but the amount to which it did dimmed other serious news people know all too well, or perhaps too little.
At this time, America has been thinking about Iran's deepened repression, North Korea's continuing threats, the new Climate Bill, multiple issues spawning from the future health reform and the big financial blob that's been the goo on the bottom of everyone's shoes.
And still, all it took was the death of a popular figure to forget all of that for a few days.
Michael Jackson would be proud. But succumbing to pop-culture detracts from the purpose and significance of hard news. Newspapers and broadcasts must continue to forward valuable knowledge, to be an open portal and to remember not to get so caught up in smaller details along the way.
These news televising companies must understand, despite popular demand for more Michael Jackson grievance and "trip down memory lane" pieces, they need to leave it up to magazines and blogs to cover, instead.
A newspaper is to inform over a spectrum of happenings with a little bit of public interest, but above all, to report the unforgiving truth.







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