But I'm a little confused when people say that Michael Jackson integrated AM radio.

I'm white and a few years older than Ms Walsh and I remember a young girlhood lived to the score of Motown.

The Four Tops, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, The Supremes all had a string of top ten hits in the early sixties and I and my friends bought and danced to all of them.

Maybe it would be more precise to say that Jackson re-integrated AM radio after years of British groups and, later, heavy metal and hair bands?

hi Joan.

well, i'd say in terms of talent: a lot of sizzle, not much steak. doubt that anyone will be covering the song "thriller" in 20 years, for example. aside from that, wow, hour after hour we're bombed on the tube with pronouncements about how this poor human being is responsible for everything from racial reconcilation world-wide to the election of our current president. astonishing. as i watched the run-up to the iraq war on american t.v., was amazed to view nearly nothing resembling fact- or truth-based "journalism" -- not to mention precious little in the "print media" as well. so now, we see iran and what is happening there, and burma, and darfur and on and on or -- i can walk outside and look up and down my block and not have to become some grandiose world-suffering monitor -- all of this taking a back seat to holy cow the unexpected death of this seemingly haunted, hurt human being. i feel for the man and his children, really. how very sad. he's a human cartoon, and has been for years, a virtual person -- but he must be real to someone, for sure he's real to his children one would imagine, and certainly he was real to himself. i hope he finds peace or peace finds him or however one hopes it might work. the tv stuff on this and the celebs and people coming out of the woodwork to "pronounce" etc. are a kind of mind-bending form of narcissistic i/me pornography that is -- if nothing else -- plain soul-deadening, at least to me. take care --

David

I reached my Jackson saturation moment last Saturday, in great part because his death pushed every real news story off the table in favor of memorializing, eulogizing, and further celebretizing him. In a word it was sick.

Our media doesn't know how to behave, or how to tell a moving story about celebrity death without becoming entwined in salacious gossip and tabloid-like excesses. And for what? Readers? Viewers? With Michael Jackson they went way over the top. It left me speechless.

I couldn't and wouldn't watch the memorial service because it was too much more of the same media lunacy. And I'm cynical about several of the tributes I caught snatches of in news highlights: his brothers, Al Sharpton, Brooke Shields, Jackson's daughter. The tributes seemed less about Jackson's life, career and good deeds than they were "infotainmentt" by people who are, at their core, celebrities and entertainers out in front of cameras, given a huge worldwide audience.

Like you, Joan, I'm not sure we or the media did any favors for Michael Jackson - in life or in death. We collectively build people like Jackson up, turning them into golden gods while they're alive, never giving them any piece or quiet; and we help twist their faults (Elvis with his drug problem, Judy Garland with her substance abuse problem, Marilyn Monroe with her substance abuse problem, etc.) into fatal flaws that not only take their lives but take the pleasure and enjoyment away from their true talent and stardom. Then in death, because we seem to have no boundaries, we turn them into icons and immortal idols. But because we are never honest about their flaws (Jackson's abuse and misuse of narcotics, plastic surgery, and his extremely bad judgment with children) we continue to repeat this excess with nearly every well-known celebrity who dies. We seem not to want the enjoyment or pleasure these people bring as much as we want to smother them.

I hope he is at peace now. Please let us return to the news that was swept aside in the wake of his media-saturated death.

Hey, I will give you credit -- you make your case very well. And you know much more about the trial(s) than I do. Thanks for all the details and arguments. My hat's off to you.

I have nothing invested in arguing that Jackson was guilty of anything. He may well have not been.

The only thing I do know is this:

(1) Jackson erred in leaving himself open to these sorts of accusations. This is not to say he's to blame if, indeed, he was victimized by extortionists.

(2) Michael Jackson should have done real damage control after the accusations. The best thing to do would have been to follow Hugh Grant's example and publically explain himself, with real humility and honesty -- even if no legal lines were crossed. When President Clinton confessed to the blow-jobs, he took back control of the situation. He was then free to get back to work. Jackson could have done something like this, but instead he piled on the make-up and costumes, and just kept retreating (with notable exceptions, like his pubic statement regarding the detectives taking photographs of his penis). Jackson should have done the Oprah show and made the rounds, telling the truth and letting the chips fall. That's the only position from which to remake yourself.

(3) His music and pop image suffered as he retreated more and more into his "Neverland." I saw one of his later videos last night. I'm not sure if it was from HIS/story or what, but it had expensive production values, and it showed the unveiling of a giant Michael Jackson sculpture, as a huge crowd of fans screamed and helicopters circled around. The miscalculation of this self-aggrandizing approach is impressive; it is a major turn-off, and betrays a serious disconnect with the cultural reality of the times. "Bigger" and "overloaded production" weren't the answer to his popularity problems. The answer he should have given was "more down-to-earth" and "better music."