A little perspective required?

A little perspective required?

Yesterday saw the passing of a major star, cruelly cut down in their prime.  And then Michael Jackson pegged it and stole all of Farah Fawcett’s thunder.  So now we are subjected to endless hastily cobbled together tributes about the life and times of Michael Jackson with little reference to the fact that he was a utter nutjob.  Yes, he was.  You see, this is what annoys me.  When people are alive and well they’re plastered all over the papers and those trashy magazines.  “Journalists” (for want of a better word) like to regularly shame them by dragging up nasty little tales of wrongdoing or, if they haven’t got evidence of anything, ridicule them for the way they dress or cut their hair.

Michael Jackson was ever the subject of such things, he was mostly referred to as Wacko Jacko (or Wacko Jackson as the woman on the BBC news said this morning, silly moo), and they loved it when he was publicly tried for sexual abuse against children, they always knew he was a wrong ’un.  They didn’t like it as much when he was found not guilty because they had to go back to taking the piss out of his rather alarming looks.  And they’d been doing that for years and it had become a bit boring.

But now he’s dead.  No more Wacko Jacko, no no, behold the “King of Pop”, a “musical genius”.  Hmmm.  Now, I’m not saying he didn’t used to be good, because he was, very good but that was a long long time ago.  Back before his skin became whiter than mine, and I’m practically blue.  And yes, it is sad that he’s dead (unless you believe the conspiracy theorists).  But people die.  Other people don’t seem to realise that we all will, even those who are in the public eye.  If you watch the news (which, frankly I’m now boycotting because of it all) you will see fans, hysterical with grief, sobbing into their floral tributes and utterly inconsolable.  Oh, so you knew him personally then?  Of course they didn’t.  I really can’t understand this behaviour.  It was the same with Princess Diana and that all seemed over the top to me too.  It went on for weeks.  Yes, it’s a shock when celebrities die, especially if they’re young, but they’re just people and for me the shock passes, I might say “oh, that’s a shame” and then I get on with my life.

Seemingly that’s just me, though, because the once reviled now become revered in the public eye.  Jade Goody is the perfect example of that.  Look back to when she first became well known on Big Brother and she was all over the tabloids referred to as an ignorant fat pig.  The British public hated her.  They hated her even more when she made racist comments to Shilpa Shetty on Celebrity Big Brother.  And then she got cancer and died young.  The British public clearly has a very short memory because in some circles she is now likened to Princess Di.  Erm…. Only Michael Parkinson, it appears, had the guts to tell it like it is about Jade, “When we clear the media smoke screen from around her death, what we’re left with is a woman who came to represent all that’s paltry and wretched about Britain today.”  The tabloids were up in arms, of course they were, because they were instrumental in the reinvention of Jade the fat pig as Jade the tragic cancer stricken mother.

The world’s media, it seems, has a major problem with perspective.  Too much store is held in celebrity in the modern world and the news of Michael Jackson’s death has overshadowed the infinitely more important story of the conviction of a 15 year old boy for murdering a toddler when he was babysitting her.  Now that story made me want to cry.

3 Responses »

  1. Thank goodness I’m not the only one who thinks the saddest news of the day was a 15-year-old being found guilty of torturing and murdering a toddler he was supposed to be looking after!

    I was starting to wonder if I was emotionally stunted because I am not grief-stricken about the death of someone famous who I never met, who just happened to be a good musician and by all accounts a great showman. Just like I refused to get caught up in all grief-wallowing when Princess Di died. Yes, it was sad. Yes, she was pretty. Yes, she had her share of problems. Yes, she was a loving mother. And yes, she seemed to genuinely care about people and want to help. But the same applies to literally millions of women around the world who have never had the adavantage of the priviledge she was born into. Dying before her time did not make her a saint.

    Likewise, the sudden and shocking death of Michael Jackson is sad, but it does not raise him to the status of pop (sorry, NOT rock’n’roll) deity.

    I say “it’s a shame” when someone famous dies too early, too suddenly or too painfully. But I save my own sense of tragedy for when I lose someone who really did touch my life – like when cancer of the oesophagus claimed my Dad within 4 short months of diagnosos. Now THAT was tragic (for me), but even he did not become a saint by virtue of dying. His death left a big hole in my life where he used to be.

    Let’s keep a sense of proportion folks – acknowledge the passing of a cultural icon, sure. But leave the weeping and wailing, rending of clothes. As other news today showed us, there is more than enough things to be sad about without going looking for tragedy in the loss of people we have never known.

  2. I always like to watch the news to keep abreast of what’s happening in the world but, like you, I’ve been hitting the off button instead the last couple days. Yes, he was a global superstar so his passing does merit some high profile news stories, even updates as to the confirmed cause of his death. But constant reference back to journalists posted all over the world… He’s dead; I don’t think an update five minutes later is particularly necessary as that’s not going to change. If it did then that would be news-worthy!
    As you said, it’s this country’s celebrity-obsession; I want to live my life, not vicariously share some celebrity’s limelight.

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