Well said. I think it all goes back to marketing and the “professional wresting” fan mentality of a large percentage of viewers.

There’s very seldom something in the news where it would hurt not to know about it. Things that come to mind are the momentous events of our time — 9/11/2001, the Oklahoma Federal Building bombing, the space shuttle disasters –, but, most days, there’s little news that is that

What “gets my goat” is it either goes one way or the other. The public is on the rampage “loving to hate” a celebrity and thirsting after whatever juicy tidbit they can find to support their “being right to hate”. Or, they are infatuated with a celebrity and we hear too many “Pollyanna-type” messages.

In a lot of cases, nobody even knows what the real story is by the time the media is finished. But, people make a choice to love or hate the person; they choose which information they want to hear.

Either way, it’s overdone and the end result? People like you and I turn it all off when we might miss one detail that IS important.
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Barbara, thanks. It took me a while to get the wording right.

Betsy, I agree.

Mel, You had cable? I thought y’all just got DVDs from the library.

Dot, The Anna Nicole Smith thing was in the exact same category for me. I wrote a similar post on that, but, unfortunately, that’s one of the ones that got lost when I moved the blog location. I don’t have a problem with covering the story — it’s just that I don’t think it’s more important than other things that are going on. As Vered says, it’s part of the culture of celebrity and I don’t care for it. That’s also why I do NOT watch professional sports. So far as Jackson getting more publicity in death than Elvis, there were far fewer channels and CNN, MSNBC, Fox and many more did not exist.

Ramana, I guess it’s a measure of his popularity that even in India, you’re getting to share this with us.

Vered, well said!

Dan (dcr), That’s the saving grace for us, too, since our television time has been cut back drastically. However, my mother-in-law, who is wheel chair bound and watches copious amounts of TV, is being overwhelmed by it.

Michelle, Welcome to modern television for the masses. Over the top is right.

Patricia, I don’t want to completely do away with television, but it sure is nice not to have it on very often or long.

Natural, I’m not complaining about Michael Jackson. He was what he was and, while I’m not OK with that, that’s a different matter than what I am talking about. I’m talking about the media frenzy and that I’m tired of the focus on what sells as opposed to what’s really news.

A sad end to a talented but sad life – I worry about children involved in this situation, but don’t think my curiosity wants satisfaction 24/7
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I do see different stories coming out and people with their theories and so on. I don’t know if we’ll ever know what the real Michael Jackson was like with so many conflicting stories out there.
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“…there are so many more important things going on in the world that are being under reported because of this sensationalism.” I couldn’t have said it better.
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