I wrote in the last issue of Chaotic Fringe how I was feeling overwhelmed by the constant coverage of Michael Jackson. The morning after the memorial, with more insomnia working on my brain, I watched a repeat of a FoxNews show. FoxNews likes to think of itself as a patriotic network, and they emphasized a letter written to the Washington Post by an aunt who had lost her nephew in Afghanistan the same day Michael Jackson died. She wondered why the sacrifice of service people wasn’t getting as much attention and outpouring as Jackson.

The FonNews panel agreed with her assessment while trying to say the Jackson coverage was done not so much because they wanted to but because of ratings. It was a big story to cover and they had to cover it.

I watched a couple of other FoxNews shows over the past few hours. I should say tried to watch them because I guess the station wants to be the vanguard of morality as many of the shows had criticism not only for Jackson but for, and this is an important point, Americans who would be so enwrapped by an entertainer.

It was glossed over in one observation but it is a true fact, when you have someone as famous as Jackson, they are going to blot out the landscape as far as coverage. It is such a proof of short term memory, but hours before Jackson’s death, many cable stations, including FoxNews, were leading the news with Farrah Fawcett’s death. She was a celebrity, an American celebrity, and was given a lot of coverage which also overshadowed the death of the nephew in Afghanistan. To be real, her nephew would have gotten the same coverage if none of the celebrities had died, because that isn’t covered by the news. If she was lucky there might have been a 30 second fade to commercial mention about it and that was it. That’s not the fault of Jackson’s death but of the stations that wish not to cover it.

It seems like I had to point out the flaws in FoxNews logic, because when you listen to the commentary they make, it seems so correct and so righteous, covered in the flag, love for the troops and country. Bill O’Reilly just talked about the Peter King incident. For those unfamiliar, Rep. Peter King of New York essentially said Americans shouldn’t have so much adoration over Jackson because he was a pedophile. The proof of this, according to the mind of the representative, was he was accused of the crime. Yes, he did a payoff of one case and the other case he was acquitted. While the circumstances are bad, that doesn’t make him a child molester.

See, I find it odd that I’m defending Jackson against all these attacks, but that has been happening with the rampant assault he’s been getting since his death. O’Reilly and others had harsh words for Rev. Sharpton, claiming he is elevating Jackson to the level of Martin Luther King in saying he did a lot for race relations in this country and the world. I think its more hate of Shaprton than anything else, but Sharpton and many others make a strong case about Jackson. MTV didn’t air black acts in the early days. It wasn’t until Jackson had a huge hit with Thriller and the threat came from his record company they would pull all of their white artists to other music video stations if Jackson wasn’t played that they relented.

The biggest fallacy of all the arguments used is that Americans are a fickle nation. Critics mention how we are celebrity obsessed, but in this case and many others they sound like the same people whom they claim will fault America first instead of other countries. Cable is a magical thing, because there can be so many channels devoted to other countries. When I was flipping the dial this morning there were many foreign stations that covered the Jackson memorial. At the Staples Center there were many satellite trucks and reporters from all over the world. Stations interviewed people at the service who were from all parts of the world and they had remote memorials all over the world.

People at FoxNews may want to criticize Jackson’s life, they may want to blame America first, but it was clear to see Jackson had an impact with people all around the world. It’s not just crazy Americans who won’t respect the troops who are following the Jackson story. The reason the coverage was so big was because Jackson was big around the world. I would hasten to point out, and I must admit someone on the FoxNews panel mentioned this same point, the coverage of Jackson was just as big as it was for Princess Diana. She has no connection to the United States, but the whole world mourned her passing and it was covered round the clock by American news companies. Like Diana, where there was criticism at the time about the excessive coverage once time has passed a better perspective can be met.