New Zealand news media are yet to reach the depths of personality-driven American media but they are close cousins with a distinct familial relationship. Witness the glorification this week and last of the death of Michael Jackson and the consequent funeral. They were on the television news every night in New Zealand, often the lead story of the news. Still are. That kind of sustained coverage is symptomatic of American media who are more than capable of giving the same coverage to a Lindsay Lohan story as they are to 9/11. Kobey Bryant probably tops them both.
But it is disturbing with the Michael Jackson story to see the same from the New Zealand media. As for Michael Jackson himself, I am ambivalent. I rate him as a performer and a dancer. But not as a singer, song-writer, arranger or as a person. I wrestled with the latter. Like most I had a view on Michael Jackson’s relationships with young boys and in my case that view was he was guilty as sin and charged. But coverage given that subject since his death (and here the media have done a good job) has made me less sure and maybe there was a genuine innocence there arising from an abusive upbringing and a weird but wonderful personality. I have no such ambivalence about his father, Joe, though. Joe Jackson is the best justification yet for patricide. The man is monstrous and his behaviour before and after Michael Jackson’s death despicable. Conversely, Katherine, his wife, seems okay. It’s probably okay also that she gets custody of Michael’s children. But if Joe is ever allowed to get near them we may well yet have another tragedy in the making. Despite that, despite the allegations of his life, I trust that Michael Jackson in his death will be at rest and that the New Zealand media will now give it a rest.
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