The Man Who Sold The World

I may never understand the coverage of celebrity's deaths.

More than three weeks after Michael Jackson's death, his spirit still lives on in the 24-hour news cycle. Now come reports that LaToya Jackson may have told British tabloid News of the World that her brother was murdered.

It's a weird and sad story, to be sure. News of Michael Jackson's death ran prominently on the front page of the New York Times, and rightfully so. His death was compelling news, which is to say, millions cared about the event that happened somewhat recently and wanted more information on it.

Billy Mays also died at 50 years old, a mere three days after Jackson. Many fewer people cared about his death, but wasn't it more important than the two or three days of media coverage he received?

I think this is another case of the media guessing who is important, but there's a disconnect. With all sincerity, I'd argue that Mays' death at 50 deserved at least a few days more of attention. Whatever your opinion of him, you can't argue he was one of the most recognizable people on television, this country's favorite medium. That beard and constant yelling were on commercials all the time. There should have been interviews with doctors about what caused his heart attack and a series of features on how the audience can avoid such a fate. People care about very few things, but their own health is one of them.

Here's another example of the media deciding which famous deaths go to the next level. When Tim Russert died a little more than a year ago, everything stopped. The news channels discussed it for days on end, presumably because he was one of them and died while on the job. I idolized Russert like everyone else, but then Senators Barack Obama and John McCain attended his funeral and it included a performance via satellite by Bruce Springsteen. Obviously Cronkite's old age keeps the sadness pretty limited, but he still had a huge effect on how great journalism is done. I have a feeling his name will be kicked out in the cycle soon.

So what then keeps a story in the news? I was so sure when I first heard the news of Jackson's death that it wouldn't still be a relevant topic. For as big as he was, he might as well have been dead for years considering how little we heard from him recently. My guess is that the media, trying to move away from out of touch and toward living on, are looking at connecting to what people care about. Rather than actually working too hard on this, they check the blogs as an indicator of what matters to normal people. That would mean blogs play a huge role in the direction of this country's media, which may or may not be a good thing. It's probably pretty bad.

In a slightly related topic, this will never fail to make me laugh:

"BILLY MAYS HERE FOR CAPS LOCK, THE CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL."

-30-
McKees Rocks, Pa's finest, Billy Mays