Michael Jackson, Sarah Palin and us.
July 3rd, 2009
As the buzz of media has circled (and circled and circled) the sad news of Michael Jackson’s untimely death, we’ve given some thought to what Village Square message there is in all of the hoopla.
Cue up today’s Sarah Palin announcement that she will resign the Alaska governorship to bring the Village Square message sliding into home plate. Bear with me for a moment, I’ll explain…
Did you know that Michael Jackson was sued over 1,000 times? Can you even begin to imagine that sort of circus as a part of your life? One lawsuit would do most of us in. Clearly his fortune played a roll in that fate as did his rumored misdeeds, but possibly more of a contributing factor was his fame – a la 24 hour cable and internet rumor reverberation. Not taking a side on Jackson’s alleged sexual deviancy, when we started our love/hate affair with Jackson he was an adorable boy singing “ABC”. Clearly his abusive dad had a hand in it, but don’t we also have a role in who that little boy has become?
News, cable, media… ultimately they give us want we want, and they know what we want (via polls out the wazoo) whether we admit it to ourselves or not. Jackson’s 1,000+ lawsuits were sort of sponsored by us. We have a mass media environment – brought to us by technology we won’t be putting back in Pandora’s box no matter how we might wish it so – that just warps things. I think they warped that beautiful and fantastically talented little boy.
Now, Sarah Palin. A little more than half of America thought she wasn’t ready to become our Vice President. Fair enough. But there is something once again warping about the experience she’s clearly had as she’s danced this dance with our mass culture. Her words: “I’ve been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations such as holding a fish in a photograph or wearing a jacket with a logo on it.”
It used to be that the common sense connections we made in America kept this boat of ours floating high. But our connections are different today. They don’t feature plain common sense prominently, rather they highlight market share. They’re not playing to the best in us which we used to bring front and center to our rotary club, our PTA, our bowling league. Instead, they’ve found the worst in us, the TV we watch and the websites we visit when there’s no one there we have to fess up to.
Market share brings us boys who grow into men who get sued 1,000 times. It brings us decent strong women who say yes when someone asks them to run for office, but find their life is turned all upside down and inside out as a result. As so on and so on until we reconnect with each other enough to strongly tell them in unison that it’s not what we want anymore.
The media is like a laser that exponentially strengthens what WE are asking for. We need to understand and focus its power. Ultimately it is US who will tell them it’s time to stop. Two weeks of Michael Jackson death rubber-necking needs to be received by us with a big yawn in the Nielsen’s.
For now, like Sarah Palin or not, hit your knees tonight and thank her for knocking Michael Jackson’s death out of the media cycle.
Let him rest in peace.
And again – like Palin or not – you’re going to have to appreciate some of what she just said to us today: “We’re fishermen, we know that only dead fish go with the flow.”
Here’s hoping most Americans aren’t dead fish.
Entry Filed under: "More than what they see", Civility 101, Horse Manure, On the media
3 Comments Add your own
1. Darryl | July 3rd, 2009 at 10:39 pm
I’m sorry, but I have to call you on this one. There’s a vast difference between the situation Michael Jackson was thrown into as a young boy and the fully conscious *choice* of a Sarah Palin, who is an adult. She is no victim–which is really how you’re characterizing her–of any media attention, or of anyone else, for that matter. If she hated media attention, she should never have entered, well, her original broadcasting gig, much less politics, much less the campaign for the office one heartbeat away from the presidency! Feel no pity for Sarah Palin; her choices were her own, as were Michael Jackson’s as a responsible adult.
2. Liz | July 3rd, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Fair enough on the whole “they’re both adults…” you’re right, they are. But I’m going to go with the “power of AND” and stick to my contention that we still need to look at how our culture plays into it. I imagine the days of the town hall meeting when left or right side of the aisle, we’d tell someone trading in rank gossip to “sit down and shut up.” I think we’re still those people at heart and I’m calling us out.
3. Darryl | July 6th, 2009 at 11:57 am
You’re right about what people would do in a town hall, but American national politics *isn’t* a town hall, and probably shouldn’t be. Do we need more civility? Yes, without question. At no point, though, should we ever fear people in the media calling out candidates, politicians, and other public figures when they present one image, but are keeping unethical actions out of sight, along with questionable affiliations. The purpose of a free press–even one as compromised by corporate interests as ours is–is to investigate those who would lead us. I found the way the media dug into the *personal* lives of Jackson and Palin distasteful. In Palin’s case, though, one could argue that to a limited extent, her personal circumstances are somewhat political, given her party’s platform. She also placed her family explicitly in the forefront of her image. Once you do that, you open up your life to a level of scrutiny that no one should like to endure. That was her choice, though, and her mistake, as it was Jackson’s. Should the media show restraint? Yes. Will they? Not until it destroys their bottom line. It’s sad, but true.
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