To the Media on Michael Jackson:

I can't believe the media hocus that has been going on about Michael Jackson. (BTW, I thought MJ was Michael Jordon...buh?) Seriously folks. The circus has been on the TV for over a week now.

Don't get me wrong. He was a fabulous entertainer. The man could dance. There was no one who could dance like him. But for me at least, that's where it ends. I like his music, but there's a lot out there that I like more.

I have one story about Michael Jackson that is intersting. When I was six or seven my father woke my brother and I out of a sound sleep, brought us downstairs, plopped us on the couch and turned on the TV. He wanted us to watch the music video "Thriller." This was sometime in the late eighties or early nineties. Until last week, I thought he had gotten us up so that we could watch it debut, but from what I have found on the internet, it debuted before I was born. So it must have been some anniversary showing. My father was in awe of the amount of money spent on the video, the costumes, the dancing and just plain how great it looked. As the video started, he looked at my brother and I and said, "Now you watch this, someday you will thank me for waking you up." I love the memory. I love that my dad was watching TV, saw that it was going to be on and though that far ahead. So in the end, I think this memory says more to me about my dad than it does about Michael Jackson.

Anyway. CNN, Headline News, Local News, the papers, even Slate.com, my proverbial port in the storm for telling it like it is, were slathered with Michael Jackson for over a week. There were far more important things going on in the world. Take these following examples; North Korea decided to test more long range missiles and South Korea was convinced for some reason or another that they would hit Hawaii, a serial killer was on the lose in South Carolina, Sarah Palin resigned, oh and there was an actual COUP in Honduras. I'm not saying these things weren't covered, because they certainly were, but not to the extent that they should have been. (Except for Sarah Palin, who I'm sure will continue to covered...well...forever...if only because sometimes the press doesn't even know what to say about her but they still continue to talk.) I was impressed with NPR though, they did their usual obituary speil and played some of his music as a transistion interlude.

I can home today and turned on the TV, it was already on one of the channels that was playing the Michael Jackson public memorial. Out came Reverand Al Sharpton who said something about Michael Jackson breaking down the color barrier. I stopped dead. Awesome dancer, great enterainer, child-genius, (and then there's that other thing relating to children) lover of the environment, these things I can go with. But come on. He did not single handedly break down the color barrier. Al Sharpton said something about how without Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods wouldn't be playing golf today. Pleeeease. Jackie Robinson and others did more in the world of sports and I would venture to guess that the Surpremes and Stevie Wonder (who was part of the memorial service and had played just before Sharpton spoke) did more for the entertainment world.

So please, can we be done now?