For those skeptical of my last post, take a look at thisimportant piece on the question by Benjamin Sarlin of The Daily Beast on the way moronic Jacko coverage, especially by the electronic media has made the attempt by the courageous resisters in Iran to get their story out (and probably save some lives because the eyes of the world will be on them) much more difficult. Note that it quotes experts on both right and left agreeing about this. Spencer Ackerman: (link in Beast post): “I think we can agree that the Iranian regime benefits from the media’s rush to memorialize, explore and reflect upon Michael Jackson and his legacy.”
Of course it’s not just the media’s fault, as Sarlin’s piece points out; it’s media consumers–particularly tv viewers who skew what networks and cable cover– who feed on Jacko garbage, and Twitter airheads too, gobbling up bandwith vital to the opposition in Iran. Why not declare a Day Without Stupid Jacko Tweets. People are being murdered over there and all you care about is tweeting about “The Gloved One”?
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14 Comments
1. David Thomson:I will take it one step further. The Iranian mullahs would be out of power today if the world’s response to their outrages equaled that shown to the death of Michael Jackson. These thugs realize that the majority of pampered Westerners really don’t give a damn. They only have to be patient and any protests in the West will quickly lose steam.
Jun 29, 2009 - 7:29 am 2. charlie finch:Of course, the Iranian protestors are probably listening to MJ’s music, whose hypnotic beats drive them on!
Jun 29, 2009 - 8:10 am 3. David Levavi:There’s a silver lining, Ron and it doesn’t jibe with your contempt for the blogosphere and its anonymous contributors.
Punk Sulzberger and his counterparts in the State Department and the Administration may be delighted to see their moral cowardice fumbling and stumbling blown off the front page by the death a pop icon. But on the internet the comments, anonymous and otherwise, remained focused on the important issues.
Count your blessings, Buddy.
Jun 29, 2009 - 10:26 am 4. David Thomson:“Punk Sulzberger and his counterparts in the State Department and the Administration may be delighted to see their moral cowardice fumbling and stumbling blown off the front page by the death a pop icon.”
Ron Rosenbaum prefers to believe that both the center-right and the left-wingers desire freedom in Iran. That is only true abstractly speaking. However, in the “real world” the liberals elites have zilch interest in doing anything constructive to assist the protesters. On a gut level, they prefer the status quo.
Jun 29, 2009 - 11:40 am 5. David Levavi:The sleazy and corrupt old eunuchs at State don’t have guts or a gut level to operate from, David.
What passes for a State department is an internationalist white shoe law firm rotten with foreign influences and alligiances where no one ever gets fired.
State sold out the Shah when Kissinger was their nominal head. They gave a green light to the assassinations of Trujillo and Diem. They have misguided national policy since WWII.
Jun 29, 2009 - 12:35 pm 6. charlie finch:Don’t look now, but here come the MJ conspiracy theories: a billion in debt, rehearsal film done at Staples Center two days before his death, 80 year old patriarch weirdly cold about MJ’s death at the BET awards, sister Latoya ransacks house for hidden cash, a drug habit, 50 concerts MJ is incapable of doing, a sketchy doctor, an extra dose of Demerol, then: ICON, SALES, UNRELEASED RECORDINGS, DVD ALREADY BEING MASS PRODUCED OF THE FINAL REHEARSAL, UNLIMITED CASH FLOW, MOTHER TAKES CONTROL OF THE KIDS AND ESTATE, NO MORE MESSY QUESTION ABOUT OR EXTRAVAGANT SPENDING FROM THE DECEASED…you read it hear first!
Jun 29, 2009 - 1:15 pm 7. David Thomson:I cynically suspect that twenty people are obsessed by Michael Jackson’s death to every one concerned about the crisis in Iran. Many of his more fervent admirers may not even know that the country even exists! And no, I don’t think I’m exaggerating. These are the folks who get much of their information from People magazine and other such media outlets. When a story about Iran appears on TV—they immediately switch channels.
Jun 29, 2009 - 1:59 pm 8. Evil Pundit:Don’t worry — Darwin is on the case.
Jun 29, 2009 - 4:55 pm 9. Michael:Like I said, there have to be interludes. For instance today I was reminded by our president about the evangelical importance of the mercury dust light bulb in combating global warming. I don’t know how many I have but it’d probably be important to convey that if you break one you’ve got a hazmat issue. You need not to break them and take them to Home Depot so they can be properly recycled. OTOH, you could save them to throw at the Revolutionary Guard but the death from cancer has probably a long, speaking of which, interlude and is prohibited under the Geneva Convention.
Jun 29, 2009 - 8:14 pm 10. charlie finch:Yeah, the new light bulbs are a disaster. I am stocking up on the old ones, as they are gonna be discontinued (but even those won’t last). Interestingly, the new poison bulbs are controlled by a Mafia fronted company in NYC, but I can’t go into details, out of libel/fear. (I know the guy who heads up the company who markets them.)
Jun 30, 2009 - 6:54 am 11. Martin Berman-Gorvine:This ignores the fact that the media have a collective attention span of about five minutes for anything at any time.
Jul 1, 2009 - 12:40 pm 12. Martin Grossman:Ron, Thanks for saying this. I have been pissed off for days at the way the MSM has ignored what is happening in Iran in favor of Jackson. How can any of these clowns be called journalists when they give a lightweight pop singer coverage at the expense of one of the most important stories of the young 21st Century.
I was also interested to learn today of your current Dylan project. I can’t remember if I have already sent you my article on Bob’s relationship to his Jewishness from a few years back. If you’ll give me an email address I’ll forward it to you.
Jul 1, 2009 - 11:47 pm 13. Mike Manges:Hear! Hear! Mr. Rosenbaum!
I think the MSM and Fox are using Jacko’s demise to take an extended holiday. Reporting on MJ is cheaper than keeping up with Latin America, BHO & Putin, N. K. and oh did I mention Biden gave the green light to Israel and the Saudis concur! Not to mention Afghan-Iraq quagmire.
Jul 5, 2009 - 8:25 pm 14. aloysiusmiller:Interesting that you can say 2 + 2 but you haven’t figured out that it is = 4.
This is liberalism Mr. Rosenbaum!
Jul 8, 2009 - 2:07 pm