I wasn’t a Michael Jackson fan, so news of the death of “The King of Pop” did not devastate me at all, beyond the fact that a fellow human being had died. Of course, in the last 48 hours it’s been hard to have a conversation with friends or at the office without Jackson coming up, and I generally tried to avoid mentioning that I’d never watched a Jackson video, bought a cd of his, or listened to a song of his that didn’t play in some public venue. (I grew up listening pretty much exclusively to Christian bands like White Heart, Petra, Degarmo & Key, etc., and heck, I still listen to those guys!)
As annoying as the media coverage and frustrating as the post-mortem Michael merchandise bonanza has been, I had no intention of posting anything here about Jackson’s tragic death until I came across a great piece by columnist Jonah Goldberg on the National Review website. Goldberg sums up the celebrity culture, media spin, and what’s really important far better than I could. Check out the article here.