I am completely disgusted by the way the media treats celebs when they are alive, then when they die they do a 180 and act like they are a "friend" of the celeb and honor them in death. The death of Michael Jackson and Anna Nicole really show this. When these two were alive, the media mostly (if not totally) reported on them in a negative light, never missing an opportunity to run these people through the mud. Their lives were under a micoscope, the slightest embarrassing moment, legal issue, financial struggle, health or weight issue... the media jumped all over it and plastered their personal problems all over and outright made fun of them (always calling Michael "Wacko Jacko"... nice... ). Then they die, and the media turns around and acts like they've been their friend all along. Sounds like the worst friend you could ever have! Just using people up for their own gain. Trash them, use them up, stab them in the back then when they die, continue on using them... but from a different angle. Sickening.


I know it's a price of fame to be scrutinized, but scrutiny is one thing, jumping on any opportunity to drag someone through the mud is another. Replaying someone's embarrassing moment or a low point in life over and over serves no purpose and is just plain mean-spirited.

Michael Jackson was so talented, he is a legend! It's sad that he's probably going to be remembered more for molestation allegations and financial problems instead of his amazing work. Poor Anna, she wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but hey... she was good at what she did... she's got to be one of the most famous women to come from a start in nudie mags, so there had to be SOMETHING about her that made her special...

Rant over ;)

Idol worship knows no bounds! The media understands what side of the bread the butter goes on!

That's not entirely true.

Media is marketing. People magazine and other magazines compete with each other to have the BEST stories. So if one has an RIP M.J. with fan letters, but the other has the actual pictures of his funeral then they win.

It's not that they feel bad or even care, it's that they get more money in their pocket. It also happens with entertainment news like E! Access Hollywood, etc. More ratings, the better.

True, many do genuinely care but as for the media it's really all about money.

Besides, there are a lot of people saying thank-god Michael Jackson is dead, it's even posted all over the internet.

It's never easy when someone dies, so my sympathy goes to his family.

Sarah

"If it bleeds, it leads" is the old saying in media. If it is sensational enough, it will sell. And that is the goal of media... to sell their product.

More than once a statement or action has been taken out of context by the media. It's bad enough when it happens by accident, but there are a number of cases where the media engineers stuff so that they can rag on someone famous just to sell a few more issues.

This definitely happened in the case of Michael Jackson when he was alive. And Ana Nichole. And Britney. And every other celeb.

On the other hand, there is a symbiotic relationship between celebrities and the media. The media need the celebs to sell papers. The celebs need media to keep them in the spotlight.

Yeah, there are cases where the media goes too far to sell their papers. But there are plenty of times when the celebs go too far in order to get their names in the media.

I suspect that the problem is a two-way issue. The press goes too far and hurts the celeb by invading their privacy. The celeb goes too far and messes themselves up by doing something outrageous to get in the papers and hurts their own image.

It's a two-way street.

As far as hating them while they are alive and loving them when they die... that too is part of the "If it bleeds, it leads" mentality. They can't sell papers about Michael Jackson's death if they are ragging on him. So they tell the sob story of his life, sanitize the bad stuff and let the whole thing linger as long as possible in order to sell more copy. It is understandable. Not nice, but understandable.

Hey, it's better than ragging on him in death as much as in life. At least they are honoring the dead instead of insulting him.

Elliot

The common denominator appears to be that these celebs surrounded themselves with people who were not looking out for the interests of the celeb.

They may profess love for them now ;but where were they when the celeb needed them to tell them no?

The common denominator appears to be that these celebs surrounded themselves with people who were not looking out for the interests of the celeb.

They may profess love for them now ;but where were they when the celeb needed them to tell them no?

You make an interesting point.

So many people put their faith and fate in the hands of others rather than looking out for their own interest. "Take care of me" has become the clarion cry of so many. We see it among celebs, and we see it among libs. Celebs expect their sychophants to take care of them. Libs expect the government to take care of them. Maybe that's why so many celebs are libs... it's a similar mindset.

Elliot

Sadly, a lot of celebs are worth more dead than alive. Elvis has sold more records dead than alive over the past several decades. I am sure MJ is going to do the same thing. Also, who wants to read about plain vanilla celebs when you can read all the juicy horrific gossip about MJ or ANSmith when they were alive? Most people even their fans would snap up the latest rag or watch the TV show about the latest scoop about how nuts MJ is or how much hush money he had to pay out. They are fair game as they are celebrities. BTW why didn't anyone really go on and on about Ed McMahn? He was a plain vanilla celeb who probably never had an affair or did anything worthy of a juicy scandal to write about. Farrah Fawcett wasn't exactly chopped liver but no one is going on and on about her. One hour tribute on TV after the MJ hour tribute then virtually nothing else other than to show some of her movies. I have never, never understood just why some people go bonkers over a singer and make such a big deal about them singing a song. How stupid is that? Pretty stupid. Make someone a multi millionaire just because they sung a song.