What of those others who died last week?
Fawcett, McMahon and many more nudged aside by Jackson
O ne of the most popular refrains of the last weekend was, "Poor Farrah."
As in, poor Farrah Fawcett -- just a few hours after she died, the pop culture world was rocked by the news about Michael Jackson, and all of a sudden all those tributes to Farrah were pushed aside for wall-to-wall coverage of the Michael saga.
The notion is valid. If the Jackson tragedy hadn't occurred, "Entertainment Tonight" et al. would have been devoting much more of their coverage to Fawcett (and to Ed McMahon).
Of course, in the bigger scheme, you say "Poor Farrah" because the woman suffered for a long time and died before her time -- not because she lost her last chance at a People magazine cover.
And when you think of the fallout effect of Jackson's death, think of those who have loved ones at UCLA Medical Center. Must have been quite a scene just trying to get in and out of the place Thursday.
Or think of anyone in the non-showbiz world who lost a friend or family member Thursday. The death of a world-famous singer isn't going to impact your own sense of loss and mourning -- but whenever you look back on that day, it will be inexorably linked to the death of Michael Jackson.
I've noted this phenomenon for two decades, and it's still intact: When a noted entertainer dies suddenly, fans rush out to buy his music or movies.
Headline from USA Today:
Jackson is the king of media; sales soar after his death
"The pop star's passing on Thursday afternoon sparked an immediate run on CDs, videos, mp3 downloads and books that showed no sign of abating . . . " reported USA Today.
"Amazon.com was sold out of its supply of Michael Jackson and Jackson 5 CDs and DVDs within minutes of media reports announcing his death."
Within minutes! Think of all those fans getting the news on TV or via Twitter or however they got it -- and their first reaction is to log on to Amazon to order up some of Jackson's music.
On Sunday, the No. 1-selling CD on Amazon was the 25th anniversary edition of "Thriller," followed by "Off the Wall," "Bad" -- and then 10 other releases from Jackson.
The No. 1 download on iTunes was "Man in the Mirror." Jackson had eight of the top 10 tunes, including "Black or White," "Don't Stop 'til You Get Enough" and "Smooth Criminal." Songs by Jackson or the Jackson 5 occupy 48 of the top 100 slots on iTunes.
Why do we do this? It's not as if you weren't going to have access to Jackson's songs on the radio over the weekend. It's not as if there was a shortage of video clips of Jackson on the weekend news shows.
The man dies -- and we buy his music in bulk. Jackson could have toured the world from now until 2012 and he wouldn't have come close to matching the sales spike he got from dying. Weird.
I can understand if you already had some of Jackson's songs on your iPod or you had some of those old-fashioned CDs on your shelf -- and you listened to a few of your favorites after you heard of his death.
But if you didn't own "Thriller" before Thursday, why did the man's death spur you to purchase it?
There was a lot of squawking on Twitter and other social-media sites about how the Jackson story was a prime example of how the "mainstream media" is slow and out of touch. After all, the Los Angeles Times and other news outlets were way behind those Twitter bulletins about Jackson's condition right?
In fact, TMZ.com was widely credited with breaking the story. Say what you will about their shameless tabloid mentality and their reliance on the paparazzi -- the truth is TMZ is very mainstream. They're a big, newsgathering operation, owned by media giant Time Warner.
Whether TMZ is the first to post a photo of a battered Rihanna or breaking the news of Mel Gibson's drunken rant, they're using old-fashioned reporting techniques to get the news.
In the case of Jackson's death, TMZ says one of its primary sources was a cardiologist at UCLA Medical Center.
Think about that one for a second. You're a doctor at UCLA -- and you're dispensing information to a celebrity news site? Whether you're Jackson's doctor or not, doesn't that break all kinds of confidentiality rules?
It's one thing for a doctor to hold a press conference to announce news and take questions. It's another to pick up the phone moments after someone has passed to dish the gossip to a reporter at TMZ.