by Mark Silva
Michael Jackson, enough already, most Americans say.
About two-thirds of the public (64 percent of those surveyed) say news organizations gave too much attention to the sudden death of the pop music icon. Only about three-in-ten (29 percent) said the coverage of the star's death at his home in Los Angeles was about right.
Asked about the story - and the media's coverage of the death compared, in volume, with its coverage of the post-election protests in Iran, according to the latest media survey by the Pew Research Center - 26 percent said the media focused too much on Jackson's trail of personal scandals, while 11 percent suggested the coverage focused too much on his successful musical career.
"Half say news organizations struck the right balance,'' Pew's Andrew Kohut reports.
The public was paying attention: With reports oif Jackson's death last week dominating media coverage, 30 percent of those surveyed said they followed the story very closely. A similar share (31 percent) said "this was the story they followed more closely than any other,.''
The News Interest Index survey was conducted June 26-29 by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.
"A separate analysis of media coverage by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism shows that for the entire week of June 22-28 the Jackson story and the bloody aftermath of the disputed Iranian elections received similar levels of media coverage,'' Kohut reports.
"The protests in Iran made up 19 percent of the newshole for the week, while the Jackson story took up 18 percent. But from the time the Jackson story broke Thursday afternoon to the end of the day Friday, 60 percent of the news coverage studied was devoted to his death, his life story and his legacy.''
For more on reaction to coverage of Michael Jackson's death, see the Pew report.
Comments
Jackson's death points to a need for health care reform. Capitalist driven physicians trump ethics with money. ..........
http://thefiresidepost.com/2009/06/29/celebrity-medicine-the-ama-ethics-and-health-care-reform/
Posted by: Ohg Rea Tone | July 1, 2009 5:28 PM
Mark,
Michael Jackson is still dead ?! Who woulda thunk it?!
Posted by: mongo | July 1, 2009 5:35 PM
What? Jackson's death points to a need for healthcare reform? The guy had access to more doctors and drugs than most people would see in a lifetime. Michael Jackson is hardly a poster-child for healthcare reform. He may have been an icon, but face it, he abused his own body with prescription drugs and the rest is now history.
Posted by: vla | July 1, 2009 7:23 PM
Just watch from the sidelines if you don't like it.
You'll learn something about American culture, for better or worse.
The assassination and burial of JFK was over with in fewer days, however.
Posted by: ornery | July 1, 2009 8:44 PM
The necromantic money machine is at it again !! Good old capitalism at its finest !! Let's make some more money, off of someone's death !! Only in America, Mr. Jackson's death should be worth of few 100 million dollars to some good old, capitalistic scoundrels !! Off course, that tired old joke, of " the best career move ", will be bouncing around the table, before you can say, Elvis Presley !! What a sorry state of affairs, the business of America is in, presently !! Capitalism reigns, for better or worse !! I wonder how many billions, the networks will be raking in, in the name of the late, Mr. Jackson !!?
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | July 1, 2009 10:11 PM
Passed Michael Jackson is the cover of OK! magazine’s latest issue. Remenbering Jacko's childhood beginnings in the Jackson 5 to his last moments.
Posted by: OK Magazine Michael Jackson Cover | July 2, 2009 3:00 AM
I have mixed feelings about morning for the King Of Pop and an accused pedophile. It's quite a conundrum.
Posted by: Ajlouny | July 2, 2009 9:47 PM
There must be something going on in the world other than Michael Jackson and the south Carolina governorstress.
Posted by: JBoz | July 6, 2009 8:23 AM
Michael Jackson's death points to a need for healthcare reform? Hey, you better lay off that medical cheeba.
Posted by: Jimbo | July 6, 2009 3:40 PM
I am appalled at the media's consumption with Jacksons death, over and over and still going like an Duracell battery. Enough already. He's gone. Unfortunately they can't target the pedophile-tolerant fans without putting the rest of us into a nauseous gagfest of visual and audio saturation. When will it stop???
Posted by: David | August 6, 2009 12:41 PM