A politician named Peter King has nicely illustrated Lew’s theory of the backlash against media coverage of Jackson:
NEW YORK – A New York congressman says in a YouTube video that Michael Jackson was a “pervert.”
Rep. Peter King said society is “glorifying” a “low-life” while ignoring the efforts of teachers, police officers, firefighters, veterans and volunteers.
Assuming that King is primarily referring to public school teachers (which is a good assumption), we notice that everyone King names as deserving more attention than Jackson is a government employee.
We are not to honor, mind you, a private businessman and entrepreneur, which is what Jackson was. Jackson could be safely ignored by anyone who wasn’t interested. Try ignoring the government and see how that works out for you.
And even though Jackson was never convicted of anything in either civil or criminal court, we just assume he was a molester because the media and the government bureaucrat known as a district attorney said so.
Update: writes BP:
I think it’s deeper than attention being diverted from the state. It may be because that in the end a great many people still liked Michael Jackson. The state hates non-conformists. Any that become rich enough, powerful enough, or influential enough become a target for the state. Michael Jackson beat the state, remained a non-conformist, and retained a great number of fans. The media coverage is simply one big display that Jackson won his battle with the state. Government is a sore loser.
12:40 pm on July 6, 2009
