“I Mean…What?!?” – Abe Gurko

Just about everyone on Earth has been affected by Michael Jackson…somehow. Whether it’s your fondest musical memories, your endless, desperate, unsuccessful attempts to do the “moonwalk”, singing songs from Thriller in the shower to test your vocal chops or dancing in the mirror, alone in your room, grabbing your crotch. Michael Jackson is there, in your system, in your heart, and surely everywhere in the pop culture vernacular. We all adored him until we began to despise him. Reading all the reports, headlines, glowing life stories, endless news coverage of the late, great King of Pop, I could not help cringing from the hypocrisy of the media, because it was the hounding, vindictive press that killed him…really. He complained about the press and their insulting headlines to Barbara Walters in an interview years ago, just after Lady Diana’s death. With all the court cases, the innuendo and the shroud of darkness around his skin bleaching, cosmetic surgeries, sexual advances, marriages and veiled children, Michael was vilified, castrated and tormented by the press. He never recovered and it killed him. Surely it killed off his ego, as frail as that seemed. That in a nutshell is what caused his drug addiction to pain medication. An addiction so fierce, it made Liz Taylor’s and Elvis’ drug ritual seem tame. To say nothing of what a lightweight that made me…which is quite a feat…considering my 70’s and 80’s…heck, 90’s too.

We all know first hand how painful it is when we are heartbroken. When we lose the person that we are so desperately in love with…that causes a huge pang in our chest when we see them or even think about them…that we can’t eat or sleep over…and that makes us feel whole. It is when they are not there anymore, that the void becomes crushingly painful. That is the level of pain that Michael Jackson must have felt when his innocence was stripped away, ramshackled and ripped apart by the media. He was always guilty first, wacko second and not human third. How would you feel? I have my outrageous stories about Michael, but it’s too soon to tell. But I am sure that out of the woodwork will come story after story by thrill seekers and money grubbers and the friggen media will be there…nailing the coffin shut…banging away with salacious gossip and heresay, because this is the kind of story that sells newspapers. You know, those pieces of paper that are getting thinner and thinner. It’s also a good way for those bloviators on cable television to get their moment back in the sun, as the loss of the Gloved One is the biggest story since the Big O…Barak Obama.