ABC-CBS-NBC-MSNBC- All Showing MJ Tribute Live

[lib2DaBone]

Katie Couric... "Michael Jackson.. the greatest entertainer in the world."

What about Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles and Louie Armstrong? I guess they were slouches.

I don't get it.. whose paying for all this? What is the rent for one day on the Staples Center in LA? Lights, A/C, Security, Traffic, Cleanup? Has to be near $5 million.

And who paid for the Stage lights, sound, TV Pool, Production, Directing? Does anyone know what it costs to put on a concert this size?

[closeupready]

1. this is complete ridiculousness.

IMO

[liberal N proud]

2. Thanks for the warning

:puke:

[AndyA]

3. AEG, the company that owns Staples Center, also was the same company

promoting Jackson's tour. They are filming everything, will no doubt make a fortune on the sales of DVDs, etc.

It's a good business move from a financial point of view.

[aquart]

39. Good. Then THEY can afford to reimburse California for this nonsense.

Guess I'm not an MJ fan.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. Jennifer Hudson is singing right now and she RAWWKS!

I'd turn it on just for this, if I were y'all.

[FrenchieCat]

6. Agreed. Ms. Hudson is doing a fantabulous job. She understands loss....

OT, she appears pregnant.

[Hepburn]

9. I have to agree....

...the music if absolutely fantastic. And, yes, she TOTALLY rocked. What a voice! WOW!!

[dbonds]

5. Trying to reform MJ's image through sympathy.

He's still worth a lot of money to the marketing machine you know.

[aquart]

40. Ah. My sympathy is all for the children he manufactured.

[earth mom]

81. Same here. I save my sympathy for those kids. They didn't ask for this circus. nt

[backscatter712]

7. Is he still dead? n/t

[Renew Deal]

8. There can only be one greatest.

:shrug:

[dbonds]

11. It sure wasn't him.

[chimpymustgo]

10. So sorry for the pinched souls who don't appreciate this - or the man.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

44. don't apologize. If people want to waste their time on that stuff, fine.

but this is so over the top.

Huge things are happening in China, Korea, and Iran. What does our "MSM" show? jackson.
A drug abusing, asexual, with a problem with little kids, who underwent way too much plastic surgery? Talk about a freak show.

Yes, he could dance. Yes, he could lipsync. Yes, people bought his albums. So what? Is that any reason to have all news and boredcast stations concentrate everything on a corpse? No way.

[BuelahWitch]

91. The man was a SINGER, he had a VOICE

Maybe he did some lip sync as he got older, but Michael Jackson was an old school performer. He'd been singing since he was 5 years old, and a hell of a lot better at it than most of the dreck that passes for entertainment today.
At least get your fucking facts straight...

[ChairmanAgnostic]

97. maybe he had no voice as he got older. maybe his drug addiction was so

strong that his nanny had to pump his stomach. maybe he was so bent out of reality that a 50 yr old child needed a nanny. My fucking facts are this:

my straight facts are this: a damaged, abused, and mentally ill person with great potential died, possibly by his own hand, or at his request, in a misguided effort to avoid an insanely troubling set of concerts (50? Are you kidding me? That should take a year, or half a year at least) to cover the spendthrift ways he wasted a fortune he amassed.

[malaise]

12. BBC as well as TVJ Jamaica

German TV, Danish TV and several others

add

[TexasObserver]

13. And I haven't watched 10 minutes of that silliness.

As long as that creep is in the news, I'll get my news online, where I can ignore the nonstop MJ madness. It's a measure of the level to which news has sunk.

[Hepburn]

15. Then you are missing some absolutely fabulous music today.

Fuck what you thought of MJ ~~ there are some mega talented people who are performing and doing so from their hearts. Jennifer Hudson made me cry...she was too fabulous for words.

JMHO

[dbonds]

21. That would be a sick reason to watch a memorial, for the entertainment.

That's why this whole thing is just a spectacle. People that think they know MJ from a marketed image, upset by the marketed sympathy, and being entertained while having more image marketing put in their heads. All about reforming the image (because some reality was allowed to slip through the image), so they can make a profit in the future.

[Stuckinthebush]

26. Damn good point!

Your post made me sit up and say, "Hmmm!" I like that analysis.

[jefferson_dem]

30. What a shallow petty, shallow perspective you offer.

Aside from it being a crock of shit.

[dbonds]

31. I was thinking the same about those that buy into the image.

[jefferson_dem]

36. The billions of people who have been inspired by the Man and his music are all wrong.

How big of you to point that out on the day of his memorial.

[dbonds]

47. You were NEVER inspired by the MAN. Ever.

You may have been inspired by the image, but even that didn't have much to inspire from.

Don't confuse the marketing with the man. People are morning the symbolic death of an image. MJ is now and always has been a business.

[jefferson_dem]

51. Right.

The artistry of MJ was not really produced or co-produced by MJ. It's a huge corporate conspiracy.

Be bitter and petty all you want. But don't be stupid.

[dbonds]

73. Its not a conspiracy of the shadowy type.

It is what it is, just some people never look behind the curtain to see who the wizard of oz really is.

Or are you saying you personally knew MJ? Did you talk to him? Or do you just know what you have been told, and what you want to believe?

Yes, a couple of his songs did have a message - but nothing unique that wasn't done by multiple artist of the previous 20 years to him doing it.

What could I possible have to be bitter about? That is just a comical expression. I'm disappointed that so many people fall for the image, but then people aren't that smart. I'm a tired of the overhyping fanbois trying to make MJ into anything more than a singer and telling me I have no right to express my opinion (not that you are saying that, you are just attempting to invalidate my opinion with insults).

[earthside]

70. "Memorial."

Oh, please.

Michael Jackson, Incorporated -- relaunch.

He was a complete manufacture of marketing and media ... and a pathetic soul. (He was worthy of a lot of compassion for his sad personal life.)

M.J. will ultimately be just a minor player in American musical history -- Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Chuck Berry, Sarah Vaughn, Nat King Cole, Billie Holiday, Little Richard, Sammy Davis, Jr. ... real giants.

I refuse to watch or participate in this marketing circus, especially after reading Bob Herbert's opinion column last Friday.

And people wonder why this country is on such a serious decline ... look at this corporatized spectacle.

[jefferson_dem]

71. So says the DUer with the Buddha avatar.

Irony overload...

[dbonds]

77. Please explain what is not Buddhist like in the post you referenced.

Seems like compassion for a sick man to me, and throwing off the bondage's of image of the mundane world.

[earthside]

84. He was just a man.

Gotama.

Just a human being ... but an enlightened teacher and practitioner of humility, who would have been aghast at the adulation heaped upon this other poor soul.

[jefferson_dem]

86. It takes a confident "soul" to dismiss with mockery the passing of a "man"...

who delivered such joy and inspiration to so many billions of people on this day when they mourn the loss.

Humility is better practiced than preached.

[Hard_Work]

83. Ridiculous statement right here

"M.J. will ultimately be just a minor player in American musical history..."

Michael Jackson, the best selling artist in history, the man who single-handedly revolutionized the music video, one of the greatest entertainers EVER, as well as a great humanitarian in his own right...THAT Michael Jackson is ultimately a minor player in American musical history?

Not only was he a major player in American music, he was also a major player in WORLD music. Michael's music influenced millions, not only in America, but across the world. Be trite and hateful if you must. But that statement is not only fallacious, but asinine as well.

[jefferson_dem]

87. +1.

I feel sorry for those who are so blinded by hate that they resort to serving up outright lies to justify their prejudices.

[Laelth]

95. Well said, Hard_Work! n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[earthside]

96. Blinded by Adoration.

Selling a lot of something is not an indication of quality.

Compared to the MAJOR musicians and entertainers I named (and others have also), Jackson is indeed a minor player.

And what is truly asinine is how everyone here who rebels against the crass commercialization perpetuated today by the Jackson family and the mainstream media is labeled a 'hater' ... maybe we're just afraid for the way too many Americans are so easily manipulated by corporate interests who really just want to 'sell' more, more, more -- even the products of a dead person.

[snooper2]

93. how about the billions of people

who still believe in some magical god like creature?


Just because you have numbers doesn't make you right-


The Earth is flat I say! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[jefferson_dem]

94. Cute post but really, really dense.

I'm not claiming we should all reach some kind of consensus that Michael Jackson was some awesome musical icon. Far from it. (I was never a huge fan, actually). It's not about the numbers in that sense. It's about billions of individual fans who have loved and been inspired by his artistry through the years. For them, this is "right" (to use your illogic).

PS: Music taste is purely subjective, like art appreciation. It has nothing to do with science.

[SammyWinstonJack]

37. !

:thumbsup:

[TexasObserver]

43. You're absolutely right.

Vanilla Ice, Michael Jackson, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Simpson - they're all just POP singers, except MJ is also a perv. Some people are so enamored of fame, they'll swallow anything.

[TexasObserver]

54. You're looking at The Man In The Mirror.

Take a good look.

[Hello_Kitty]

53. Oh get off the cross. eom

[dbonds]

74. The Cross?

What kind of response is that, or did you respond to the wrong post. Nothing religious related in to what you responded. Or is that some type of weird colloquialism?

[Hello_Kitty]

78. It means stop being such a martyr. eom

[dbonds]

79. Do you know what a martyr is?

There isn't anything in the post resembling that. I think you meant to use a different insult, maybe something more relevant to the topic.

[Hello_Kitty]

80. Yes I do. eom

[TexasObserver]

38. You can waste your time, but I won't waste mine.

Try to accept that not everyone shares your slavish devotion to POP culture and PEDOPHILES.

[Mojorabbit]

45. Was he convicted of being a pedophile?

Is there any proof he was one? I am ambivalent about him personally but I hate seeing someone post death being called names in a country where one is supposed to be considered innocent till proven guilty.

[TexasObserver]

49. Yes,

In the court of public opinion.

If you cannot admit that the proof against him is overwhelming, you need to pull your head out of the sand and get a reality check.

As for your hating to see him called the perv he was, you'd better keep hiding in the sand, because every time one of his fans says he's the King of Pop, two people will say "King of Perv."

[chimpymustgo]

60. Bull fucking shit. Thank God we have a Constitution and not your damn opinion.

[TexasObserver]

66. The constitution has nothing to do with this.

Your inability to rationally accept the truth is, however.

[dbonds]

75. Wow, MJ is protected by the constitution now. I didn't know.

[jefferson_dem]

63. In the court of your twisted mind.

Shame.

[TexasObserver]

68. Calm down. He's just a dead perv.

Stop attacking those who don't share your fandom.

[NashVegas]

90. Yeah, "We Are the World" .. What a Classic

:rofl:

[mitchum]

14. Sometimes the death of a salesman is very big news

[seabeyond]

16. a whole karma thing. this is just like his life. and for those that love the guy...

some dont want to bad mouth jackson. we dont want to watch it either.

this is beyond ridiculous

[SuperTrouper]

17. I know I will get criticized for this: this concert for Michael Jackson is just

Hollywood's hedonism at its height. If you look at those performing and saying great things about Michael Jackson, they are forgetting that most of them are a bunch of drug-addicted or drug users and/or alcoholics. Mr. Jackson died 12 days ago and they have been dragging his body from place to place just remembering the good times that he gave us, and there were many good times, and completely erasing the pain that he did inflict on several families. There you see Reverend Sharpton, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Mariah Carey, all with their personal demons. Jennifer Hudson was magnificent and she is one of the few that leads a dignified life (Queen Latifah, too) It is time to let Michael rest, it is time to celebrate his life and it is time to acknowledge that his death was preventable if he had gotten the help that he needed from the beginning many many years ago and perhaps we would be celebrating his entire life and not just a portion of his life. Rest in Peace Michael Jackson, yes, finally he is at peace, and I hope that Hollywood takes a lesson from the suffering and the pain that he endured.

[johnfunk]

55. Completely concur Jennifer Hudson and Queen Latifah

I'm in the entertainment biz, and I'm watching -- was also impressed by the powerful performances by Stevie Wonder and Jermaine Jackson.

I do have to admit that the production quality is excellent, better than I had thought possible on such short notice. From strictly a production standpoint this looks to be running far more smoothly than any staged performance or awards show I've seen on the tube in well over a decade, and the sound quality (on NBC's feed in particular) is outstanding.

[SuperTrouper]

72. I agree, the production is impeccable

[jefferson_dem]

18. Good.

This is an enormous historic event, whether folks care to realize it or not. This is the memorial service for one of the most (if not THE most) important pop music artists to ever live and one of the most two or three most recognizable figures in the world. It's deserving of the national attention it's getting, for this one day at least.

[SuperTrouper]

22. They should have done something for him while he was alive like the Latin Americans

did for Celia Cruz. She loved the tribute and took it to Heaven with her. Too bad Michael did not get the outpouring of love while alive...

[Royal Oak Rog]

19. Wow, the Haterade is in no short supply here

C'mon this guys been in America's spotlight for 40 years. He was bigger than them all, I'm not saying he was the best, but he was damn good, maybe he was the best! What's with all the hate?
By the way Reverend Al is knocking it out of the park as I type this!

[jefferson_dem]

20. Some people are bitter and relish the opportunity to whine and moan.

Let 'em vent.

[chimpymustgo]

25. Gawd John Mayer is awesome.

[jefferson_dem]

27. He floors me every time.

Heir apparent to the Clapton legacy... :hide:

[cboy4]

23. Boy, it's always about this guy, isn't it?

It's always about Al Sharpton.

Today isn't Michael's day. It's apparently Al Sharpton's day.

Al Sharpton needs the applause and admiration.

That ego has to be nourished 24/7

What a disgrace.

[jefferson_dem]

29. Typical Al. And ... I loved it.

I think Micheal would have loved it also.

[cboy4]

33. Of course he would have loved it. Sharpton sticks his nose up the

ass of anyone who's famous in order to feed his ego and distract people from his shameful past.

On the other hand, you have pure, genuine class step up to the podium in Brooke Shields. Someone who has nothing to gain from the moment.

You probably don't recognize the difference.

[jefferson_dem]

46. I recognize that we all approach life (and death) from different perspectives

...and reflect on them in different ways. I also recognize that it's not my place to cast aspersions and evaluate every one of the speakers / performers today based on my own hang-ups.

[cboy4]

52. Al Sharpton, of course, is the nototious exception

Nobody else will step to the podium and cause people to roll their eyes .. questioning their true intention for being there.

I fully expect him to be on hand for the Yemenia Air crash memorials.

[BeyondGeography]

24. So you can't watch General Hospital?

Ella, Ray and Louie would think you're being an ass.

[CountAllVotes]

28. Sharpton ... made me cry

the part about Michael being a "funny daddy" to his kids ...

Sad as all hell.

:cry:

:kick:

[cboy4]

35. LOL

He's as phony as they come.


typo

[jefferson_dem]

48. Dude.

Did Al steal your lunch money when you were a kid or something? Let it go.

[cboy4]

57. He's just a disgrace. You have to admit that

[jefferson_dem]

58. Well, he does appreciate the limelight.

I'll concede that. :)

[cboy4]

62. I know. And don't think there's anything disrespectful about seeking out

limelight in death?

This is Michael Jackson's day. Not Al Sharpton's day.

You wouldn't be able to convince Al otherwise.

[cboy4]

65. And there you had Usher. Singing from the heart, nothing to gain but to be

there for someone he obviously cherished.

Al Sharpton? Came for the spotlight and probably the buffet.

[Bushknew]

61. Michael was/is lynched in the court of white opinion. No proof though just ...

speculation.

[CountAllVotes]

67. yes, I agree

it is this Great WHITE America that killed MJ IMO.

[MellowDem]

88. Don't think that's it....

I think that Michael is largely viewed just as a celebrity by the vast majority of people and therefore is open to criticism. But some in the black community view him as something much more, to the point that they will blame all inconvenient facts on the great WHITE monster.

The great WHITE media is slobbering all over Michael today, I should probably give them a call and tell them they should be lynching, not worshipping, Michael. I guess I could use some proof that Michael was lynched by the court of white opinion (what is that exactly, the MSM?) rather than just made into a God by some in the black community, and therefore is untouchable and any criticism must be racist.

[Catherine Vincent]

32. Good!

MJ is worth it!

[peekaloo]

34. NBC reported a PayPal account had been set up so fans could contribute

to help defray costs.

Seriously.

[Catherine Vincent]

41. I was hoping this memorial wouldn't be sad

Jermaine singing "Smile". Sigh!

[Hello_Kitty]

42. Germaine is doing a very nice version of "Smile" eom

[finecraft]

56. I agree, it really is quite moving eom

[undeterred]

59. That was heartbreaking.

Brooke Shields was wonderful also, right before him.

[Duncan Grant]

50. The apotheosis of Michael Jackson.

Two weeks ago, Michael was the target of jokes and all manner of disrespect in American popular culture. Today, he's a worldwide icon of talent and cultural inspiration.

This intersection of death, popular culture, Christianity, history, profit and ratings is an amazing thing to behold.

[earth mom]

82. Just when we thought we'd seen it all!

:wow:

[Kceres]

64. I can certainly understanding ONE network covering it, but ...

THREE of the cable news channels? Seems like there'd be advertising revenue for networks covering other things, too. Geesh! RIP already.

[lib2DaBone]

69. The Funneralganza.. as his golden casket is brought onto the stage..

Remember when they trucked Ronnie Raygun's lifeless body around in a glass tube for 3 weeks... I thought THAT was over the top.. but this? Se Magnifique!

[dbonds]

76. How about the Memorialpalooza!

[spanone]

85. not slouches, but mr jackson was a world wide, cross genre entertainer....

he perhaps was the 'greatest entertainer'

[Vinnie From Indy]

89. bread & circuses for the masses

my oh my what a world!

[azmouse]

92. Didn't watch one minute of of the nonsense.

Can't imagine how I could care less.