What we're seeing is the celebrity-death industrial complex at work.

[backscatter712]

Michael Jackson is worth far more money dead than alive, which is why the cable news stations are now MJ-Is-Dead stations 24/7, why we got his funeral on all the networks, and so on.

There is money in it. Huge amounts of money.

There's enough gossip to put Anna Nicole Smith to shame - MJ will be driving sales of all the grocery store gossip rags for years. The ratings on the celebrity news shows will be spiking significantly and driving ad revenue.

Expect to see new collector's editions of MJ's albums. We'll see a commemorative DVD of the funeral. All his music will be licensed out, and all the pop stars on the radio will be doing covers of his music.

We'll be seeing collectible dinner plates, Michael Jackson coins, coffee table books.

Michael Jackson lunch-boxes, Michael Jackson breakfast cereals, Michael Jackson flamethrowers (Kids love 'em!)

All advertised on TV, radio, cable, Internet, etc. - why do you think the cable news stations are hyping him up so much? Because they get millions of dollars out of it.

So excuse me for being utterly disgusted at the big-money vultures greedily feeding off this man's corpse.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

1. Thanks for being so disgusted that you took time to write this.

I highly appreciate it.

You stated:
All his music will be licensed out, and all the pop stars on the radio will be doing covers of his music.

We'll be seeing collectible dinner plates, Michael Jackson coins, coffee table books.

- Sorry but you're about 20 years too late. There have been Michael Jackson collectibles for years and I thought if there is anything you could do to stop it.

[backscatter712]

36. Point taken, but his death will take the money-machine to the next level.

You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Remember all the baubles for sale after Reagan's death? Or even the 9/11 commemorative trinkets?

[hlthe2b]

2. You COULD postpone these kind of posts until tomorrow

right? I doubt anyone disagrees, but really... the timing sucks

[backscatter712]

3. I could... but I'm pissed off now. n/t

[hlthe2b]

6. So... everything is all about YOU?

:shrug:

[backscatter712]

28. Actually, it's about MJ.

To an extent, it's good to give Michael Jackson a good sendoff.

But there's a point where we go past the threshold of sanity, and we see a multi-million-dollar industry built around greed and exploitation of Michael Jackson.

We'll have hundreds of big businesses who are like I said, hawking everything from the DVD recording of the funeral to the Michael Jackson breakfast cereals who are exploiting Michael Jackson, and exploiting the shock and grief of his death, just to make a buck. We'll be hearing all sorts of salacious trash rumors about MJ's drug use, his plastic surgery, his sexuality, etc. from the tabloids and celebrity gossip shows just because people want to make a buck. Because of the exploitation machine, it'll be damned difficult for his poor kids to have a moment's peace - the paparazzi will be stalking them 24/7.

So maybe I'm tasteless, but compared to celebrity-death industrial complex, I've got nothin'.

[Confusious]

9. Whats going to be different about tomorrow

Or the next, or the next. Its still going to piss off the celebrity fixated here. Only today its about .0000001% worse.

[hlthe2b]

10. Taking 24 hours out on the day of the funeral is really not that

much to ask, knowing that there are some here who feel very strongly one way or another. Just a sign of respect and sensitivity for your fellow DUers, I think.

[Sal Minella]

12. The OP is commenting on our so-called "news" media, not on any specific celebrity.

If you want to get all huffy, that's just fine, but I also think the media are WAY out of line in the amount of attention they are giving a celebrity death -- I don't know whether the last pope death or Lady Di's funeral got this much coverage (haven't had a TV for 20 years).

Some of us DUers have a lot of respect and sensitivity toward the primary responsibilities of journalists.

[hlthe2b]

13. Yeah... right....

Sure he was.... Just being sensitive towards other DUers... Give me a break. :eyes:

[Sal Minella]

37. Have you ever noticed that your reading-comprehension skills need work?

edit: typo

[hlthe2b]

42. Well, there's a bit of irony....

:rofl:

[Confusious]

14. I've benn keeping my mouth shut since the day he died

I've not posted on one thread, not bitched about the video section being flooded by MJ videos. I've posted a little today, but really, some people around here think he's the second coming or some shit. Tomorrow the refrain will be " Don't speak ill of the dead ". Nothing will change.

With someone in the news as much as him, who lead such a public life, can you really expect people to hold their tongues? We don't when a Politico or anyone else in the news dies. Why now?

I simply do not understand this freakishness about Jackson. I didn't know the guy anymore then I know Joe Smith of Modesto, CA, and neither did 99.9999999999999999999% of the world. You only think you did, and that's an Illusion.

[hlthe2b]

15. I was raised to be respectful of others in grief, no matter how

much I might fail to appreciate the source of that grief. Many of us agree with the "extremely overdone" aspect of your argument, just not with the constant attacks on others and what is rapidly becoming narcissistic poutrage.

Being respectful on the date of burial/memorial is really not that much to ask, unless of course we are referring to the Phelps clan, who find it mandatory to take a hateful message to the grieving at graveside. I'm sure you don't want to invite THOSE comparisons...

[Confusious]

16. You don't know me from ADAM

and your threatening to compare me to phelps over this. You have no idea if I posted (which I haven't) bad things about him. Who has no RESPECT.

Yes, phelps goes to the grieving FAMILY AND FRIENDS at the gravesite.

Are you a family member? are you a friend? did he KNOW you? Are you there? If so, then I apologize, but otherwise you're just a face in the crowd, and don't think its anything more.

[hlthe2b]

17. It is not me you owe the apology to... I am not the one grieving

and not even a major fan. However, you have many thousands of DUers who are and you choose to continue to ignore their feelings. Progressives ought to be better than that... really.

[Confusious]

18. If you try to lookout for everyones feelings

Your just going to end up driving yourself into a emotional hole. I've been there, not going back.

And how do I ignore them anyways? I haven't posted anything bad about Jackson. I'm just saying nothing is going to change, today, tomorrow, whenever. You make a bad comment about their idol, shitstorm is going to happen all the same.

oh, and since you're not family or friends of Jackson, no apology was GIVEN.

[hlthe2b]

19. You can show respect even for those with whom you disagree

vehemently. I confused you initially with someone who has posted thread after thread after thread of outrage--that some here wanted to watch and discuss the memorial or simply to comment on the day of his burial. My apologies for my confusion on that score. I'm glad that you are not that person.

Peace

[Karenina]

22. And YOU click on threads that disinterest you for the sole purpose

of pissing on people who want to talk amongst other interested parties. Elad, our IT wizard, has created a box with an X that appears after every thread title. IF the mention of a name so exercises you, simply click it and :nuke: the thread will no longer appear on your page.

You are certainly not the ONY EXAMPLE of such phelps-like behaviour.

[Fire1]

21. Sorry, 'the second coming' is reserved for President Obama.

[DaveinJapan]

23. lol...funny. nt

[SammyWinstonJack]

41. .

:spray:

[arcadian]

26. What have you got against Joe Smith?

You got a problem with Joe Smith from Modesto? You got a problem with me. :mad:

[leftstreet]

4. You know it's serious corporate re-branding when they take off the crawl

The news crawls have been missing from the bottom of the 'news' screens.

The last time MJ was on teevee 24/7 he was heading into non-profitablity, so this is just a corporate wetdream at this point.

[damntexdem]

5. Yeah, that's what it is.

I'm avoiding it as much as possible.

[Sal Minella]

7. But I will be able to order a Robert McNamara Commemorative Flamethrower,

Limited Collector's Edition, won't I? And I want to buy Robert McNamara lunchboxes for my grandchildren -- certainly RM is no less a capitalist icon than MJ?

I don't expect to find a gold-embossed boxed edition of Robert McNamara's complete works to remember him by, but I do have a friend whose brother hasn't come out of the Oregon woods since he got home from 'Nam.

We all worry about him, so Mac's memory will stay alive a long, long, long time.

[backscatter712]

8. McNamara Napalm: Smells like... a quagmire! n/t

[madrchsod]

11. collecters six packs of agent orange!

[Sal Minella]

20. Did you ever watch "Fog of War..."

I was struck over and over again by McNamara's "We did as well as we could" attitude -- no, you didn't, bucko, and you are letting yourdamnself off WAY TOO EASY!!!

[backscatter712]

27. Never seen that movie...

But yeah, McNamara had a huge amount of blood on his hands.

[cascadiance]

29. At least in that film he acknowledged that he and others could be charged as war criminals!

... which is a helluva better acknowledgment of sin than from the likes of the last crew we've had in office!

[Sal Minella]

39. Maybe "Power-mad" makes a higher class of war criminal than Plain Old Psychopathic Greed?

[Generator]

24. Yes but without death what would we have

but billions of zombies eating one another? And without celebrity we would have no one to blame. I don't think I could live in THAT world, hoss.

[Kurovski]

25. EBAY NEEDS MORE SOULS!

[Swamp Rat]

34. LOL!!!

:rofl::hi::hug:

[PSzymeczek]

30. This is absolutely right

Dangle a celebrity death to make us forget that we have no health care, etc.

[Sal Minella]

38. And how much coverage was there of Karl Rove's appearance on the

matter of the (illegal) Department of Justice firings (to replace too-liberal judges with judges the Bushista Cabal approved of). Zero, right?

[AwakeAtLast]

31. EW commemorative issue contained a plate order form

I got it in the mail on Saturday - already designed and ready to mail to you!

I don't mind all this coverage and I watched the memorial yesterday, but I was shocked that even before his burial there was a plate being offered in a magazine.

[backscatter712]

35. I didn't think the comemorative plates would take long...

How long before we see DVDs and Blu-ray discs of the funeral at Best Buy?

[Jokerman]

32. Best comment yet on the subject K & R.

[earth mom]

33. That's EXACTLY what this is all about-Money Money Money Greed Greed Greed.

They gotta hype MJ now and milk his death for all it's worth.

[Hutzpa]

40. It was stated on MSNBC this morning that 1 billion

people watched the memorial all over the world, thats like almost one fourth of
the worlds population, imagine that....:wow:

[Solomon]

43. LOL They dont get it. It's not the media. It's people.

Buying up his stuff like crazy. The media is not causing that.

[Hutzpa]

45. Gotto admit,

I was impressed with the presentation, I think this just shows
how much people did love this guy.

[mullard12ax7]

44. Getcha Full-Size Velvet MJ Painting This Weekend!

Only $29.95 at the super art show at the Marriot this weekend ONLY!