The only Michael Jackson trial news I heard throughout the ordeal was what I couldn't help overhearing. It just wasn't on my radar because I care so little about the personal lives of entertainment celebrities, no matter how weird. Now that it's over, I figured Andrew Sullivan would have an insightful, intelligent take on it, and he doesn't disappoint. My inattention to the case wasn't unusual, I guess. Sullivan says America in general simply tuned out. At least in my case, he was wrong about the reasons why:
...the reason, I think, is not simply a function of the ick factor - that simply imagining a 46 year-old porcelain doll groping half-drunk teens is more than enough to get you to turn the channel. It's because the Jackson trial focuses attention on features of American culture that most Americans simply don't want to acknowledge or handle.
Sullivan calls celebrity "the ultimate American poison", and says Jackson, now a "husk of a human", is casually disposed of by our celebrity culture as we move on to the next victim. Read it all.
Posted by dan at June 14, 2005 01:38 PMGood post. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Posted by: Al at June 15, 2005 09:22 AM