One King on Another

More people care what author and Entertainment Weekly columnist Stephen King says than care about what The New York Times says. Here's what King says in the front of the current issue of EW about the Michael Jackson trial:

It's sickening that it takes a columnist in an entertainment magazine to point out that the number of newspeople who covered the Jackson trial (2,000) is roughly equivalent to the number of American servicemen and women who have died in Iraq. On the same day that crowds gathered in Times Square (and around the world) to learn the fate of the Pale Peculiarity, another four suicide bombings took place in that tortured, bleeding country. And if you tell me that news doesn't belong in Entertainment Weekly, I respond by saying Michael Jackson under a black umbrella doesn't belong on the front page of The New York Times.

Hear, hear, Mr. King.

King is laying the blame entirely on the media:

The press might respond by saying "We gave the people what they wanted."

My response would be "My job is to give them what they want. When he steps into a recording studio, it's Michael Jackson's job to give them what they want. Your job is to give the people what they need."

Yeah, that's probably true--news that we don't want to hear will never be a best-seller. But I think it is up to each of us to reassess our own priorities, the ones that have made Michael Jackson's trial a top draw, and take a moment to consider what this says about our values as individuals and as a people. All the ranting and raving about values in the world won't change the fact that the actions and choices (not least in our popular culture) of the American people reflect what we really believe and hold dear.

Decline of the Roman empire, anyone?