Funeral of a Superstar as a Media Moment (Published 2009) (2024)

Of course the networks interrupted their regular programming to cover it. Of course the 24-hour cable news stations never left it, and of course, most everybody around the world stopped what they were doing — on television, on the Internet and on the street — to look and listen.

Michael Jackson’s memorial service on Tuesday was solemnly presented on television as a state funeral, and not surprisingly. This was a star-studded live concert infused with all the pageantry, sorrow and ghoulish curiosity that attends the untimely demise of a beloved, troubled superstar. And more than almost anyone else, Mr. Jackson bracketed history and supermarket tabloids. Nelson Mandela sent a celebratory message to the tribute; Brooke Shields recalled going with the singer to sneak a first peek at Elizabeth Taylor’s (eighth) wedding dress.

All day, the fans who were gathered around the Staples Center in Los Angeles kept saying that Michael Jackson’s music was the soundtrack of their youth. The music at his memorial — Mariah Carey singing “I’ll Be There” and clips of his entire career — provided the catharsis of flashbacks.

Even on mute, the tribute mattered: as the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, showed in 1997, communal sorrow is moving, public frenzy is alarming, but the two together make for irresistible television. In a culture that considers Madonna’s divorce major news and breaks away from war and summitry to watch live police car chases, the arrival of the coffin on stage, covered in red blossoms, was the ultimate rubberneck moment.

Some network anchors seemed a bit mortified by their own unstinting and reverential coverage. Brian Williams of NBC, who sat on a special platform outside the Staples Center, told his colleague Lester Holt that the public had a way of deciding for itself what matters, “despite, at some times, the news media’s better wishes.” He added ruefully, “And this is an event because it is.”

But there was another, less obvious allure to the incessant, insatiable coverage. With so many hours to fill, television anchors and commentators give voice — literally and loudly — to the kinds of private, contradictory thoughts that so often dart through guests’ minds at a funeral. Flashes of sorrow and reminiscence collide with nosy curiosity about the will, the debts, custody battles, family entanglements and even the extravagant cost of the ceremony.

Many people on Tuesday reminisced about the unforgettable day they raced home from school to watch the debut of “Thriller” on MTV in 1983. Greta Van Susteren of Fox News said that what she remembered most about the performer was the time he arrived in court wearing pajamas.

Most anchors tried to define Mr. Jackson’s place in pop culture and American history. His popularity is universal, but his death was commandeered to mark a milestone in African-American history. Nancy Giles, an actress and CBS News commentator, said on MSNBC that he was “a trailblazer in the same way President Obama is.”

And as the day wore on, past scandals, plastic surgeries and toxicology reports were set aside to focus on Mr. Jackson’s music and his contribution to civil rights. Magic Johnson said that the singer made him a better basketball player, and Bernice King, the daughter of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., gave him ringing praise. That homage, as much as the music, was the measure of the event’s success: for at least one day, the Jackson camp managed to take command of the coverage, setting the agenda for the news media as well as the mourners.

And some speakers even painted the singer as a martyr victimized by a callous news media and celebrity hounds. “There was nothing strange about your daddy,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said, addressing Mr. Jackson’s three children, Prince Michael, 12; Paris, 11; and Prince Michael II (a k a Blanket), 7. “It was strange what your daddy had to deal with.”

By the time Paris broke into sobs at the end of the service as she expressed how much she loved her father — “I just wanted to say, ever since I was born Daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine” — newscasters cast aside any pretense of covering a news event and joined in the orgy of mourning. Shepard Smith of Fox News, speaking over the music in almost syncopated beat, noted: “He was a lot of different things to a lot of different people. There were days when on the cover of The New York Post, he was just ‘Wacko Jacko.’ But today, just moments ago, his daughter reminded us all he was also, Daddy.”

On CNN, even staid Wolf Blitzer got caught up in the emotion, urging his viewers to take a moment to join him in listening, once again, to Jennifer Hudson singing Mr. Jackson’s song “Will You Be There.” The ABC news anchor Charles Gibson invited Martin Bashir, an ABC correspondent who taped sensational interviews with the performer, to help with commentary. But even Mr. Gibson didn’t seem very interested in rehashing old scandal. “People have gone back to the music,” he told Mr. Bashir. “It’s as if the last 10 or 15 years didn’t happen.”