Wacko for Jacko

Because I trust all of you, I am going to tell you a secret, but you can't tell anyone. Here it goes -- when I was 8 years old, I saw Michael Jackson in concert. I don't know if that shows my age, but let me answer the question all of you are asking yourselves. \nNo, he did not touch me; I had balcony seats. \nWhen I saw Jackson in concert, he was the King of Pop. How did he turn into the mutilated caricature of a man, into the car wreck the media loves to hate, that we see every five minutes on corporate news? Since the early '80s, scandal has surrounded the man -- from child molestation to child abuse -- and he seems oblivious to it all. Yet the media has eaten it up, watching the aftermath of every scandal, how he has continued to invite children to his Neverland Ranch, and how, for some reason, parents continue to send them there.\nThe media, and to be fair, Jackson himself, have made the King of Pop the most ridiculous person in America. In the tabloids, he is known as "Wacko Jacko," and with due cause. What responsible parents would let their children go to this guy's mansion for an unsupervised overnight adventure? While I am not positive that Jackson is now or has ever been guilty of any of the criminal accusations, I do know that I would never feel comfortable letting him have playtime with my children. It would be irresponsible to think that Neverland is all fun and games, when Jackson tells a foreign journalist he sees nothing wrong with sharing a bed with a child, one not his own, or when we see Jackson hanging his own child over a third-story balcony, and his only justification is that he "got caught up in the excitement of the moment." \nThis says to me, maybe people should think twice about sending their child to have a sleepover with Jacko -- that Jackson might not be appropriate company for a young, impressionable child. Unless someone was hoping that Jackson would do something that is ambiguously wrong, something with "lawsuit" written all over it. \nI think the real crime going on here is paying attention to this man, and America is most certainly guilty. Jackson is a weirdo and obviously disturbed, but we are guilty of giving his alleged crimes an audience. I am so sick of hearing about Jackson's legal battles that I hope at the end of this round of court proceedings, Jackson is found guilty, for the safety of others and the sanity of our nation. Maybe then we can move onto something else. \nWhat is the media's and America's obsession with the life of Jackson (whoops, am I contributing to this?)? It really sickens me the way that on every network, hours of news are based around the life and times of this sick, sad man. There are troop withdrawals by our allies in Iraq, there are movements toward democracy in Syria, and illegal immigrants are being given driver's licenses. Shame on you, corporate news, but also shame on you, America! The news stations pander to their audiences, and without viewer interest, they would quickly move onto some other, perhaps, more important story. \nRed state America, why do you cry out about the moral downfall of American society when you are the cause of it? The Michael Jackson trial, "Desperate Housewives," all the television programs that the right rallies against: You are the main consumers of this filth. \nGive blame where blame is due.