Farrah Fawcett died earlier on the same day as Michael Jackson, and some of her Utah fans think she got short shrift in news coverage.
Others felt The Tribune had either too much or too little coverage on Jackson’s death and memorial service. Some naysayers said The Tribune praised a person of questionable morals.
Tony Rogers wrote this week on About.com Guide to Journalism:
“A pop icon dies young, under tragic circumstances. Millions around the world mourn, and the media respond with nonstop coverage — TV specials, newspaper headlines, magazine covers – all of which the public devour. Ratings soar, papers fly off newsstands.
“Yet others complain that it’s all too much. The news media should focus on more serious matters, they say — war, politics, the economy — anything but the life and death of a pop singer.
“Sound familiar? This was the scene in the hours and days following the death of John Lennon on Dec. 8, 1980.”
I remember controversy when the Beatles went to India and found dope and when Lennon apparently allowed then-girlfriend Yoko Ono to break up the British group. Similar attention was given to the death of Elvis Presley, known simply as the King. Presley struggled with drug use for years.
For some reason I do not understand, Americans don’t want critical material in the obituaries of their pop icons. No one wanted to read about Frank Sinatra’s ties to the mob when he died; they wanted to read about Old Blue Eyes. No one wanted to read about how bloated and tired Elvis seemed to be; they wanted to read about their hunka’ hunka’ burnin’ love.
That’s the way Americans view their icons — as people frozen in time, not allowed to age or falter or show human frailty. The day Jackson died people held up signs depicting the 5-year-old Michael or the “Thriller” era Michael — not the Michael who showed up for his trial in pajamas.
Both Presley and Jackson sold more records in a short space of time after their deaths than they had in the years before they died. There are many psychological reasons for this, but most of them boil down to this: We want to remember what we thought was so good about these people in the first place.
Why did Jackson get more attention than Fawcett? Fawcett was famous for a teenage boy’s dream poster and a TV show (she quit after the first season). She drew more press later in her life for her on-again, off-again romance with Ryan O’Neal and her losing fight against cancer. She was a symbol of a simpler age, frozen forever wearing that red bathing suit.
Jackson, many music critics argue, changed the face of pop music with his songs, dancing and videos — and forced MTV to play the videos of other black artists.
So how much thought was given to the display of the two stories? Lindsey Travis, copy desk news editor, explains, “The amount of space we devote to a news story depends on several factors: How important is the story? How long has the story been out in the public? How much space do we have?”
On the day after Jackson’s death, “We did have a presence on the front page and then inside we had the Jackson and Fawcett stories on the same page. I think we offered the best coverage without going overboard.”
She adds, “With Farrah Fawcett, the news had been out longer during the day. Her death was not unexpected. Jackson was younger and his death in the afternoon was a big shock.”
Those few sentences from Travis describe the process of making news judgments — picking out what goes in the paper and what gets left out.
