Dear Dr. Ink:
At a time when it seems the world may be ready to pull out the switchblades and rumble, the economy is in pieces, and the nation is torn like it hasn’t been since the Civil War, almost the entire primetime line up for all channels one night late last month consisted of either the rich but horrifying face of Michael Jackson or the poor but better-looking face of a nobody liar, Joe Millionaire.
Is this a bad thing? On the one hand, it might be that these two subjects could bring us together at the water cooler and make us forget the bigger problems. On the other hand, maybe forgetting the bigger problems is what got us into them to begin with.
Would spending a whole primetime line-up on news agencies explaining the Mideast problems and why they are important be better for the country, even at the expense of ratings?
Signed,
A devoted fan with ink on his hands
Answer:
That ink rub-off can be a nuisance, oh devoted fan, but can be prevented by reading Dr. Ink on your screen.
Seriously, Dr. Ink thinks it’s a disgrace that prime time was dominated by Wacko Jacko and Joe Millionaire. Which is why Doc was glued to Monday Night Raw, the professional wrestling program on TNN.
No really, seriously this time, here are the reasons why Michael Jackson is important:
- He helped create an era of popular music when it was not enough to be a good singer. If you were also a dancer, and if your work could be translated through the small screen in music videos, you could launch a whole new industry. Which Michael did.
- Like Madonna, Jackson embodied the desire and power to re-make an image, an increasingly important aspect of American culture. Madonna would do it by changing her hair, wardrobe, or musical intensity. Michael did it through plastic surgery and other cosmetic transformations.
- On the positive side, Michael proclaimed himself the King of Pop. This led to a form of Peter Pan-theism, a desire to create a persona without race, without gender, without age. On the dark side, this meant a denial of self, a rejection of one’s genetic and cultural heritage.
- Michael is messed up. Dr. Ink wishes there was another way to put it. He says his father was abusive, and he has been accused, at least once, of having abused a child. His ranch is an amusement park designed to keep him youthful and to attract children to him. He likes to bunk with them, which makes him — in the eyes of his admirers — an innocent genius, and for his detractors, a public danger.
- He is one of the few figures who engender curiosity in both black and white audiences.
The great traditional categories of news propounded by Professor Melvin Mencher, formerly of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, include:
• Time
• Place
• Impact
• Currency
• Conflict
• Prominence
• The Bizarre
Stories about Jackson tend to derive from his prominence and conflict over his actions, though it’s the final category that most applies. But Doc predicts Jackson’s news evaporation if we go to war or suffer another serious terrorist attack, just as Gary Condit evaporated before him.
