Established Media Couldn’t Resist Jacko’s Tabloid News

Ed Siegel of the Boston Globe says that while celebrities have always been tabloid fodder, it wasn’t until recently that the more established network and broadsheet media felt they couldn’t be left behind on stories like the Michael Jackson baby dangling. “It’s certainly not an unusual story as a media event,” said Joshua Gamson, a sociologist of culture at the University of San Francisco. “It’s entertaining. For God’s sake, the kid’s called Prince Michael II. It’s fabulous. You also get the prevent-child-abuse statements from advocacy groups and a major apology. It’s pretty much standard scandal script with a mea culpa at the end.”