The past week has been filled with breathless rumors and revelations from supposed intimates of Michael Jackson. Hyper-competitive news outlets are lapping up supposedly inside information from a motley cast of supporting characters, including Deepak Chopra, Lou Ferrigno and Al Sharpton, as well as many lesser lights.
A top publicist hired by the dead singer's family has lashed back at the extensive and error-prone media coverage.
"People should be embarrassed when they print, blog or say things on the air that are proven to be entirely untrue or partially untrue," said Ken Sunshine, a veteran PR consultant retained Wednesday by the Jackson family. "And there should be a shame in it.
"You watch these interview shows all night and all day," he added, referring to the nearly nonstop coverage on cable news. "The people that they get to interview: Where are the standards of choosing somebody to go on-camera? . . . The so-called experts, who the hell are these people?"
In his professional life, Sunshine has of course very good reasons to advance such an argument. But many Jackson-fatigued viewers are likely asking similar questions. Sixty-three percent of Americans say the musician's death is getting too much media coverage, according to a survey released Thursday by HCD Research.
On the other hand, 80% in the same poll said they were engaged by Jackson stories when they saw them. So the past week has seen TV and websites awash with speculative and conflicting reports about whether the pop singer may have committed suicide or accidentally overdosed, whether he was the birth father of his three children, what sort of custody battle might ensue and even such basics as where his body is being held and the details of funeral arrangements.
"The frenzy is similar to O.J., but the media environment is completely different because there was no Internet, the cable universe was much smaller, and the press of attention was less as a result," said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who rose to national prominence 15 years ago as one of many pundits during the O.J. Simpson case, which ushered in the modern tabloid era.
"One of the challenges is to separate actual Jackson associates from the large cast of sleazy hangers-on who claim to know more than they do," he added. "The terms 'Jackson lawyer' and 'Jackson advisor' include actual advisors and people who know absolutely nothing."
