Guys Did You Hear?!
 

Micheal Jackson died! Holy Sh*t!

Not been confirmed yet...

Dude he is dead I just saw it on the news.

"Dude"! It's only been reported by the LA Times and TMZ.com. There has been no official statement.

More news coming in. The AP have apparently announced it...

Yup, it's been confirmed.

He is so dead check the BBC News or something.

Told you that the old man is dead.
R.I.P Thriller (best album ever).

I know it sounds disrespectful, but he should have died a long time ago. He lived long enough to make a complete fool of himself. Imagine if Jimi Hendrix had lived longer than 27, got a load of plastic surgery, had a load of court cases suggesting he was a pedophile, all that crap. He wouldn't be the legend he is now...

MJ is gonna be remembered for the wrong things now. He should have died at his peak.

Now feel free to rip the **** out of me for being so disrespectful :P

Farrah Fawcett also died today. :(

I just looked into Farrah Fawcett (I dunno who she is but I did read her name somewhere yesterday in something unrelated). She died of anal cancer... wow.

Yep, when I got to work this morning (while the news was "not yet confirmed") I said "the only reason it hasn't been 'confirmed' yet is they need to tell the family first, that's the same thing that happened with Ledger". An hour later it was confirmed.

I do think it's a shame that Jako died before he could complete those 50 concerts (that would have earned him that $400 million he needed to repay his debts), however that's life and as resilient as our bodies are they can also be very fragile too.
If he hadn't had 20 rinoplasties and screwed his face up first, then someone else would have ... so at least he stopped some other people from completely ruining their faces. That said, you do have a point - I suspect MJ had his balls tied at an early age (like opera singers), which made him appear more affluent, etc. Frankly the fact that two "boys" said he molested him - and one we know was a liar - and the other was given money from Jako to drop the allegations - is hardly enough evidence for me to believe that he had sex with boys. Maybe if he joined NAMBLA and became their spokesperson I'd have believed it. He was a practising JW for a while you know.

That said, his personal life was a mess, I do think that he has a valid right to privacy regarding his health – but that he shouldn't have been publicly lying about it. I don't think you've been disrespectful – but frankly… who gives a sh*t what people think about you? It's still better than dying young (50 is still young though). It is a shame his children will have to grow up without him now.

Sad news. :(

Always sad when someone dies...

I saw an interview with Yuri Geller. He said he asked Jackson if he was lonely. Jackson looked Yuri in the eye for ten seconds and then said "I am a very lonely man." It made me think of a poem by R.S. Thomas...

THE WORD

A pen appeared, and god said
"Write what it is to be
man" And my hand hovered
long over the page

until there, like footprints
of the lost traveller, letters
took shape on the page's
blankness and I spelled out

the word "lonely." And my hand moved
to erase it, but the voices
of all those waiting at life's
window cried out loud: "It is true."

It's sad that he died, no question, but then it's sad when anyone dies - and people die every day.

I hate that as a society we've all agreed to pretend to mourn people we never knew just because they're famous. The coverage of this story by the media is grossly disproportionate and only validates the absurd pseudo-grief of demonstrable morons. Frankly I find the whole thing highly offensive.

Some people are famous for a reason, like Michael Jackson. He used to be really, really good. But later he was just a wreck, I pity him...

Its messed up that he died though I thought he was going to be around for just a bit longer before he bit the dust. I still can't believe that he is gone. It feels weird like if Harrsion Ford died. God forbid. We need him for Indy 5.

Breaking news after I watched Prison Break. I heard and thought: What Michael Jackson?
I´m no fan, but some of his Music was good!
I´m not interested in VIPs. Cuz nobody says if anything happens to us! Annoying.
But sad. And one part of the music history is now dead. :(
All is over someday. All things...

Don´t understand it wrong but it was the best time. I mean he would have no more get over his concerts in his condition.

http://www.blatherskite.com/index.ph...chilly-thames/

Artist impression of Michael Jackson’s true face

http://img3.imagebanana.com/img/m77g21go/4.png

http://celebgalz.com/artist-impressi...ons-true-face/

I feel bad about his death because of his musical influence...but not for the man he was...

I didnt care for him. He is pretty scary looking.

This.

Ya Its realy anoying. He still scares me even though he died.

It's not worth getting offended over, it's just human nature, for better or worse. In the past, Kings and Queens have died and been mourned by their people, despite the fact they never met them. It's weird and messed up, but something about "celebrities" affect us.

The thing I DO get HIGHLY offended by is shops using Michael Jackson's image to sell products under the guise of being "respectful". Ugh. For example, I went into Borders today and they were playing Michael Jackson's greatest hits... Or Amazon.com's disgusting page link on their homepage.

Both have been made for corporate decisions and find the idea of using dead people's images in order to capitalise on people's grief... well, highly offensive.

Yeah, check this out.

(I suppose for reference I should say that, at the time of posting, pretty much every album on this list is a Michael Jackson album - and most of them have actually sold out completely at this point.)

I agree it's sick that people and companies capitalise on things like this.

Anything is better than spreading those ridiculous allegations of sexual misconduct - if Jackson was a paedophile then I'm Santa Claus.

Racism is a product of human nature, is that not worth getting offended over? Yeah, I know, that's not even close to a fair comparison. Racism has caused the needless suffering of millions - people being overly upset about the death of a celebrity doesn't hurt anyone.

I was just being facetious above, but I do have a serious problem with the news coverage of this. Not just this, but in general, journalists are going for the emotional, human interest side of the story when they should just be reporting the facts. I can't really prove this, but it is my suspicion that the media is far more responsable for manufacturing this ludicrous reaction than human nature.

Basically I'm angry because I feel alienated.

Asserting that he defininitly wasn't is just as absurd as asserting that defininitly he was. You don't know and you have no way of knowing. He was never convicted and we should assume his innocence, but that's not the same this as calling the allegations ridiculous.

I do believe there is some truth to this. I was just thinking what is going on around the world today:
- Unrest in Iran
- Pirates in Somalia
- War in Afghanistan and Iraq
- Economic crisis
- Mexican flu
- And the usual diseases, famine, kidnappings, murders, etc.

And what's on the news? What's on the bloody entire news bulletin?! Michael Jackson. Now, I'm not saying the media should just bring doom and gloom, but I watch the news to keep up with what's happening around the globe. When pretty much an entire news bulletin is dedicated to the death of a singer, there's something wrong with the news editors. :raise:

They write what they think people are most likely to read, and gossip sells well. On the Internet this translates into ad revenue from people clicking on articles and so they have hundreds of articles about every minutiae detail surrounding Jackson's death.

News organizations exist mainly to make money, not to provide news.

Terrible!











But humanity! :(

Why do you want to hear about that stuff? I think it's funny that some people spend their 80 years on this Earth enjoying complaining about how bad it is :P

I keep hearing people at the moment moaning about politics and how this country (England) is a police state, and how bad the government is, and how the state of the country drives them mad... but this is actually a brilliant country.

For me, though, ignorance is bliss. :D

Actually, having said that, ignorance is not bliss. It's the people who seem to think we're living in a world made entirely of poodle poo who are ignorant :P

I understand why it is, but that doesn't make it ok. The medical industry, for example, also exists for the purpose of making money yet they also have a clear and detailed code of conduct and acknowledge their ethical obligations.

I, like everyone else, am ignorant of many, many things. You must surely agree, though, that news outlets dumbing everything down into emotive human interest stories, rather than rational, well informed, in depth reporting, can only exacerbate the spread of ignorance.

Billy Mays just died today. That guy from the infomercials who kept on talking about OxiClean and Orange Glo.

I disagree; a lot of people aren't well informed enough by the news (as regards politics) to discuss it realistically - instead, a lot of people just talk about the "police state" and "political correctness gone mad". And as for news of murders and abductions, they just makes people worried to walk the streets. As a result, people saying "hello" to strangers in the streets are now regarded as weirdos.

It just makes people paranoid :/

And it's not like it ever gives anything other than an interesting topic of discussion - why is anything in the news really relevant to our day to day lives? That which is relevant probably makes up about 10% of what is reported.

Lol, sorry for the rant :P

This is essentially what I'm talking about. It's far cheaper and quicker to provoke an emotional response such as fear or anger than than to go into any detail and actually explain a complex issue.

You cannot be serious. That is a ridiculously naive attitude.

Firstly, just because something happens on the other side of the world doesn't mean it doesn't affect you. The Somalian pirates, for example, have a direct impact on the cost of imported goods. This is a pretty simplistic causal relationship, other relationships may be more convoluted but almost everything that is considered "world news" has an affect on some aspect of your life.

Second, just because a news item doesn't have even and indirect affect on your life doesn't mean that it's not worth knowing about. Watching how situations across the globe unfold, and why the the turn out the way they do, gives you an understanding how the world works and what the consequences of tackling different issues in different ways are. That understanding can be applied to domestic issues and inform your opinions on all sorts of problems that are relevant to your day to day life.

They're not called Somolians they're called the Somali.

I'm sorry, but it doesn't quite work like that. You could argue that it makes people paranoid... but on the other hand, it could equally be argued that people who are already paranoid tend to watch news like that to confirm what they already believe.

As for why to watch the news, neon_git already explained it very well. Things that happen elsewhere have an impact on what happens here. That said, I'm definitely not just spending my 80 years here looking at depressing stuff - I love watching cartoons, I love playing games, I'm a child at heart, really. But when I do decide to watch something serious like the news, I expect to get serious stuff, not just banal nonsense.

I agree with neon git.
The news effects our everyday lives. Like when the Iraq War started I remember all they had on the news was propanganda and advertisments telling us to join the army. The reporters were incredibly baised. They kept talking about how successful the war effort was and I remember George W. Bush had said the Iraq War was an American victory on the FIRST day of the invasion. A couple months afterwards the news media slowly trickled to the US casualities. The casualities just got higher and higher as time went on. One of the things I remeber as a little Nickelstein was how they made us all afraid. America was in a state of fear. If you looked Middle Eastern people would stare at you on the train. If it was 2003 and you were Middle Eastern don't even think about getting on a plane. On the news things just got more paranoid. The reporters were talking about how terrorists could use PENS to kill people.

So? Just because it's cheaper and simpler doesn't mean it's not better. In fact, some principals suggest that the simpler the better. Some suggest otherwise.

Yes, the Somali Pirates did have an effect on the cost of imported goods for me. But why do I need to know that? How could that possibly benefit me in any way? Knowing that imported goods are more expensive is helpful, knowing why is trivial.

That's a good point.

That's true, but it isn't a case of either/or; both of these cases are true. People do watch the news to confirm their paranoia, but others are simply made paranoid by scary news stories that hold no realistic threat (like reports of knife crime).

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that taking an interest in the news is a bad thing at all. I'm just saying that the news seems to incite pessimism.

That's a pretty strong argument for what I'm saying. The examples you used were of the exaggeration of the news making people paranoid, which is what I'm talking about. :P

Record sales are through the roof though, guess his family has that at least.