You wrote my column for me, topic by topic, complete with an image of the front page of the NYT. 

Even BBC News America on TV led with it at 8AM and online it gets the same treatment.

What a gift to Ahmadinejad, Ayatollah Khanenie and thier murderous thugs this is getting reports of their brutality off the front page.

Where else but America can a poor black boy grow up to become a rich white woman, only to die penniless? And you want to pile on by adding “irrelevant”, too?

Kent Shaw

Whether you or others think it is sane, logical or proper, millions of people around the world felt a special bond with Michael jackson.

You have just insulted their choice of who and how to mourn.

Exceedingly bad taste.

Phil Hoskins

Sans the freak reference which was needlessly cruel, I would have written the same thing as Doug about the media coverage. The media doesn’t even have the excuse of it being a slow news day, as Doug’s examples show.

A quirky and probably mentally ill pop culture icon with a huge international following during the height of his career and even now in his decline died of what is likely to turn out to be rather pedestrian causes.  That’s the actual "news". There’s no story to go with it unless there was something untoward about his death.

People around the world who may or may not have thought about him in years are now mourning. If I cared enough I devote some thought to trying to understand Michael Jackson’s special appeal beyond his exceptional talent and showmanship. My hunch is that many people felt a connection with him because it was so obvious he was tormented by inner demons, demons even more frightening than those they were struggling with.

 Perhaps there’s where the real story is. 

Traditionally when someone of note dies the media assess the impact they had while alive. I don’t see that as front page "news". The older or more precarious the health of a celebrity, the more likely the media is well prepared to run with these biographies.

I can see the true tabloids devoting their entire front pages to this, but I would have liked to see the New York Times handle their front page in such a way that put the story in perspective. 

Let’s see what emails to the Times ombudsman say over the next few days.

The man sold more records than anyone in history.  More people know of him than any other contemporary person on the planet. That for my book makes it front page news.

But, as i say, that could be a legitimate topic for discussion. 

What if this was your brother?  Would you want someone to be arguing about the value of his life and its treatment by the media today?  I doubt it.

Whether sane, proper, rational or not, millions thought of him exactly that way.

Phil Hoskins

I do recognize that he attained a huge world wide fan base that will be stunned with his unexpected demise.

I view him as a complex human being that secured fame and fortune before he even entered puberty. A person that may or may not have sustained various forms of child abuse while growing up. A person that seemingly chose to remain a child rather than enter the adult world. A person that was flawed, imperfect, and intricate. I believe he also had some positive, good, and kind facets.

It may be that he was in various degrees like so many of us Homo sapiens, only with more celebrity.

Whatever Michael Jackson was, he died yesterday. I choose not to point fingers, or disparage this individual who I did not personally know. I think it is wiser to concentrate on cleaning my own back yard before ranting about the yards of others.

But alas! It is a bad day for the entertainment world, but a good day for young boys around the world. I wonder if Barney Frank will speak at the funeral.

I won’t join you in ruing the lack of “real” news though. It’s not really news, anyway. A day off from Washington propaganda isn’t really a bad thing.