When the verdict was announced, his sister shrieked. She sent a tweet to her 125,000 followers saying “VICTORY,” and ended it with seven exclamation marks. His fans waved their banners praising Jesus, and screamed, and wept, and blew horns. People said, while crying in front of cameras, that there had, at long last, been what their banners had demanded: “Justice for Michael!” His mother agreed. “I feel,” she told reporters, “better now.” Everyone seemed to. Everyone — apart, perhaps, from Conrad Murray, and his defense lawyers, and maybe some of the women who claimed to be his girlfriend, and maybe some of the mothers of some of his children — seemed to feel an awful lot better now. They seemed to think that although nothing could bring back the man they claimed to love so much, this was a very, very happy day. They seemed to feel like Michael Jackson’s mother, who couldn’t wait “to go home and share this day” with his children, and “couldn’t hold back tears of joy.” Everyone seemed to think that what had been a tragedy wasn’t any more. Because a man who was paid nearly £100,000 a month to give him the kind of drugs you can’t just pick up at Boots, had given him an awful lot of the kind of drugs you can’t pick up at Boots, and been so careless about it that he’d been chatting on the phone to a cocktail waitress while the man he was meant to be looking after was having a bad reaction to a drug you definitely can’t pick up at Boots, had been found guilty of killing him by accident. Or it wasn’t as much of a tragedy as it had been, because the person who caused it had been found and would be punished. Perhaps when these people heard that the most successful pop star in world history, who was not only a brilliant singer and songwriter, but also did some of the most athletic and original dancing ever done by a rock star, and who cared so much about his appearance that he made improving it into a life’s quest, was crippled with arthritis, and nearly blind, and had a toenail fungus so bad that doctors thought his flesh was rotting away, they thought this was a normal thing for a 50-year-old man. Maybe when they heard a recording of his voice, which was so weak and slurred that you could hardly make out the words, but which had sounded pretty good on the albums that almost everyone in the Western world had bought, they thought this was normal, too. And maybe not a single one of these people wondered what on earth had happened to his family, and the people he called his friends. Perhaps they thought it was normal to watch your brother, or son, or friend, have so many operations on his face that some people said some of the bones in it were in danger of collapsing, and that what you should say, when he came out of hospital from the latest one, was that he definitely looked better than before. Maybe they thought, when they heard he was paying someone nearly £100,000 a month, to give him drugs almost every doctor in the world would say he didn’t need, that this sounded like excellent value. And maybe when they heard another recording of the pop star in court, telling that doctor that he wanted to use the proceeds of the tour he was planning to help sick children, because he himself “didn’t have a childhood,” they just shrugged and thought “so what?” Maybe they thought that it didn’t really matter whether you had a childhood. That a childhood was a small thing to give up to produce the kind of music that the King of Pop produced, and a small price to pay for the fame he had. It isn’t all that easy to know what Michael Jackson’s family, friends and fans thought about any of these things, because, when they talk about him, they tend to talk as if he wasn’t a human being, but a god. His sister, La Toya, said on Monday that “victory was served” because her brother was, though technically dead, “in that courtroom.” She didn’t say what, if anything, she’d done when she’d watched her brother being flogged by their father for making mistakes in rehearsals throughout his childhood, and from the start of his singing career at the age of six. Nor did his mother. And nor, of course, did his father, who used, according to his son, to watch his sons rehearsing with a belt in his hand, and often told him that his nose was “too fat.” You’d have thought that sisters, and brothers, and parents, and friends, might think it wasn’t usually a good sign when someone built themselves a giant fun fair, and zoo, and named it after a fantasy land in a children’s book about a boy who never grows up. And that they might be a little bit worried when their best friends seemed to be prepubescent boys and a chimpanzee called Bubbles. But sisters, and brothers, and parents, and friends, didn’t seem too worried by any of this, or, if they were, they didn’t say so. They seemed to think that nothing could be strange in the life, and lifestyle, of someone who was very, very talented, and very, very successful, and very, very, very rich. They seemed to think that someone who was very talented, and very successful, and very rich should always do exactly what they wanted, even if what they wanted was to wreck their once-handsome face and body with plastic surgery and drugs. Michael Jackson called the drug that killed him “milk.” He never stopped seeking the props of the childhood he had lost. Perhaps when he looked at photos of that brown-skinned boy, with his big nose, big lips, and big smile, he saw a shadow of the person he once was, the person he’d paid doctors to wipe out. Perhaps he remembered a time before his life became a giant freak show. “Wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy,” Al Sharpton told Jackson’s children at his funeral. That, of course, was a lie, but what he said next was true. “It was strange,” he said, “what your daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it anyway.” Yes, he dealt with it anyway: the parents who cared more about money and fame than that their son had a childhood, the brothers and sisters who were nearly as damaged as him, the people who said they were friends, but who only seemed to want to be sprinkled with his star dust, and the people — so many people — who just wanted his money. And a press poised for every new twist in the crazy carnival his life became. It was Conrad Murray’s defense lawyer who reminded jurors that “this is not a reality show, it’s reality.” Unfortunately, no one in Jackson’s sad, strange and shockingly friendless life, seemed to know the difference. Originally posted here: Christina Patterson: It Wasn’t Just One Man Who Killed the King of Pop
Beverly Hills News
Posts Tagged ‘ person ’
Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points — Why Not Occupy the Media?
Like many Americans, I watched the events unfold in Oakland this week with some trepidation. Occupy Oakland tried two new tactics in protesting, and both were very successful at achieving a key goal — that of getting your message across. Both the general strike and the temporary port shutdown were successful, in this regard. Later in the night, however, a group of jerks came close to ruining all this, by their criminal behavior. I was not present — I live too far away from Oakland to have taken part. In fact, like most Americans, I watched the news coverage on television. And, finally, the video images which the news media has been waiting for occurred — video of idiots vandalizing anything they felt like, setting bonfires in the streets, and battling with cops. What was missing from the media coverage (at least the coverage I witnessed) was a spokesman for the Occupy movement denouncing the violence and calling on all their supporters and fellow protesters to do the same. This is a weakness in the movement. In fact, it is a critical weak point. Not the lack of denunciation per se (I did actually see people interviewed at the Occupy sites who strongly disavowed the violent jerks) but the fact that there is no media contact for the movement. This needs to change, or the Occupy movement leaves itself open to being defined by anyone who shows up — and gets their image on television by being a jerk. This would be a shame, but it seems to be inherent in the structure of the protests. To be part of the “99 Percent” all you have to do is show up. The problem with this is, some people are going to show up who do not hew to the utopian rules of behavior. Even if the ratio of jerks to protesters-with-hearts-of-gold is extremely low — let’s just say for the sake of argument one percent versus 99 percent — they can spoil the whole show for everyone. What the protesters need to consider is: why let the one percent of the jerks define your movement in the media, while the wishes of the 99 percent are not heard? Isn’t this kind of the point of the movement in the first place? Occupy Wall Street (and all its sister Occupy sites) is famously against “leaders.” It’s communitarian. Well, that’s all fine and good, but what this means in a practical sense is that the media — looking for a soundbite — will just show up and randomly interview people. Since conflict makes good television, they will run the clip of the one jerk who says (or does) something monumentally stupid, and the other 99 interviews will wind up on the cutting room floor. A media spokesperson is not a “leader” — he or she is merely a conduit of information. If the Occupy sites (starting with the Occupy Wall Street site) would only realize this, they would do their cause a lot of good. Do it by consensus. In any group of people, there are some who are much better at articulating things than others. Hours are spent in General Meetings talking, so it shouldn’t be that hard to identify a few who choose their words better than others. Select one of these per week, say, and rotate people through the position of Media Contact Person, to give more than one person a chance at it. Then issue a press release, or call up all the major networks, and introduce the Media Contact Person concept to them. They will doubtlessly be pleased by this development, because it will mean when they need someone to define (or defend) the movement to the media, they will have one person they can contact, one person who can speak for the movement, and one person they can invite into their studios for a sit-down interview. This is crucial, and this week proved why. The Oakland violence happened very late at night. Imagine how it could have been handled if there had been a Media Contact Person available to appear on all the morning television news shows — in the same news cycle as the violence. One person strongly stating: “We disavow violent tactics, that is not what we stand for, and we call on Occupy Oakland to stand with us and strongly denounce the hooligans who hijacked their peaceful general strike, their peaceful daylong march, and their peaceful shutdown of the port of Oakland. Thousands of people from all walks of life participated peacefully, and then late at night a few dozen idiots tried to make the Occupy movement something it is not. We strongly denounce these violent tactics, and any who practice them.” Now, ask yourself: would that have been better for the movement’s goals as a whole, or not? Would it have been better to have one go-to person available to speak for the movement, or is it better to spend a few days discussing it and watching random television interviews with protesters who cannot say they speak “for the movement”? Or you can put it another way: why not “occupy” the media itself? Why not give one person (rotated weekly, perhaps) the power to speak for the 99 percent of the people on the streets who were disgusted with the violence? How can your movement not be strengthened and more successful by having a sole contact for the media? This shouldn’t be some philosophical issue, it should be seen as a practical and sorely-needed solution to a very real communications problem. Continue reading this full article at ChrisWeigant.com, complete with our weekly picks for the Most Impressive Democrat Of The Week and Most Disappointing Democrat Of The Week awards. Then we end with a special “talking points” section which expands the idea of a Media Contact Person for Occupy Wall Street.
help wanted: Our Sales Team Is Hiring
Our sales department is looking for a few smart, talented people to join the Curbed Network team, including an L.A. Account Executive. Here’s the full list of opportunities: Account Executive (L.A.) Head of Sales Account Executive Sales Assistant These are plum jobs featuring competitive pay and excellent benefits. Full descriptions are here and after the jump. Account Executive (L.A.) This person will sell to agencies and clients based in the Los Angeles area across our three titles—Curbed.com, Eater.com and Racked.com. The ideal candidate has 2+ years digital sales experience and strong relationships with agencies and clients inside and outside our verticals. This will be our first non-NYC sales hire, and there is an opportunity to establish Curbed’s west coast office. Interested parties should email jobs@curbed.com . Head of Sales This is a new position and, for the right person, a rare opportunity to have a transformative impact on a media brand. Many of the pieces are in place; we’ve spent the last five years cultivating an account base, developing custom ad products that work, and building a strong team. We’re unencumbered by network relationships and we have a strong team of proven sellers in place. We’ve also got six straight quarters of profitability behind us. But we have lofty aspirations for the organization and that leaves us at an inflection point. What we need now is someone who has the vision and desire to take what’s in place, uncover what’s missing, and build a powerful, lasting digital sales operation. Day to day, this person will manage the sales team, sell to national brands across all of our titles—Curbed.com, Eater.com & Racked.com—and craft sales strategy. The ideal candidate has 5+ years digital sales experience and 2+ years management experience. S/he has strong relationships with agencies and clients inside and outside our verticals and the ability to organize and motivate a sales team. The position is based in our downtown NYC office. Interested parties should email jobs@curbed.com . Account Executive This person will sell to national brands across our three titles—Curbed.com, Eater.com and Racked.com. The ideal candidate has 2+ years digital sales experience and strong relationships with agencies and clients inside and outside our verticals. The position is based in our downtown NYC office. Interested parties should email jobs@curbed.com . Sales Assistant This person will be assisting the sales team at each stage of the sales process—prospecting, proposal-generation, trafficking, reporting, and more. Experience with any of the above is a plus but not required. What is required is attention to detail, excellent communication skills, and a willingness to learn. If the fit is right, there’s a fast path up the ladder in Curbed’s sales department. Interested parties should email jobs@curbed.com . In addition to competitive pay, we offer health care, a matched 401(k), and a good time. About Curbed: Curbed is the NYC-based publisher of websites that obsessively chronicle the subjects people wake up thinking about in the country’s most vibrant cities—design & real estate (Curbed), restaurants & nightlife (Eater), and fashion & shopping (Racked). With national editions of all three titles and regional sites in 15 cities (and counting), we’ve built an attractive national audience without sacrificing our local influence. The company is profitable and growing aggressively.
