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Michael Jackson’s circus of a memorial was heartbreaking. Not because Usher broke down while singing. Not for most of the reasons given by the overwrought international press corps. But because when a 12-year-old who had competed on Britain’s Got Talent sang one of Jackson’s songs, at just a few years older than Jackson himself was when he was first thrust into the media spotlight, it suggested that no one has learned anything.
In the wall-to-wall, breaking-news coverage of Jackson’s death, there was much speculation about the pain in the singer’s life that could have been responsible for his often bizarre behavior — though most of the scandals and ugly rumors that the media had obsessed about in his latter years were put aside in favor of massive shared mourning. It was as if everyone who had ever listened to Thriller had suffered some traumatic loss akin to the death of a relative.
The Jackson furor at least swept one family out of the news — the family of South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, which suffered its own heartbreak and scandal when Sanford admitted to having an extramarital affair. It took another Republican governor to break through the Jackson frenzy for one afternoon. When Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, announced in pre–Fourth of July surprise fireworks that she not only would not run for reelection but would also resign from office, she gave the media their new story.
The media didn’t destroy Michael Jackson. But there is something about public life that can crush souls, destroy families, and drive people mad. Life in the spotlight means that an unwed teenager’s predicament becomes fodder for national talking heads, as happened with Palin’s daughter shortly after her mother achieved immense fame as John McCain’s running mate.
The decision to live in the public eye is made freely by an adult who runs for public office, but in the case of a child who is put into the spotlight, the decision is not fully his own even if he appears to relish it at the time. Perhaps the parents are to blame for whatever comes of it. Perhaps in the case of a political family, the media need to lay off completely when it comes to children. But it’s hard to resist drama.
In drama, however, there is destruction.
Sarah Palin’s resignation announcement suggested that she and her family had been subjected to the pains of overexposure. Some blame her for it. Others accuse her of being a quitter. But maybe she just saw an opportunity to dial back the media onslaught and get some control over it.
As a popular child singer, Michael Jackson was too young to do such a thing. By the time he was Bad — and certainly by the time he was a father swinging his child over a balcony — he was far beyond being able to show the judgment Palin demonstrated in her decision to make a change in her life and the life of her family.
You don’t have to like Sarah Palin or own a copy of Thriller to consider the effect that massive public scrutiny has on human lives. Just a quick look at any celebrity tabloid will reveal a host of young people who have been burned by the glare of the spotlight.
Michael Jackson should be a warning. Sarah Palin should be a cautionary tale — maybe in a special way to young moms who are thinking of going into politics. And we should all — whether consumers of People magazine or editors — consider that Kate and Jon and the eight are not just fascinating or abhorrent media specimens, but human beings going through a very public trial — however they wound up there. At some point maybe we should all step back. Palin may have wisely decided to do just that. Whatever the politics, whatever the genre, however entertaining, things like common decency and the Golden Rule dictate we look at the man in the mirror when watching human frailty on display.
– Kathryn Jean Lopez is the editor of National Review Online.