Mixtapes for Hookers

I wasn’t going to, but the death of Michael Jackson has occupied enough of my mind this weekend that I figured I’d try to articulate it.  Most of these thoughts have probably been written dozens, if not hundreds, of times by other people with better blogs than this one.  But here goes:

I’m sort of intrigued by the way news of his death spread.  I personally found out via Twitter, originally via (I think) Pete Wentz, and then within seconds from everybody else, celebs and non-celebs alike, nearly all of whom felt the need to write heartfelt eulogies in 140 characters or less.  By the time any paper could have possibly gone to print with anything, the whole world pretty much knew every detail, and had hours and hours to make their own observations, form opinions, and talk to their friends, rendering the whole print news vehicle sort of useless.  Twenty-four hours later, people were over the shock, and pretty much everyone had already moved on to writing thesis-y thought pieces about the (self-proclaimed, lest we forget) King Of Pop.  I’m actually pretty excited about this kind of information transition, if  it’s done right:  newspapers, no longer necessarily the bearers of hard facts, could actually get smarter.  (Of course, that’s assuming things stayed relatively fact-based on the internet; and I guess that’s a lot to expect, as we all know.) (more…)