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How Jacko Helps the Mullahs
John Gunion, Redferns / Getty Images; AP Photo
Mark Sanford isn't the only person relishing the King of Pop's demise—national-security experts are warning that his death could distract from Iran's increasing crackdown on democracy.
The jokes popped up almost immediately that Mark Sanford was the luckiest guy on earth after word broke that Michael Jackson had suffered a heart attack. But the notion that Jackson's death, which preempted virtually all other news coverage on the cable networks last night, is sucking up media attention from other matters carries a dark edge to it as well. National-security experts are warning that without sustained attention on Iran, its repressive tactics could grow more deadly in the coming days.
The Jackson story, paired with Farrah Fawcett's death and Sanford's own scandal, “without a doubt” poses a danger in Iran, according to Michael Rubin, an American Enterprise Institute scholar and former Bush administration official.
“It’s a sad commentary that celebrity still trumps national security in news coverage, but that’s the world we live in,” says former Bush official Michael Rubin.
In an interview with The Daily Beast, Rubin said the issue was already a hot topic among his colleagues in the Middle East.
“To put it this way, the gods are not in favor of hope and change,” Rubin said. “Unfortunately in Iran people are going to prison, but when a tree falls in the forest and there's no one to hear it, the pressure goes away.”
Rubin cited Sudan as an example of where international pressure, encouraged by heavy media coverage, helped force the government to significantly reduce violence.
“It's a sad commentary that celebrity still trumps national security in news coverage, but that’s the world we live in,” he said.
It's not just Rubin at the right-leaning AEI who has voiced concern. National-security blogger Spencer Ackerman, a prominent commentator on the progressive side, also raised the issue on his site.
“I think we can agree that the Iranian regime benefits from the media rush to memorialize, explore, and reflect upon Michael Jackson and his legacy,” Ackerman wrote in a blog post last night. In an email interview, Ackerman told The Daily Beast that “anything that takes Twitter bandwidth away from [the Iran election] is bad for the opposition, and anything that distracts the cable networks from showing images of the crackdown is similarly bad.” He added that the international media distractions could give the regime "more room to violently suppress its opposition during a critical phase.”
News of Jackson's death comes just as Iran's crackdown appears to be ramping up. Today, the Guardian Council decisively ruled that the election results were legitimate (the “healthiest” vote since the 1979 revolution), paving the way for a more harsh response to protests, which have already largely been suppressed by violence. An Iranian cleric today went so far as to call for the execution of “rioters,” a phrase used by the ruling regime to dismiss the demonstrators. Foreign journalists have been banned from Iran while local reporters have been arrested, indicating the importance to Iran's hardline government of keeping their actions out of the international press.
A spokesperson for the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights, Hadi Ghaemi, said that the intense international media attention on Iran “does have a great impact on how the government treats the protesters,” but said he could not comment on American domestic issues.
“It's not something we can really do anything about,” Ghaemi said of media coverage of Jackson's death. “I suppose I'm concerned, but the world is a big place and things happen.”
It's not the first time Michael Jackson has been accused of sucking up press coverage of more serious events. In a memorable comedy routine in 2004, comedian Dave Chappelle suggested that the Gloved One was working in league with President George W. Bush to distract from more politically explosive news.
“Every time the war is going out of control, the economy is bad, and something is bad with the world at large, it's always these moments in history that Michael Jackson will coincidentally [molest] a kid," Chappelle told the audience.
Of course, there might be a way to combine the coverage. As Middle East expert Juan Cole noted on his blog Informed Comment today, Michael Jackson had extensive ties to the region, was quite popular in the Persian Gulf, and reportedly converted to Islam in 2008. In her autobiography, Persepolis, Iranian expatriate Marjane Satrapi described being questioned by Islamic hardliners as a child for wearing a Michael Jackson button. She managed to convince them it was Malcolm X instead.
Benjamin Sarlin is a reporter for The Daily Beast. He previously covered New York City politics for The New York Sun and has worked for talkingpointsmemo.com.
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he might- but paris hilton will save it
Oh, cool. Another article that puts the US and its culture in the middle of everything going on in the world... Yea, Michael Jackson's death is going to change the course of Iranian history... Sure. Are we really this self-absorbed as a country?
Yes, Americans are really that self-absorbed. They flit from scandel to scandel and have little to no idea what is really going on in the world.
our government should accuse Iran of setting up this elaborate plot to distract our attention from the crackdown on dissenters there. the Iranians are so insidious that they somehow made Farrah Fawcett contract rectal cancer YEARS ago! and then played matchmaker for Sanford and his Argentine Maria. and the greatest coup of them all, induced cardiac arrest in Michael. brilliant. (sorta like how el rushbo blamed Sanfords affair on Obama and the stimulus package! Obama arranged their meeting a full 8 years ago! again, brilliant!)
All of the 'news' stations should be ashamed of themselves.
Basic facts and reflection on Michael's death would suffice.
I was outraged that MSNBC which did not break away from their 'awful' weekend shows to cover Iran no turns to total wal to wall Michael Jackson.. Chris,Ed,Rachel,Keith...what are you thinking.... I guess you are not.. Stumbling around for news about MJ that did not exist while leaving untouches what is important. YIKES!!! Not everyone wants wall to wall celebrity. Have you heard Health Care, Energy etc.
Thank you for mentioning MSNBC's horrible weekend programming...the MJ coverage was shocking and totally disappointing to me also, Off the Wall was a great album, wall to wall celebrity death coverage on the cables was stunning.....
...Chris Matthews? are you kidding me? Keith has been marginalized, and they have just about ruined Maddow...but Chris?......BEYOND EMBARRASSING...........
Perhaps it will work quite the opposite: as American's drown themselves in crocodile tears about a singer they never met, less media attention will allow things to cool off in Iran.
bloated importance of western media in the conflict--like what Ahmadinejad claims
Really .. I give the people of the world / USA more credit than that.
The people I am angry with are MSM.
These folks will dwell on MJ until we all roll our eyes in disgust. I am already. Last night I watched PBS. from 7 PM on BTW. nuff said.
and there's the rub ... enough Has been said about his passing. sad but there are other issues to talk about .
Face it, the American population has the attention span of a gnat. I am sorry for the Jackson family, but Michael was headed here for some time and all the media can do it experience the devolving of a society that is more interested in the death of a talented kook and forget the plight of the Iranian people.
I don't find the Michael Jackson story at all irrelevant. Aside from being an important icon in American culture who turned race relations on its head, who democratized people of dark skin in front of the camera, who revolutionized music, live performance and video, Michael Jackson represents part of our country's dark side: child abuse. Indeed, few batted an eye when it came out about the physical and sexual abuse Michael and many of his brothers and sisters faced at the hands of their father, but little is done even today with this form of abuse and the kind of abuse frequented upon child stars. Jackson suffered greatly as a child and this kind of abuse went unchecked by his producers and managers, condoned by the laws that simply do not protect young stars since they are somehow always viewed as privileged.
The people of Iran don't need our help to deal with their problems. Likewise the lack of media attention on Iran might be best spent contemplating how beautiful children such as Michael Jackson are abused in the various forms that we to this day know of.
Michael was and is a transitional figure in our culture, but he is not the a major force in human relationships, he was arrestted for child molestation and cleared of it, but he is still considered to have preformed that acts he was accused of.
Whether it be by perception and or guess work there is smoke there is fire, and his history of abuse by his father pretty much garuntees he would be an abuser himself in form or another, this was not an isolated incedence.
Yes we all shall miss Michael quirky existence and his transformal music, but he is not the embodiment of the human survival, he is in fact a demonstration of opposite, with what you have you become what you are, and he did become that a parhiah within the normal community.
I consider the Iranian morass far more important than one a faded jaded waning mega star, Iran might just be the prick of Armageddon and were wasting precious time whining about him, get a life, you ain't gonna benefit from his death, so why bother crying about it
I have no empathy for ignorance, let alone stupidity.He died doing his trans formal drugs, Demerol.
First of all no asked you if Michael Jackson was the embodiment of human survival. Michael Jackson transformed race relations in this country. MTV which was only for White people in it inception was transformed by the music and music videos of Michael Jackson. Stupidity and ignorance is you trying to tell others how they should feel or think. Iran is important but it is not the end all be all. This situation in Iran is a Iranian problem and needs to be dealt with by the Iranians. They don't want us involved. Michael Jackson has impacted our society, Iran has not. In fact every time we get involved with that country it never ends well. Now no cares what you have empathy for or not... you are insignificant to the world at large... so basically I am trying to say... SHUT UP!
You know what you are right. Go back to bed and don't worry about what is happening in Iran.. until it ends up on our doorstep. Remember American protesters were killed during the Vietnam war. The people of Iran do need our help. They need us to listen and watch what is going on instead of ignoring the atrocities taking place at the hands of their illegitimate government.
Or perhaps how we kill and maim (that's abuse, isn't it?) daily, the beautiful children of Iraq, Afganistan, Pakistan- this drone bit is really really chickenshit, I don't care if it saves the lives of soldiers who shouldn't be there, following orders they shouldn't follow- and if the WORLD (not just us) ignores what's happening in Iran, Iranian blood is on our hands too. And that's just a part of what we're currently aware of. America is a monster.
@ disfasia
Quite agree. You brought up a couple of very good points. He certainly revolutionized videoclips and helped make them the huge media they are today. And as for the child abuse, bravo. Much was said about his alleged abusing of boys, but little about his own suffering as a child in the hands of an abusive, violent father. All of this belongs to our collective mind, as you said.
Sorry folks, but we live in the HERE AND NOW and right now this is more relevant for our minds than the plight of the Iranians and of many other suffering people in the world. Noone can expect we to live permanently focused on wars, accusing us of excessive levity if we stop to pay attention to what's right around us.
That was beautifully said. There is an ignorance about Michael Jackson in contemporary America that bears no relationship to the impact that this human being had upon the world. Watching MSNBC's liberal newscasters simply categorize Jackson as a weird demented icon was heart wrenching. They destroyed my image of a passionate and empathetic news station and cruelly reminded me of FOX's discriminatory coverage of O.J. Simpson. This deja vu constantly reminds black people that in the eyes of white liberals we are a guilty headline to be exploited by the CEO's of corporate advertisers. MSNBC's coverage was not an honorable memorial, but a lynching party with a Vanity editor tying the hangman's noose by the dim light of hyperbole from seasoned newscasters.
You're right, meaningful liberals are all too eager to march to the distant sounds of apathy because they can step over the pig manure they historically permeated in their own back yard. Thanks for being you.
I really hate to, but must agree with the premise of this article. As tragic as it was, the news, all of them, should have paid tribute to MJ, as well as FF, not to mention Ed McMahon, and then moved on to the more important issues we are facing...Iran, Health Care, Supreme Court Nominee...even the weather...My sympathy to all the families of MJ, FF and EMcM...but enough is enough. Those folks in Iran are fighting for their lives and we are memorized by the death of a person who until last year the media was referring to as Wacko-Jack-O!!
I really hate to, but must agree with the premise of this article. As tragic as it was, the news media, all of them, should have paid tribute to MJ, as well as FF, not to mention Ed McMahon, and then moved on to the more important issues we are facing...Iran, Health Care, Supreme Court Nominee...even the weather...My sympathy to all the families of MJ, FF and EMcM...but enough is enough. Those folks in Iran are fighting for their lives and we are memorized by the death of a person who until last year the media was referring to as Wacko-Jack-O!!
People are already born with the Iran thing.
Michael's death is today's thing.
Tomorrow it will be something else, like:
http://www.FilthyRichmond.com
Filthy Richmond has a pink cell phone w/ rhinestones and a dream catcher. OOH!
This thread was already about a tacky lack of priorities.....................
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Are not the media moguls and their news directors, producers and editors those who choose which stories to slant and highlight for national broadcast and audience edification? Are stories not selected to fit certain time slots that cater to specific audience demographics? Advertiser revenue must be added into the equation, too. MJ has dominated the media for a quarter century whether he sought the limelight or not. Iran is depressing; MJ is fascinating: this criterion ultimately determines the national news feed frenzy.
"How Jacko Helps the Mullahs."
Nobody can blame Michael Jackson for "distracting"
the Iran coverage.
It's up to you and your media brethren
to behave like journalists.
If your bosses actually believe in journalism
they will stay on top of the Iranian conflict.
Otherwise it just might be an admission that
the media's first priority is ratings,
and dish soap advertising dollars.
Now, about the vote on how "Cap & Trade"
will impact business,
and the taxpayers of this country for generations.
What !!! The media's not debating the cap and trade issue,
or why Congress' vote is happening on the
Friday before a Holiday, hoping the media will ignore
the Bill over the weekend ?
Who cares how Cap & Trade will affect the future of the country ?
Not enough substance for "journalists?"
Not sexy enough ? Not ratings gold ?
Let's not let them call themselves journalists anymore.................they're just paparazzi.
Well, at least almost the entire Daily Show was devoted to Iran last night -- not kidding.
Celebrity-du-jour.
It helps that Jackson was indeed extremely talented, and was equally scandal-ridden.
But this, too, shall pass.
Iran may take advantage of the media's temporary distraction, but the revolution brewing there isn't going to go away because Jackson died.
My question is why is the plight of the Iranian people of such sudden interest to the US population? When other repressive governments mow down dissent, the US government and the population ignore it or at times even subtlety or overtly help those governments but this one is generating so much concern and interest... could it be because its convenient for US interests in the middle east to have a "bad" Iranian government so US can go and "fix" things (take over and make things worse for locals but good for US military industrial complex)? Only a month ago, another repressive government with atrocious human rights record, killed thousands of its own people and now is keeping about half a million of its own people (from the minority ethnic group) in barbed wire concentration style camps while they make their own plans for the captured lands of the people - and even when the diaspora population (coming from the people who have fled the country in successive waves in 80s, 90s and later as well) took to the streets in and begged for attention about what was going on back in their home country and to their families and community, it barely got any attention... because in this case, the US interests would be best served by staying friends with the Sri Lankan government, not by helping the minority Tamil population... Is all this current media attention on Iran about Democracy for Iranian people or is it about US interests in the middle east? It has nothing to do with Michael at all really.
daily beast filters comments. boo this website. if any organization uses ANY filter is there any freedom?
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This really depends on how intense the coverage of Michael Jackson's death is outside the United States. I wish Mr. Serlin had devoted greater attention to that question.
Sanjeev Bery
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sanjeev-bery
we are the world
I have to disagree. After seeing that the Iranians fighting for their freedom have more to say without the interference of Westerners, I think it's a good thing that the media has cast its attention in other directions. The Green Movement has said numerous times that the US should "butt out" and let them EARN their freedom the same as we did 200 years ago. We are so arrogant as to think they cannot do it without us, as usual.
I'm also glad our President hasn't made the mistakes of the past, no matter how hard his pundits pound him for it. He has a clear sense of what needs to be done and will not be swerved on the subject.
The whole "Whacko Jacko is Dead" news barrage is a plain symbol of why we shouldn't be sounding off in Iran - the bulk of our country is more interested in "poor little Michael" than anything real or substantive anyway, so let them mourn him and take the heat off the Iranian revolution, since I am sure they will be served much better by our silence.
The people who pay attention to what's going on in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the world at large and occupy positions to do something about it are hardly going to be distracted by the death of Michael Jackson.
This has to be one of the silliest reaches I've ever read, unless it's a coded swipe at the president, who grew up listening to Michael Jackson, just as he did Stevie Wonder, who performed at the White House recently.
"boredwell
"Are not the media moguls and their news directors, producers and editors those who choose which stories to slant and highlight for national broadcast and audience edification? Are stories not selected to fit certain time slots that cater to specific audience demographics? Advertiser revenue must be added into the equation, too. MJ has dominated the media for a quarter century whether he sought the limelight or not. Iran is depressing; MJ is fascinating: this criterion ultimately determines the national news feed frenzy."
Don't know much about how the press functions, do you?
Well, then Michael Rubin & everyone else bloviating about what they think ought to be done in Iran should go to Iran. Clearly they are just such experts on how things work over there that the rest of us silly Americans should stay home while Rubin & his crew go and fix everything with their posturing and opining.
Please.
p.s. A.E.I. is not right-leaning, it's right to far-right.
Thank you.
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