What’s wrong with SOPA

          These two pictures are worth more than a thousand words.  Because the images presented such an intriguing message I wanted to use it here, but before I could I needed to do some fact checking.  It took only minutes to confirmed that Conrad Murray was sentenced to four years in prison for killing Michael Jackson and under the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) the maximum penalty for unauthorized streaming of copyright material is five years in prison.   Those are the facts.  I’ll let you decide what it says about congress and the justice system. 

          For more information about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the related senate bill the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), read my blogpost, Old Media and Bad Law. 

          If you know the creator of this graphic please let me know so that I can attribute it.

Just Bury Him!

Just bury Michael Jackson and be done with it—please. It’s not as if I disliked Jackson, I hardly gave him a thought. Now that he is dead, I would have to be Amish to escape him.

Like most everyone, I was surprised and saddened by the news of his death. That day I expected kind words and soft reporting. The fact of his death and what was known that first day could have been reported in mere seconds, but tribute to him and speculation about his death consumed almost the entire evening newscast that first night. Conjecture and morbid fascination only grew. News networks quickly dissolved into entertainment tabloids in their idolization of a man who was, at his best, a pop singer and dancer.

Am I the only person in America who believes there are more important news stories? Recession, government debt, healthcare reform, Cap and Trade, Unrest in Iran, North Korean missiles, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, all those stories are ignored to varying degrees as the mainstream media engages in lurid investigations of every detail of Jackson’s death, debt and family squabbles.

Minutes ago I heard that Jackson will be buried tomorrow, eleven days after he died. But, that won’t be the end of the media madness. All the broadcast networks will carry the memorial service live later in the day. I’ve always wanted to read War and Peace. I’ll start it now. Maybe by the time I’m done the media frenzy over Jackson’s death will have passed.

Update on Saturday, July 11, 2009 at 11:26PM by Kyle Pratt

I try very hard not to hear news about celebrities, but it has come to my attention that Michael Jackson was not buried on July 7^th as it was reported he would be and that the whereabouts of his body are not known. I’ve read that family members are arguing over where he should be buried. Here is my unsolicited advice for Michael’s apparently dysfunctional family—if you loved him, bury him.