Three music videos being ignored amid the media feeding frenzy over Michael Jackson

July 7, 10:35 AMMedia Industry ExaminerJudah Freed

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Michael Jackson's memorial service today will not end the media's furious feeding frenzy. The music idol is fodder for the gaping mass media maw. The major networks will not let him rest in peace so long as there is a penny to be milked from advertisers and Michael Jackson's many fans.

Scene from Michael Jackson's 1987 music video, "Leave Me Alone."

Since Michael Jackson's death in his rented home June 25 (exact cause not yet certain) as he rehearsed a 50-concert career revival tour, the mass media coverage has focused equally on his music and his foibles. Their sole goal seems to be getting high ratings and selling more commercials.

Curiously, the music videos being played most often are "Thriiller" – letting the media show Jackson as a monster without saying so directly – and his classic "Black and White" – letting the white-owned media claim Jackson as one of their own. God forbid that the "king of pop" is seen as black and proud.

For me, however, three videos are being widely overlooked, and they may be significantly more important for understanding both the man and his music.

The first video is "Leave Me Alone," released in 1987 to counter the waves of media stories about Michael Jackson's off-stage life. Produced years before the pedophelia charges (never proven but still suspected), the video spoofs the media fixations on him. Snippets in the video include his friendship with Elizabeth Taylor, his pet chimp, his cosmetic surgeries, sleeping in a hyperbaric chamber, and buying the bones of the Elephant Man (the famous 19th century media "freak").

The video ends with Jackson, tied down by the liliputiian media dogs like some oversized Gulliver, breaking free to stand tall on his own against the shattered landscape. I'm confident this is how Jackson saw himself at the time.

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A second ignored video that tells about the core beliefs of Michael Jackson is his 1988 classic, "Man in the Mirror." In his compelling lyrics, Jackson says that if you want to change the world, look in the mirror and start with yourself.

I'm saddened but not surprised that mass media has overlooked this video of personal and social transformation. Making Michael Jackson into an object of veneration or pity is easy. Portraying him as a man of global compassion, personal empowerment and profound inspiration is much too politically dangerous.

I'd rather have the inspiration. Please open your heart and watch the video. Make the change.

The third video is Michael Jackson's 1995 "Earth Song," a chartopping hit in the UK that barely raised a ripple in the U.S. With gripping words, he laments the damage humanity is doing to our tortured planet, closing with scenes of environmental redemption. Somehow, my gut tells me that Jackson also was singing about his own redemption. What about us?

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