I've wanted to write something about covering Michael Jackson and the Jacksons at Madison Square Garden many years ago. But I couldn't recall the exact concert dates. So, I put off posting anything, Then I remembered I had a T-shirt from the event stored away in one of the dozens of boxes in my garage. And lo and behold! there it was, in the box neatly labeled T-shirts, and looking brand new. Guess I never even wore the thing. But at least it confirms that I didn't imagine covering that concert for WNBC-TV on either the 18th or 19th of August in 1981.
What I remember most vividly about that night was spotting Katherine Hepburn in the MSG audience. She was seated a few rows away from me with her grandniece, and when the concert opened with the wall of sound, the fantastic lights and pyrotechnics, the Jacksons all rhinestoned-up, sliding and gliding and bumping and grinding to "Can You Feel It?", Ms. Hepburn looked startled and rushed to put her hands over her ears.
From New York, the Jackson tour went on to Boston. Thanks to a friend who was one of Jackson's managers and arranged my interview, I got to see the concert a second time. Both times--- when I was granted a backstage "audience" with Michael at MSG and when I witnessed the Jackson arrival at the arena in Boston--- what left a lasting impression on me was how my friend and everyone connected with the Jacksons tip-toed around Michael. Whatever he said, was the final word. Whatever he wanted, was granted. All the adults seemed cowed by the kid.
In short, it seemed even to me---an outsider--- that nobody said "no" to Michael. Nobody who wanted to keep their job or stay in his good graces. Michael seemed to have learned early on that his talent was power and with that power he could bend people to his will.
I think it's not too big a stretch to say that what was true of the King of Pop, could also be said of Bernard Madoff, the King of Ponzi Schemes and of Sarah Palin, the Alaska Distractor.
Like Michael, the quintessential performer, Madoff and Palin have displayed blinding performance skills in their respective fields of finance and politics. Madoff convinced his investors that he was the master of money, that he could make big bucks for them even when just about everyone else was losing theirs. And Palin, well, she could deliver a speech--written by somebody else and read off Tele-Prompt-R---better than all the high profile Republican presidential wannabes combined, and could draw crowds that cast candidate John McCain in the role of second banana on his own ticket.
Now Michael is dead. Madoff is behind bars for 150 years. And Palin, though she has left the building and gotten rid of the governor title, is still on the loose. Still looking for the best way to leverage the extraordinary magnetism she is said to exert on some people.
I think it can also be said that Michael, Madoff and Palin are/were extraordinary in a couple of other ways First there were the numbers each could command. There was Michael rocking the music world with Thriller, his 110-million ( or is it 90 million?) best seller album plus all his other albums and hit singles. Then Madoff , said to have guaranteed 13 to 20% annual returns to his investors. One of whom, in a telling quote, said people invested in Madoff, not with him. And Palin ,warm up act and main attraction for stadium-filling fans in the tens of thousands who tended to drift off whenever she turned the mike over to the man responsible for luring her into the GOP spotlight.
And for the news and entertainment media, where numbers rule, these three--in life, in death, in handcuffs---were like manna from ratings and sales heaven. How to explain the over-the-top coverage of these folks? Well, blame it on their ability to attract the numbers. Or as Rachel Maddow put it one evening on her MSNBC show, "The reason she (Palin) is so newsworthy is because she is so popular."
Aah yes. Popularity. Like so much in this life, popularity in moderation feels good. Extreme popularity, on the other hand, can kill you. Or land you in jail. Or have you believing you are all that even when the hard evidence clearly says you are not.
