Donny Deutsch Blasts the Deification of Michael Jackson

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 05:13 pm

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On MSNBC’s The Ed Show tonight Donny Deutsch was supposed to be on to talk about the future sales of Michael Jackson’s music, but that was tossed aside as, Deutsch said, “I think as a country we have lost our minds a little bit…People who are crying in the streets who don’t know him, they need to maybe get a little bit of a life.” Check out the video.

Here is the video:

Deutsch said, “Before I get to business, I want to first my condolences to the Jackson family, particularly those kids, watching that daughter as a dad your heart breaks. Having said that and it’s a loss, I think as a country, we’ve lost our minds a little bit…He was a wonderful singer and dancer but this deification.”

He later continued, “This man was a wonderful singer and dancer that’s what he was. He brought music to us, but I would have thought that I was watching one of the great world leaders of all time, and I think as a country we have lost our way a little bit. It’s a tragic loss for his family but the millions of other people that it’s a loss in their lives, I am struggling a little bit, and I don’t want to be the cold hearted guy because I am a dad. His children, my heart goes out to them, but he sang and he danced. Have I lost my way here?”

Deutsch wasn’t done yet, “His family my heart goes out, but people were crying in the streets who don’t know him, they maybe need to get a little bit of a life…I think the soul of this country, we have lost our way a little bit, beyond the sorrow I was feeling for his family members, particularly his children, I cried when I listened to his daughter, but as far as we as a country deifying this man, with the way people give their lives, but we have lost our way as country and nobody will say it. There are heroes giving their lives for this country, and we in the media stand by, and yes he was an amazing singer and a dancer. That’s what he was, a singer and a dancer.”

As if to prove Deutsch’s point, Schultz’s next guest compared Jackson to Jesus:

Tricia Rose of Brown University said, “To say he was just a singer and a dancer is like saying Michelangelo was a just a painter or Shakespeare was just a playwright. I mean we could make the claim that Jesus was just a carpenter, but that would only make sense if we don’t understand the power of the individual to create a spiritual connection.”

Deutsch does have a valid point, in that the media has gone way overboard with the Jackson coverage. He is being treated like a head of state. He was just a singer and a dancer. He was a pop culture icon, but not a transformational world figure. People aren’t spiritually connected to Jackson himself, but are connected to his music. People are mourning Jackson because he represented a connection to their youth, not because he was a great man.

If anyone needed any more evidence of how out of control the media’s Michael Jackson coverage has gotten, The Ed Show dedicated exactly 9 minutes to political coverage tonight. I am not saying that they should have ignored the story, but they could have spent more than 9 minutes on politics. Jackson’s has been big ratings for the cable news networks, and MSNBC is trying to squeeze every last penny out of the story.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association