My condolences to the Jackson family over the loss of Michael Jackson.
I know what losing a family member feels like and I genuinely feel
sorrow for their loss. It's much less affecting for me that the world
lost a popular entertainer.
Hey, but I have a job to do.
See, it is news (and it's some sweet overtime ka-ching!), but covering
the Michael Jackson "funeral" at Forest Lawn yesterday seemed like all
kinds of overkill.
Not
in the media covering it at all (I loves me some media circus), but in
having another service after so much was done publicly in the past
couple of months.
Certainly it's not my place to tell the Jackson family and friends how to honor the passing of a Michael Jackson.
There's just so much that seems calculated and contrary to what they claimed was their intent in having a private service.
It
just doesn't seem like the fans or the media would be paying as much
attention right now if the family weren't broadcasting so loudly their
desire to be left alone.
Working for the media, this is one of those times where I'm sure my perspective on things is different from the average person.
It's
just that two months later, I was actually pretty sure they had already
buried him. I don't really want to think about where he's been kept
for the last 60 days.
Still,
last night I found myself recording a downlink from the pool camera
that had been arranged to be placed inside the cemetery.
Hundreds of print and video media lined up on the temporarily closed streets in front of Forest Lawn.
One
interesting tidbit you should know, the Jackson family arrived an hour
and a half late. I'd heard it was because they wanted to let the late
afternoon traffic die down.
There was a no-fly zone restriction over the area that was in effect to prevent helicopters from crashing the funeral.
That no-fly zone restriction expired at 8:30pm. Right around the time that the Jackson family actually arrived at the cemetery.
I
don't know if any other helicopters made to Glendale, but I know we got
footage from one of ours. Maybe that violated the privacy wishes
expressed by the family or maybe it was a calculated move that allowed
extended media coverage. I don't mean to stir up anything and I'm not
making an accusation. It's just too difficult to tell sometimes when
dealing with the Jackson family what's personal and what's just part of
the business.
I wonder how the Jackson family and friends felt when our helicopter left to follow a high speed chase.
