Magazine Catchup

After reading some analysis of the Michael Jackson trial by Maureen Orth in Vanity Fair magazine, I'm beginning to understand a little more about why Jackson was able to walk on all charges. The host of witnesses the prosecution offered in what initally had seemed like a clear cut case provided substantially different testimony on the witness stand than what they had told sheriff's deputies in pretrial interviews. I wonder how much preparation the witnesses went through with the prosecution prior to the trial, or whether in the interim between speaking to the police and the trial, certain members of Jackson's staff approached the witnesses with offers or threats.

I also wonder about how Michael Jackson the paedophile earns laughter and ridicule while John Geoghan earns horror and a well-deserved ending at the hands of a murderer in prison. Are we so used to thinking of Michael Jackson as the punchline to a million jokes that we ignore the very real fact that he is a child abuser and paedophile?

This weekend I am being reminded of the importance of maintaining a subscription to one if not several print magazines devoted to analysis of news, current events, economics, politics, or science. One needs to not only absorb the immediacy of news through 24-hour "news" channels and their associated websites, or the self-important "blogosphere," but reasoned analysis after the fact, after the dust has settled, after some actual thought has been put into the impact of events.