Peter King vs. Michael Jackson

I’ll say this for Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.)—he’s “good at getting his mug on the air,” said Bob Keeler in Newsday. With Michael Jackson still freshly dead, “King put together a dizzyingly amateurish video of himself calling Jackson a lowlife and and a child molester,” and lambasting the media for paying more attention to Jackson than to everyday heroes. (watch video) Isn’t King just adding a “Pete King chapter” to the admittedly “overabundant” Jackson coverage?

There’s a difference, said Emily Miller in AOL’s Politics Daily. Peter King is the only public official so far with “enough chutzpah to denounce the despicable official and media homage to Michael Jackson.” The “media love fest” is bad enough, but King also takes a “subtle swipe” at Democrats, who led a moment of silence for the “accused child molester” on the “hallowed floor” of the U.S. House.

“Who would have thought that the King of Pop’s legacy would become a partisan issue?” said Sam Stein in The Huffington Post. Trashing Michael Jackson may or may not play well in Peter King’s “reliable Republican stronghold,” but money travels across districts, and King may find that there’s a “political price to pay”—angry Jackson fans are raising money for his as-yet-named opponent.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Let’s hope those angry fans are aware they’re donating to a Democratic group, said Roy Erdoso in The Village Voice. Don’t feel too bad for those “suckered by this,” though—they’d probably spend the money on “collectible plates.” It’s sad that “everything is politics in our era,” but at least this is “the kind of sad you can laugh at.”