What About Mark Sanford?

About 15 hours after official word that Michael Jackson was dead ricocheted around the world last week, I realized something about what makes the headlines -- and it had nothing to do with Farrah Fawcett or Ed McMahon getting short shrift.

I was in a public space with two large TVs tuned to CNN on Friday, and news of MJ was everywhere. He dominated the front page of the Times and every other paper that morning, too. The subway was full of people reading articles about him. And above ground, he's all anyone seemed to be talking about.

Then it occurred to me: if Michael Jackson hadn't died, we all would have instead been talking and reading about one of the country's front-runners for the Republican ticket in the 2012 presidential election, and how he used tax payers' money to visit his mistress in Argentina. We'd have been talking about how he publicly denounced such behavior in other politicians just a few years ago, revealing himself to be a hypocrite who's arrogant enough to believe he could get away with it.

Mark Sanford, the governor of South Carolina who went missing over Father's Day weekend, only to turn up a few days later claiming that he'd been hiking the Appalachian Trail, was the hot story on Thursday morning. He had just confessed to his affair, and a case was mounting against him for all the betrayals and hypocrisies listed above. What's more, the GOP had just lost someone it was calling one of its strongest contenders against Barack Obama just three years from now.

But by the next day, he was a sidebar, and the news -- TV, newspapers, blogs, and chit-chat around the water cooler -- was all Michael.

Now, I am not saying that Michael Jackson doesn't deserve to be lauded by the media. He was an icon, a man of enormous cultural influence and significance, and in my opinion, at once a tragic and inspiring figure. I loved Michael Jackson when I was growing up -- in fact, I once performed "Beat It" a cappella for my elementary school talent show when I was eight years old. But mixed in with respectful tributes are more instances of just raking Jackson over the coals. The poor man can't get a break.

Back to Sanford: when a major politician compromises his oaths, shouldn't we care enough to talk about it? To the media's credit, most outlets continue to run news about Mark Sanford as that story unfolds, but you'd be hard-pressed to find places where it's being discussed over the passing of the man whose life in the spotlight, I think, is exactly what killed him.

Let's honor the memory of Michael Jackson. He was amazing. But let's also give him a break, now that we've remembered the dance moves, controversies, and myriad contradictions that defined one of the greatest performers that's ever lived. May he rest not as he lived: in peace.

[Image: South Carolina Governor's Office]

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