Will a president trump a king?
The media frenzy surrounding the arrest of onetime King of Pop Michael Jackson last week won’t eclipse Sunday’s debut of “The Reagans” on Showtime, says CNN alum Frank Sesno.
“The people interested in “The Reagans’ aren’t the people buying $300 scalpers’ tickets at the latest Michael Jackson concert,” says Sesno, who will moderate a Showtime forum Dec. 1 on the “Reagans” rumpus.
On Nov. 4 – 16 days before Jackson was handcuffed on child-molestation charges – CBS caused a media melee by pulling its mini-series about ex-President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, less than two weeks before its scheduled broadcast.
Saying “Reagans” was a hatchet job, CBS sold it to its weaker Viacom cousin, Showtime.
After Jackson’s arrest Thursday, CBS pulled its one-hour Jackson special planned for this week.
How’s this for a Fun Fact: Sesno, CNN’s White House correspondent during both Reagan terms (1980-88), was on the scene when Jackson visited Reagan at the White House in 1984.
To see the gloved “Thriller” star hang with the Gipper, then in his 70s, “was an unforgettable moment,” recalls Sesno, 48, now professor of public policy and communications at George Mason University.
Jackson “is a curiosity, but Ronald Reagan is an icon.”
“The controversy surrounding ‘The Reagans’ raised so many questions of historical accuracy, ethics in media, and First Amendment issues, there will be a substantial audience that cares,” Sesno says.
The hourlong forum, live at 9 p.m. EST out of Washington, will include journalists, historians, biographers and educators with wide-ranging knowledge of Reagan and his presidency.
Back to Jacko: Sesno, a CNN consultant since leaving in November 2001, says all the cable news channels – including his alma mater – “went over the top” with their extensive live coverage of Jackson’s latest drama.
“It was one of those moments when it’s irresistible to turn the camera on and impossible to turn it off.
“It’s as if America was peeping through the curtain of a national freak show. Whether it’s O.J. or Chandra Levy or Michael Jackson, periodically these stories come along that appear to be important.”
Instead of surrendering “three nonstop hours of precious TV real estate,” the networks should have done frequent live cut-ins, says Sesno.
“While we’re watching private jets land, the president of the United States is trying to make sense of American policy with our closest European ally, terrorists are blowing up Istanbul, and American forces are dying in Iraq. How do you justify Michael Jackson?”
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AP-NY-11-21-03 2114EST
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