Peter King vs. Michael Jackson

last updated 8 January 2015

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.