Layton: Michael Jackson memorial an ill-executed engagement

Let’s talk about the public Michael Jackson Awards Show — oops, I mean Memorial.

Did you see what Janet Jackson was wearing for the family’s final words to the audience of 18,000 in the Los Angeles Staples Center and millions more worldwide through practically every news outlet? I mean, really, giant bug sunglasses are so Olsen twins circa 2005 — not appropriate funeral attire.

Usually, I would call myself out for my comment as being “insensitive,” but I feel that the “I-word” can apply to the memorial in much more fitting ways.

Insensitive: the overall gaudy presentation that tiptoed and even crossed the tastefulness line to tacky on so many occasions throughout the show.

This was supposed to be a public memorial — a funeral — for an influential and highly publicized figure in the music industry. Instead, the general atmosphere was one of an awards show. The MTV Video Music Awards have a lot to live up to this year.

Insensitive: the Rev. Al Sharpton giving a loud, grating and highly misleading sermon on Jackson’s accomplishment of breaking down racial barriers.

No matter how I try to put a superficially positive spin on Jackson to validate that claim, it remains that Jackson only surgically crossed that barrier — he is not the Martin Luther King Jr. reincarnate that Sharpton tried to portray him as.

Insensitive: two of Jackson’s children, Prince and Paris — 12 and 11 years old, respectively — being paraded onstage at the end of the memorial as if they were the closing act to the circus that had been the past couple of hours.

Even worse was daughter Paris making a heartfelt cry of love for her father to an audience that should have been ashamed to give in to such emotional exploitation.

With all of the media frenzy surrounding the kids, their mother and what happens to them now, the only place they should have been was far away from the public eye, mourning in private. It’s hard to imagine that thousands of flashing camera bulbs could be beneficial to their mourning process.

Insensitive: the media’s handling of Jackson’s death over the past week and a half and, more so, the coverage of the memorial.

It is an undeniable tragedy that the world has lost the beloved King of Pop, but every media outlet in the world should be ashamed for choosing to ignore the freakish and laughable figure into which they turned Jackson over the past few years and then make easy money by not only publicizing his death, but perpetuating the notion that they loved him all along. Heartfelt coverage on his death, Times magazine, but wasn’t your writer Josh Tyrangiel calling him the “King of Pop and Schlock” and “unbearable” in September 2001?

Jackson lived his life as an eccentric, showy and grandiose public personality, but that doesn’t make a flashy ceremony an appropriate complement to a somber funeral.

When ticket scalpers are earning more than $20,000 from a free lottery registration system, where does the sincerity of the event go?

The argument that the memorial celebrated the ideals for which Jackson strived when he was alive is shallow — it’s really hard to see the most basic and positive themes of Jackson’s life behind the flashing lights, oversaturation of celebrity influence and horrible hypocrisy that the aftermath of his death illuminated within the media.

A fellow observer of the memorial broadcast made an interesting comment in that funerals are not so much for the deceased as they are for the family and friends. If this is true, then I hope the family got what it wanted out of such a garish tribute to Jackon’s life and that the millions who apparently consider him a friend — many of whom shunned and ridiculed him mere months ago — feel like the curtain can finally, peacefully close on Jackson’s life.

Many say that memorials for death should really be celebrations of an individual’slife, but in the case of Jackson, his death is the only thing being celebrated, not only in Tuesday’s memorial, but also by every other outlet turning a profit on the tragedy.

Elizabeth Taylor, one of Michael’s best friends, had it correct when she publicly refused to attend the memorial, saying through Twitter that how she feels is between her and Jackson alone and that it isn’t “a public event.” She rightfully turned down the offer to speak, because she “cannot be part of the public whoopla.”

If only the rest of the world had followed suit.