Blog
07.02
Michael Jackson: The body’s not cold but the pitches are red hot
Spoiler Alert for those not in the know… or under a rock, Michael Jackson died.
Of course, the news cycle will spin clean off the axle with people [COUGH… Al Sharpton & Jesse Jackson… COUGH] taking advantage of this unfortunate passing, but there is one man who has used a one-time encounter with the Moonwalker into a social media sprint.
Meet Michael Levine, world-class huckster and one-time publicist of the dearly departed Jackson.
The guy represented Jackson during one of the darkest moments in his life – the first molestation trial. So, you would think Levine got to know the man behind the Captain Crunch outfit and sparkly glove. Respect must be high and mourning should have set in upon the news of Jackson’s untimely demise.
Yeah, not so much.
Levine decided the classy thing to do would be to shill an official statement on his personal pontification to the press. I mean, he knew the guy so surely people would care. Only, here’s the best part.
This dude waited more than a whole hour after TMZ.com released the information, thanks to PR Newser for this gem:
As someone who served as Michael Jackson's publicist during the 1st child molestation incident, I must confess I am not surprised by today's tragic news. Michael has been on an impossibly difficult and often self-destructive journey for years. His talent was unquestionable but so too was his discomfort with the norms of the world. A human simply can not [sic] withstand this level of prolonged stress.
The Twitter nation has spoken out vociferously, but somehow I think the author of “Guerilla P.R.” is laughing all the way to this Web site counter watching the spikes go through the roof.
Perhaps while Levine is sitting all smug in his office, he could mix in a Dale Carnegie book, “How to respect the dead and totally influence the media.”
Well, enjoy the ink, Levine because after that pen is bone dry, I can think of a few places I would like to “beat it.”
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