Michael Jackson cleared. Move on ...

OK, so Michael Jackson's been cleared of all charges relating to child abuse at the end of the four-month trial. Next story, please . . .

OK, so Salon's coverage is slightly less barf-inducing than the MSM (MainStream Media) norm. A piece by Alessandro Camon posits that, "From O.J. to Robert Blake to Kobe Bryant to Michael, the modern celebrity show trial makes us voyeurs at a morality play that showcases not guilt vs. innocence but wrong vs. wrong."

One more time, a celebrity beats the rap. It should give Martha Stewart something to think about that she's the only megastar who couldn't. And yet, one more time the show ended with the sense that the truth remains somewhere "out there," shadowy and elusive. One more time, it's hard to discern any moral of the story.

Reflecting on spectacles such as O.J. Simpson, Kobe Bryant, Robert Blake, Phil Spector, and the Menendez brothers, Camon argues that such trials have "undoubtedly become a new genre of entertainment. They are American tragedies for our age -- big, crass, bizarre and, most crucially, morally empty." He then cites Sophocles' "Antigone" to compare classic tragedy with this modern lesser form. Read for yourself here. Other Salon contribution are by Heather Havrilesky (on the press corps and the jurors); and John Gorenfeld (on the "freak-show antics of O'Reilly, Grace, Scarborough, Corey Feldman, and the rest").

Here, btw, is the BBC's overview of world press reaction, if you're interested. I'm glad that the Beeb concludes that "the story of his acquittal has not dominated the world press in the way it might have been expected to." Good! Maybe now the world can move on.

Vile, utterly vile, the whole thing! I'm vexed, terribly vexed.