A Little Respect

No one can deny that the entertainment industry has taken a huge hit this week. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson: three iconic figures no longer with us.
Our country and the world will certianly miss these three.
However...
(You know me... I have to play devil's advocate and try to look at things in a different light.)
I have heard a number of reporters, interviews, and newscasters say some of the most absurdly inappropriate things today. I just heard a commentator say, and I quote, "I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow the world had stopped turning [because of the loss of Michael Jackson]."
The world stop turning?? Really??
Further, I heard another reporter say, just as the death of Michael Jackson was announced, "Even if you didn't know what was going on inside this hospital, you would know something horrible was happening because of the people outside."
Not to be crass, but... it's a hospital. There are horrible things taking place every minute of every day. Just because they're not happening to a celebrity or someone being covered by the media doesn't make them any less horrible for the people to whom they're happening. Seriously, how insensitive can you be?
Michael Jackson, just like every other celebrity and "famous" person plastered across the covers of magazines and television, is just a man. The loss of a human life is always tragic, and it truly sickens me when the media makes a feeding frenzy of these situations. It sickens me more, however, the way that the present world (and seemingly America) heightens celebrities to the point of dieties. And for what? They are people; they have lives and feelings and deserve the same privacy, respect, and sensitivity that any Average Joe would receive. Yes, they have chosen this life in the public eye, but shouldn't there be a point where the media says:
Enough??
It seems cruel and unnatural to me. I guess I just don't understand where the media gets off thinking it can do and say anything it desires, leaving humanity and decency at the door.
It's disgusting.
Wow... sorry to get carried away. Didn't mean to launch into a diatribe on "Where is the Humanity in Today's Media?" I'm stepping down from my soapbox now, I promise.