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"I think we witnessed the period to a very long sentence that has been growing for almost two weeks." That was the grammatical metaphor that NBC's Lester Holt used to describe the end to the mourning period for Jackson's artistic legacy that the ceremonies represented. Martin Bashir of ABC's Nightline concurred. He saw the day's gathering as "memorializing him and emphasizing his genius as a performer, a composer, a singer, a dancer." That done, Bashir expected attention now to turn to such sordid matters as the toxicological autopsy, child custody and probate disputes.
In a spirit of rehabilitating Jackson's tarnished image, all three newscasts used the same soundbite of comfort from the Rev Al Sharpton to his three orphaned children: "There was not nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with." They also used the tearful tribute from daughter Paris, aged eleven: "Since I was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine." NBC's Lee Cowan reported that those words "brought 20,000 people to tears."
Many of Jackson's musical colleagues sang at the memorial in tribute--Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, brother Jermaine Jackson. Lionel Richie chose a spiritual because Jackson's mother Katherine requested "that this not simply be a secular service," as NBC's Cowan put it. CBS' Couric called it "part church, part concert hall" and ABC's McFadden found the audience respectful and quiet and the mood "extremely moving."
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