You might not be able to take your money to the grave, but the late Michael Jackson proved this year you sure can make a lot of dough there.
According to The Wrap, Jackson has made $160 million this year topping Madonna's $125 million.
Michael Jackson
By Brad Wilmouth | May 16, 2012 | 5:33 AM EDT
Appearing as a guest on Tuesday's Conan show on TBS, HBO comedian Bill Maher absurdly suggested that recent allegations that Mitt Romney engaged in "bullying" in high school are worse than being molested by Michael Jackson, and asserted that he would be willing to trade being beat up in grade school for being "gently masturbated by a pop star."
Maher also again attacked Mormonism and religion generally, using uncensored vulgarity, and seemed to hold Romney responsible for the polygamy of his grandfather.
The Real Time host brought up Michael Jackson to suggest that Romney had behaved worse than a child molester:
By Jeff Poor | October 31, 2009 | 2:30 PM EDT
After a pattern of attacking Republican Congresswoman Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, on a nightly basis, one of the strategies is becoming apparent - MSNBC is in need of a boogeyman to give a face to the opposition of these radical steps being undertaken to fundamentally change health care in the United States.
So rather than attack where the opposition is wrong on a policy level, MSNBC "Countdown" fill-in host Lawrence O'Donnell is going to apply one of the tactics from Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals" to promote a dramatic shift in the U.S. health care system - "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."
"In our number five story on the countdown tonight, the Congressional Budget Office finds that it would leave 18 million people uninsured and the government-run health insurance plan will probably charge consumers premiums that are quote, ‘Somewhat higher, higher than average premiums for the private plans,' end quote," O'Donnell said on the Oct. 30 broadcast of "Countdown." "This is a devastating conclusion for a plan being sold not just as a low-cost option for consumers, especially poor consumers, but as somehow driving private insurance premiums lower."
By Sarah Knoploh | August 6, 2009 | 3:41 PM EDT
Michael Jackson’s tragic, untimely death was certainly newsworthy. The network news organizations covered it from every angle in the following days.
By Noel Sheppard | July 18, 2009 | 5:03 PM EDT
"Michael Jackson IS America. We love him so much because he reflects our nation perfectly: fragile, over-indulgent, childish, in debt, on drugs, and over the hill."
So said HBO's Bill Maher on "Real Time" Friday night during his "New Rules" segment.
As he elaborated on how America fit each of these negative attributes, he concluded by claiming, "Monday is the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong first setting foot on the moon, and I can't think of any ambitious goal we've reached since then" (video embedded below he fold, relevant section begins at 1:45):
By NB Staff | July 13, 2009 | 4:54 PM EDT
<p>CBS’s “Sunday Morning” yesterday aired a remarkable segment that broadsided the national media for refusing to give our nation’s fallen soldiers the attention they deserve. Martha Gillis offered an uninterrupted, 3-minute monologue sharing the pain of losing her nephew, 1st Lt. Brian Bradshaw, who was killed on June 25 by an IED in Afghanistan. Gillis faulted the media for its virtual non-coverage, which, as NewsBusters reported last week, amounted to just <a href="/blogs/brent-baker/2009/07/07/seven-soldiers-killed-afghanistan-get-1-20th-time-given-jackson" target="_blank">1/20th the broadcast network evening newscast airtime</a> given to Michael Jackson's death. </p> <p>In a statement released today, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell applauded CBS for the tribute (<a href="http://www.mrc.org/biasalert/2009/20090713024141.aspx" target="_blank">click here</a> to view it online):</p><blockquote><p>Congratulations to CBS News. This is nothing short of remarkably candid journalism. The raw emotion of 1st Lt. Bradshaw’s aunt Martha Gillis is heartbreaking. It moves the audience to see undue suffering – caused by the media – for a family that has already been crushed by the death of one of their young.</p>
By Brent Baker | July 13, 2009 | 2:01 PM EDT
The CBS Evening News may have only devoted 13 seconds last Monday night to the deaths of seven soldiers in Afghanistan -- as Katie Couric anchored from the Staples Center the night before the Michael Jackson memorial -- and just 15 seconds Wednesday night to their caskets arriving back in the U.S., but the producers of CBS's Sunday Morning should be commended for giving Martha Gillis, the aunt of an Army Lieutenant killed in Afghanistan the same day Jackson died, an “opinion” segment in which she conveyed the frustration of military families over the media's misplaced priorities.
“My 24-year-old nephew, Brian Bradshaw, was killed by an IED in Afghanistan on June 25th, but you'd never have known it from the national media. I cannot tell you how that silence added to the pain of losing this bright, funny, thoughtful young man,” Gillis began as she expressed the “pain shared by many of the 4,000-plus grieving families whose loved ones have sacrificed their lives in two wars that have largely disappeared from the news.” Enhancing the impact of her words, CBS interweaved still shots from the procession and funeral for 1st Lt. Brian N. Bradshaw.
After recounting the respect and support from those she encountered as she attended her nephew's funeral, Gillis powerfully concluded:
“My 24-year-old nephew, Brian Bradshaw, was killed by an IED in Afghanistan on June 25th, but you'd never have known it from the national media. I cannot tell you how that silence added to the pain of losing this bright, funny, thoughtful young man,” Gillis began as she expressed the “pain shared by many of the 4,000-plus grieving families whose loved ones have sacrificed their lives in two wars that have largely disappeared from the news.” Enhancing the impact of her words, CBS interweaved still shots from the procession and funeral for 1st Lt. Brian N. Bradshaw.
After recounting the respect and support from those she encountered as she attended her nephew's funeral, Gillis powerfully concluded:
Once I left town, though, soldier's deaths once again became invisible. Because of the incredible kindness of the people of Steilacoom, Washington, I wonder how many other people, in Maine or Texas or New York City, would also have honored Brian and the other soldiers who have died in the last two weeks if the media had simply let them know: Somebody's little boy, all grown up, died today. Someone's little girl found out today that Daddy is never coming home.
That news is hard to bear. When the nation they died for barely notices, it's crushing.
Jacko Telethon: Primetime Broadcast Network Coverage Devotes One Third of All News to Pop Star's Death
By Jeff Poor | July 10, 2009 | 12:23 PM EDT 
The passing of pop music star Michael Jackson has been the hot topic and may have even seemed like the only topic covered in recent days by the national media. And for the most part, having that impression was accurate.
From Jackson's death on June 25 through the day of his highly publicized memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on July 7, the broadcast primetime news programs - ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson," "CBS Evening News" and "NBC Nightly News" allocated one third of their broadcast time excluding commercials (34 percent). (See results here) That's 270 minutes or the equivalent of nine whole news broadcasts without commercials.
Over those 13 days, which included the Fourth of July holiday, news about combat in Afghanistan and Iraq received the second-most coverage, but only a quarter of that pertaining to Jackson's death. The networks devoted at least two minutes to Jackson every single night for that time period.
By Brent Bozell | July 9, 2009 | 11:05 PM EDT
The Washington Post called it an "orgy of praise" and an "exercise in excess." They were referring to the star-studded, mega-televised Michael Jackson memorial service in Los Angeles.
By P.J. Gladnick | July 9, 2009 | 9:36 AM EDT
When last we left CNN co-founder, Reese Schonfeld, he was in a deep funk over the horrible ratings of the network he helped create. He had hoped that the election of Barack Obama as president would help that ailing network's ratings but, as reported by Schonfeld, a harsh reality quickly set in:
Now, seven months after Barack Obama's victory, CNN's ratings have gone down the drain. From May of last year to May of this year, CNN lost 22% of its total primetime audience. MSNBC was down 2%, while FoxNews was up 24%. In the key advertising demographic (25-54), Fox was up 31%, CNN was down 37% and MSNBC was down 26%. In hard numbers, Fox had 109,000 more viewers than last year while CNN lost 113,000. CNN averaged fewer than 200,000 25-54 viewers in primetime. Even MSNBC averaged more viewers than that.
By Colleen Raezler | July 8, 2009 | 5:56 PM EDT 
There's no doubt about it. Celebrity is the media's top priority.
There's no doubt about it. Celebrity is the media's top priority. Michael Jackson's June 25 death overshadowed all other news for almost two weeks.
Nightly news programs on ABC, CBS and NBC featured at least one story each night about Jackson since his death. More than half of those broadcasts aired since June 25 lead with a story about Jackson. A Pew poll found cable news devoted 93 percent of its coverage to Jackson on June 25 and 26. The broadcast networks joined CNN, MSNBC and Fox News in airing Jackson's July 7 memorial from Los Angeles' Staples Center.
Despite a separate Pew poll that found 64 percent of people believe there was too much coverage of Jackson, the media continue to hit the story hard. CNN's Don Lemon even labeled critics of the coverage "elitist," and said, "Michael Jackson is an accidental civil rights leader, an accidental pioneer. He broke ground and barriers in so many different realms in artistry, in pictures, in movies, in music, you name it. So, no, I don't think it's overkill."
By Ken Shepherd | July 8, 2009 | 4:36 PM EDT
<div style="float: right"><object width="212" height="172"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/A_kSUNn5rgE&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcf... name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/A_kSUNn5rgE&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcf... type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="212" height="172"></embed></object></div>Gov. Sarah Palin had something to do with the death of pop star Michael Jackson. That's an interesting theory proclaims <a href="http://www.sharptontalk.net/" target="_blank">radio host</a> and Jackson <strike>eulogizer</strike> opportunist Rev. Al Sharpton.<p>Our friend Brian Maloney at <a href="http://radioequalizer.blogspot.com/2009/07/sharpton-caller-links-sarah-p... target="_blank">Radio Equalizer</a> has the story. Embedded at right is the audio of the program in question. I've pasted Maloney's transcript below:</p><blockquote><p>FEMALE CALLER (31:50): He (Michael Jackson) is truly the soundtrack of my life. I also have a theory about Sarah Palin as well and I'm going to put it out there on radio, hopefully someone can investigate.</p>