Tuning Out Michael Jackson And The “Ick Factor”

It seems that there really is a point at which audiences don’t want all the lurid details. They’re turning off salacious coverage of the Michael Jackson trial. “As the trial in Santa Maria, Calif., has become more graphic — particularly in the last week, when a former security guard testified in detail about a sexual act he claimed to have seen Jackson perform on a naked 10-year-old boy more than a decade ago — what some have called the story’s ‘ick factor’ has lowered the appetite of listeners, viewers and readers nationwide.”