US News and World Report Should Lower Yale's Score
OK, so he sold tens of millions of albums. But this is not the time for Yale University to hold a scholarly conference on the music of Michael Jackson:

Michael Jackson, frequently savaged in the tabloid press, was picked apart by more rarified critics as scholars gathered for a conference on the pop star at Yale University.

Eighteen scholars from U.S. universities discussed sexual, racial and artistic aspects of Jackson's life and music Thursday and Friday in the first academic meeting to study him.

Jackson "in many ways is the black male crossover artist of the 20th century," said Seth Clark Silberman, who teaches about race and gender at Yale. "He has grown up in front of us, so we have a great investment in him, even though some people today may find his image disturbing."...

The conference avoided details of the child molestation case against Jackson in California, but it did look at how the media has reported on the case....

Panelists discussed Jackson's plastic surgery and his skin tone change from dark to light (which Jackson says is due to a condition called vitiligo)....

Jackson often explores racial issues in his music, noted another panelist, Nora Morrison, a graduate student from Harvard University. In the video for "Beat It," she said, Jackson breaks up a fight between a black gang and a white gang, whose members then join in his dance moves....

A panel of supposedly eminent academics discuss the plot of a music video? When will they discuss Al Yankovic's "Eat It," or A-Has, "Take on Me," or perhaps the Foo Fighters video with all of the Mentos imagery?

Now, I *can* see the usefulness of a Jackson video discussion in a film school. He was one of several people (Michael Nesmith is another) responsible for elevating the status of the music video. But if you're going to have a discussion of plastic surgery, don't get Michael Jackson; get Phyllis Diller, who frankly discussed her experiences with plastic surgery and helped to bring respectability to the practice.