For the umpteenth time, let me remind you that these are for-profit businesses. They make their money by attracting viewers and then selling commercial time to advertisers interested in reaching those viewers.

It's like any bad show on TV. If people don't watch, it will go away. If they do watch, we're stuck with it.

That does not, however, excuse the tone of the coverage. King was on the mark when he said the late singer was being glorified.

Whatever you think of Jackson as an entertainer and a human being, the fact is that the child molestation charges are part of his legacy.

In 1993, he did indeed settle out of court — for a reported $20 million — one such allegation. A decade later, he gave an interview to ABC in which he talked about taking young boys to bed with him — all very innocent, Jackson asserted, but astonishingly creepy nonetheless.

Two years later, he was acquitted on charges he molested one of the boys who was seen in that ABC program.

Reporting on his life and playing down those aspects of it is sort of like reporting on Richard Nixon's life and ignoring the Watergate scandal.

And yet, at times, it has been suggested on air that it's not an appropriate subject. When attorney Gloria Allred — not one of my favorite people — dared to raise it as part of what Jackson will be remember for, pop-culture commentator Toure interrupted, insisting that it was an inappropriate topic.

Inappropriate for fans, but certainly not inappropriate for journalists.

But then we've already decided that the cable news networks are far more concerned about ratings and advertising than they are with anything resembling journalism.

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com