Peace-Out, Bernie Mac...

So, it would appear that another entertainer has left the building. Comedian Bernie Mac has stopped breathing air. It's so hard to believe this reality. Bernie Mac, who dressed like a grand pimpish dandy, and who, when he opened his mouth, delivered his own unique brand of keenly observational humor. Bernie Mac so boldly and so LOUDLY spoke of the things most people only whispered about.


However, the reported death of this actor-comedian has been one of the most bizarre adventures in confirming a legitimate celebrity passing in recent memory... mostly due to the net. Lately, it has become a morbid act of punking where the supposed sad news of famous and infamous people's death peaks in cyperspace before there is ever any REAL clarification or reports by The Legitimate Media sources.


When I heard of the death of Bernie's this morning, I was stunned. I had just awakened, so I thought this ' BREAKING NEWS ' was a part of some dream I hadn't finished dreaming.

This news came byway of my local NYC media. I rolled over, turned up the volume, then instantly click on CNN. Nothing. Maybe IT was a dream. Surely Bernie Mac had done enough in his career to garner a mention, right? Other local stations were also MUM on this story. I clicked to MSNBC. Again, nothing. Fox News, nada.

WTF?

I went online and discovered that only ONE source was reporting this... The Chicago Sun Times. Mind you, this was the quoted source given by the station which reported the news here. This report was vague and sketchy at best. I'm always leery of information coming from unnamed sources, or 'a source close to the family.' It reads very tabloidish... very Star magazine, National Enquirer type shit. Names, damn it! Give me names!


I then discovered SEVERAL online ' reports' (which would better be termed GOSSIP) that mention Mr. Mac's death as long ago as LAST WEEK.

If the man died last week, WHY was there no reporting of it?

Turns out THOSE reports were indeed rumors. Thus, to paraphrase Mark Twain: the reports of Bernie Mac's death were greatly exaggerated.


To make matters worse, the initial station here in NYC which reported the news this morning suddenly DELETED it from their website. WTF?

I began to feel better. I thought: Okay. Here we go again! Some sick person with nothing better to do with their time, starts a disturbing rumor and posts it online. Then, because of the speed of the net, someone else picks up on it, and it spreads like wildfire, producing grief and condolences from fans and admirers and shockwaves all over the place.

I've seen it happen before. Didn't the cat who played Urkel, actor Jaleel White, allegedly commit suicide a couple of years back? Well, he DID according these damn NET rumors. But, happily, the actor is still very much alive.

WHY DO PEOPLE DO THIS????

Do these twisted people even CONSIDER what such rumors do to those people who are family and friends of the 'dead' entertainer.. people who receive word of these bogus deaths before an accurate accounting and clarification can be made?

Do these sick and twisted individuals believe in KARMA... or is it all fun and games until someone loses an eye ... or a life?


Well, after about an hour of scrambling to get to the truth, Mr. Mac's publicist finally issues a statement that INDEED Bernie Mac died this morning. Dead, at age 50.

Wow! Sad. Sad news. One has to digest it, to get past the shock of it. Dead? But... wasn't this publicist was the very same person who'd reported to the media the day before that he was improving and responding well to the meds? Sad. Just sad.



Bernie Mac is dead... and I'm not feeling too good myself.

My issue here is not with Hollywood, or its publicists, or even the news media... some of which actually practice one of the first LAWS of journalism: CHECK and RECHECK your sources and get a legitimate confirmation BEFORE releasing information to the general PUBLIC! This would most likely explain WHY most media outlets didn't run with the story this morning, UNTIL it could be confirmed by more than one lone source.

No. My issue is with the twisted people who start this shit... the ones looking for some sick minuscule form of fame by spreading lies, the most ULTIMATE of lies, proclaiming someone dead (who is still among the living) because the rumor of it gets them some little piece of attention.

This crazy, erroneous reporting of popular actor- fill-in-the-blank-has passed seems to be the new IT thing to do for these creepy net-crawlers. But at what cost?


Anyway, this entry really should be about the tragic, untimely loss of Bernie Mac. I dug Bernie Mac's humor. He was a funny, funny man with an urban delivery that made me think of members of my own family. I dug his show, and most of his films, because he always brought some comic reality of life to the table of entertainment.

I will miss him. I began to miss him the moment I heard of his passing. I was, at first, grief-stricken... and then made to feel POSITIVE that it was all some horrible untruth.



Rest In Peace, Funny Man. You always kept it REAL up in duh field!

My sincere condolences go out to his wife and daughter.



And for those sad people who put such negativity into the universe, then whatever or whomever you believe in, I would recommend some serious prayer.



One.