Gandalf-Jackson-Iran connection

Say what you will about the guys running Iran, but they are indeed media savvy. How do you get thousands of people off the streets and into the house and put an end to all these pesky demonstrations? Why, you broadcast the most popular trilogy of all time on the TV. According to this anonymous posting from someone in Tehran in "Salon,"  one of the state television stations is offering marathon showings of "The Lord of the Rings."

But Frodo and company have nothing on Jacko when it comes to drowning out news or interest in the gruesome onslaught of  oppression. And certainly poor Neda, the young demonstrator who bled to death on YouTube and has become a rallying point for Iranians disputing the  election, has been completely overshadowed by Michael Jackson's sudden demise. On Google for the last 24 hours Jackson's hits outnumber Neda's 47,900,000 to 378,000. The activity almost crashed the whole damn internet.

And not just the internet has fallen victim to the Jackson tsunami. As Jonathan Rosenbaum points out in his blog, Jackson's demise has pretty much short-circuited history, at least for the time being. Iran who?

Ever the conspiracy theorists looking to implicate the Great Satan, some Iranian spokespeople have suggested that the CIA was involved in bumping off Neda. If I were of a paranoid turn of mind (which I am), I'd have to ask myself, who would benefit most from bumping off Jackson?