Take a look at this screenshot from the L.A. Times web page today. We have a news story titled Ex-wife Debbie Rowe expected to get custody of Jackson kids. Another titled Michael Jackson’s last rehearsal: ‘just beaming with gladness’. Another titled Fans worldwide grieve for Michael Jackson. Column One has a piece by music critic Robert Hilburn titled Michael Jackson: the wounds, the broken heart:

I’ll always regret that my last conversation with Michael Jackson ended with him angrily hanging up the phone — at least I’ve long thought of Michael’s mood that day more than a decade ago as angry. I realize now that a more accurate description would be “wounded.”

Michael was among the sweetest and most talented people I met during 35 years covering pop music for the Los Angeles Times.

Awww. Like many of the pieces, the fact that Jackson was a pedophile is relegated to a passing mention of accusations of child molestation — four words and move on. Some pieces don’t even have that much.

One of the few fairly legitimate stories: Jackson probe turns to prescription drugs.

Then the fluff and rubbernecking returns with a blog entry at L.A. Now titled Michael Jackson’s body released to family as funeral planning begins. We get to hear the 911 call.

There is a 104-picture photo gallery titled Fans Mourn Michael Jackson. A 10-picture photo gallery titled Hollywood Headlines: A crazy (and sad) week in review. A 14-picture photo gallery titled Michael Jackson and friends. A 10-photo picture gallery titled Michael Jackson discography: Major works from the King of Pop.

We have video titled Celebrating Michael Jackson’s legacy. A blog entry titled For Corey Feldman, the show — and music — goes on. [Corey Feldman? He was Michael Jackson’s friend. It’s about how he will deal with Jackson’s death. — Ed. Oh.]

That’s just the stuff listed on the front page. If that’s not enough for you, there’s this page collecting links on the site to Jackson-related items. I count no fewer than 15 articles and 15 blog posts related to Jackson. And you can leave your comments regarding your feelings on the Comments Blog.

And . . . oh yeah. If you look at the bottom of the image above, there’s something about the cap-and-trade bill, and something about Iran. Nothing important, really.

P.S. Oh, oh, oh — and my very favorite of all: Tim Rutten complaining about how Big Media is paying too much attention to Michael Jackson. His piece is titled Too much Michael Jackson?:

No reasonable editor or producer should ignore the kind of public interest we’re seeing. But surrendering utterly to it ultimately undercuts what’s genuinely valuable about serious news media.

Lucky thing your paper isn’t doing that, Tim!

[Guest post by DRJ]

The word of the day is Massive: The Jackson estate faces massive legal issues including an unknown cause of death, questions about the physician who was apparently present at Jackson’s death, child custody matters, multiple kinds and numbers of assets, and reports of massive debt.

Los Angeles’ police also anticipate a massive turnout for Jackson’s memorial service. The fan response to Jackson’s death has been intense so it’s not hard to imagine the significant security issues a public memorial service would present.

It occurs to me, can Los Angeles and/or California really afford this?

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Last month, GM announced it will shut down its Spring Hill, Tennessee plant until November 2009, idling over 2,600 workers. Last week, GM disappointed the Spring Hill workers and others when it confirmed it will build its new small car at a Michigan plant.

Mickey Kaus says this is the UAW’s “punishment to those auto workers who dared move to Spring Hill, Tennessee.” I agree, but deferring to what the UAW leadership wants is business as usual for GM. As this UAW worker said in 2007:

“No one wants to see GM go down the tubes,” said picketing Jim Brown. “But we have to keep our standard of living, and GM is going to have to cooperate.”

Thanks to Barack Obama, Jim Brown was right.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Monday will see the spotlight return to Obama’s Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor after Chief Justice John Roberts’ announcement that the Court will issue opinions in the last 3 cases on this year’s docket. One of those cases is the New Haven firefighter case decided by Sotomayor and 2 other Second Circuit judges:

“Sonia Sotomayor, nominated to take Souter’s place, was one of three appeals court judges who ruled that officials in New Haven, Conn., acted properly in throwing out firefighters’ promotions exams because of racially skewed results.

The city says it decided not to use the test scores to determine promotions because it might have been vulnerable to claims the exam had a “disparate impact” on minorities in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The white firefighters said the decision violated the same law’s prohibition on intentional discrimination.”

If the Supreme Court reverses the New Haven case as some expect, it will undoubtedly be the subject of many questions during Sotomayor’s Senate nomination hearings. It will also mean the plaintiff firefighters will have a chance to to prove their claims at trial.

— DRJ

UPDATE BY PATTERICO: I strongly predict a reversal and think it will be an issue in Sotomayor’s hearings, as it should be.