Reader to Reader

I don’t know what “media” that Susana Sierra believes “fail to see” the flaws in Elvis Presley and the Beatles (Saturday Letters, July 20). I don’t recall any lack of coverage when Paul McCartney and then-girlfriend Jane Asher were charged with drug possession or when John Lennon and Yoko Ono were threatened with deportation. And I can’t think of a musical figure in history who’s been the subject of more negative press than Elvis, who was initially predicted to be the downfall of civilization.

Of course, since Presley, Lennon and George Harrison are dead and Ringo Starr now lives a relatively low-profile life, their escapades no longer create headlines. But if you told Sinead O’Connor, Eminem, Tommy Lee, George Michael, Robert Downey Jr., Winona Ryder or Robert Blake that they receive special dispensation from negative press coverage because they are “white artists,” they’d laugh in your face.

The crash-and-burn lifestyles of Janis Joplin, John Phillips, Keith Moon, Jerry Garcia--even Calista Flockhart’s carbohydrate consumption--have all been reported in mind-numbing detail.

Michael Jackson is the victim of his own inability to accept the fact that actions have consequences--not just for the Joe and Marge Sixpacks of the world but for everybody. Does he truly believe that all of us who bought “Thriller” have suddenly become infected with a Tommy Mottola-generated strain of satanic racism and, as a result, are refusing to buy one of the most expensively produced, heavily promoted but musically insignificant albums of the 21st century?

Sadly, I think he does.

LISA A. BANNICK

Los Angeles