Michael was an otherworldly entertainer. His music was fun and energetic, and he danced like no one before or since. He took the fledgling music-video format and created masterpieces that have not been matched. He is the world’s bestselling musical artist, with over 750 million albums sold. Within a week after his death, his albums dominated the Billboard charts again, selling almost 1 million copies.

   I realized the brother was a little strange. Okay, a lot. But the stories of an abusive father pushing a 5-year-old to become a star explain Michael to me. A commentator on BET recently remarked that this was the real life curious case of Benjamin Button. The young Michael was so mature for his age; the older Michael very childlike. Yet this complex man could claim me as a fan, as well as millions of people worldwide. Michael Jackson matters . . . except to the editors of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

   Frank Fellone, deputy editor of the paper, recently noted in a column that some had called and written asking about the lack of coverage of Jackson’s death. Fellone explained why his death (and subsequent memorial) was not front page news. He indicated that the death of an entertainment figure “would not fit the definition of important, significant or consequential.” He also shared that the paper should be consistent, so Jackson was treated like Frank Sinatra in 1998.

   Why does our paper have such a narrow, homogeneous, and, frankly, white privileged view of important, significant, and consequential? I was once told by an editor when the paper did not cover James Carville’s lecture last year that he wouldn’t try to tell me how to run a college and I should defer to the professionals. So I looked at other papers to see how they covered the Jackson memorial.

   The USA Today, New York Times, and Washington Post ran front-page stories. My hometown Atlanta Journal-Constitution, as well as the Virginian Pilot and Cincinnati Enquirer, places I have lived, had front-page coverage. Our comparison cities for Better Together Metro Little Rock—Columbia, Tulsa, and Austin—all covered the memorial on the front page, as did neighboring papers in Dallas, Houston, and Oklahoma City.

   That’s a lot of front-page coverage, a lot of professionals saying Jackson was “important, significant and consequential.” In fact, Jackson’s memorial was front-page news in Berlin, London, Madrid, Brussels, Salvador, and Bogota. The mere fact that Michael caused 1.6 million people worldwide to request two of 17,000 tickets to attend his memorial, is statistically significant. Thirty-one million people watched the memorial on television—sounds important. He holds the record for most charities supported by an entertainer, and charitable giving is consequential.

   Fellone and company unfortunately determine what is newsworthy based on their limited world view. It doesn’t make them bad people; it just means they lack an appreciation of the diversity of our state and the world. For Fellone to suggest that Frank Sinatra is comparable to Michael Jackson is absolutely ridiculous. People in China didn’t give a damn about Sinatra. They passed out when they saw Michael. Sinatra was good. MJ created things we had never seen or heard before. He was the best. Fellone’s world view caused him to miss this point, and there aren’t different views at the paper to challenge his.

   Michael Jackson wanted to believe it didn’t matter if we were black or white. It does, and our statewide daily paper reminds us of this every day. Few stories are covered of importance to people of color. No substantive editorials considered the impact of Michael Jackson, yet an 800-pound pig that ends up in a pool is worth discussing. The pig ended up as front-page news. The day after the world watched the memorial and most newspapers had a picture from the event on the front page, we had a picture of a cloud of smoke from a bomb being destroyed in Afghanistan where we have been for almost eight years.

   Fred Zipp of the Austin American-Statesman wrote a piece in June entitled “What Makes Front Page News.” He listed 10 characteristics of a front page story. Off the bat, they use broader criteria to determine what qualifies as front page news. Zipp explains, “Done right, the page should inform and explain, surprise and delight. Done best, it’s a revelation.” The revelation for me is that until the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette embraces a diversity of thought, the public is cheated. They cheat themselves too.

   Defining what is newsworthy depends on your worldview; it’s completely subjective. Simply put, it often matters if you’re black or white when it comes to being printed in black and white.