Now that Michael Jackson is dead–or to quote one of his album titles, “HIStory”–an antidote is sorely needed to the gushing CNN and Fox News anchors I heard all last night and into this morning, eulogizing Jackson as if he had died on a cross instead of in his home of apparent cardiac arrest. No, what we need is someone as sober as a Lester Bangs, who when John Lennon died, declared, “I can’t mourn the man.”

I would like to, for my own part, say the same thing about Michael Jackson: I cannot mourn him, not given his strange predilections for children, his 10,000 plastic surgeries or his licensing Beatles songs for TV ads after he bought out a controlling interest of the Lennon-McCartney catalog. I can, however, rechristen him in my own way, NOT as the the King of Pop but as the King of Pop Culture:

Pop culture values the ephemeral over the substantive, and Jackson–formidable artist that he was–was more an ENTERTAINER than an artist. Take away his moonwalk, his slickly choreographed videos, the grandstanding over the glove, and what do you have? Many catchy hooks, for sure, but a career more suited for the dance floor than, say, the intellect and the heart in unity.

Pop culture aggrandizes the artist at all expense of an honest discussion about the person. We see this right now with Steve Earle falling all over himself to say how great a songwriter Townes Van Zandt was. (Earle has a new album out of Van Zandt songs.) But in my review of the documentary film “Be Here To Love Me,” I pointed out how Van Zandt was an absolute loser as a three-times married husband and father, a guy who left behind a lot of human carnage with no seeming regard or feeling for others, only for his career:

Townes, for all his talent, was a monster. None of his children or wives ever got to know him very well. The pursuit of his art, darkly beautiful as his songs were, left a desert trail of ugliness his survivors are still coming to grips with. He saved his best for his guitar, his songs and whatever jones was calling to him. Period.

Ditto for John Lennon, who primal screamed about mommy and daddy leaving him, then did the same exact thing to his son Julian. Kurt Cobain? Deprived his daughter a dad by taking the coward’s way out, suicide. Michael Jackson belongs in this same league, and we make a huge mistake if we overlook or gloss over the huge personal faults of these people to glorify them as artists.

Pop culture mutates into strange, ghastly ghosts. Already, I am hearing whispers of whispers that Jackson “faked” his death … and wonder if it’s only a matter of time before he’ll join Elvis, Cobain and Jim Morrison at a Logansville, Indiana Burger King, plotting how to run guns to Africa to aid those fighting Somali rebels.

Pop culture looks for ways to make a buck off of someone’s pain. Already on eBay and elsewhere, Jackson memorabilia is popping up faster than you can say “Billy Jean.” I’ll bet the folks at Motown and Epic are already scouring the vaults for outtakes and bonus tracks. Do you think they’re mourning, or counting? And if I were cynical enough, I’d record some treacly MJ tribute and put it up on Facebook as a way to get a zillion downloads at 99 cents a pop, looking charitable while becoming profitable.

Finally, pop culture worships the wrong gods. I wonder how many people who’ve attended a candlelight vigil for Elvis have recently said a prayer for a friend. I wonder how many people now crying over Michael Jackson’s death, outside his family and close friends, have visited the grave of a dearly departed in the last year. Music can salve. But it cannot save. The terrible lesson America has yet to learn is that as wonderful, pleasing and satisfying as art can be, we confuse the product itself, and its cultural immortality, with the deeply flawed people who make it. In our nearsightedness, we make gods out of monsters and mutants. I loved Michael Jackson’s music, but I have to say that if any of the allegations about his behavior with kids were in fact true–court gyrations and settlements aside–I’d hate the man’s actions … and pray for the strength to forgive him.