Lazy Usage: Media much too quick to apply 'icon' tag to people and things

Aword that the news media have used prodigiously during coverage of Michael Jackson's death has prompted letters from two readers.

Marjorie Serrano of Winston-Salem wrote: "Please do a column on the word icon. I hardly think the media use the correct word when they say that someone like Michael Jackson is an icon when perhaps legend would be a better choice of words."

Rick and Maribeth Harvin of North Wilkesboro wrote: "This note concerns the overuse and possible misuse of the word icon. Every time some celebrity makes the news -- as Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson did recently -- that celebrity is labeled an icon or described as iconic.

"We even heard a report on the cholesterol-clearing properties of Cheerios in which Cheerios was labeled as ‘an iconic American cereal.'

"Our copy of the Pocket Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus defines icon as ‘1. Devotional painting of Christ or a saint, esp. in the Eastern Orthodox Church. 2. A computing symbol or graphic….'

"How do you relate that usage to celebrities or even cereal? Try painting an image of a Cheerios box and then placing it in a church for the members to see."

A variety of people besides Jackson and Fawcett have been called icons recently.

When Ed McMahon died, news reports called him an icon, a cultural icon, a TV icon, a show-business icon, a Tonight Show icon, a late-night TV icon, a Hollywood icon….

When Billy Mays, the ubiquitous, shouting TV adman died, an Associated Press story said that his hawking of various products "made him a pop-culture icon."

An article from the Asheville Citizen-Times about the coming retirement of Lacy Thornburg, a federal judge, described him as "a Western North Carolina icon of the legal profession known for his integrity and toughness."

Sometimes, the news media give iconic status to things as well as people. Cheerios is an example.

The Journal's SAM column, in answering a reader's question, said that Sid and Monty Krofft "created such Saturday-morning TV icons as H.R. Pufnstuf … and The Bugaloos."

The Economic Times gave iconic status to . Fawcett and one of her widely distributed promotions: "This was the iconic image of her in a red swimsuit which sold millions of posters."

Those few examples will give you an idea of how widespread the loose use of icon has become. Sometimes it is hard to tell exactly what a writer or speaker means by calling someone an icon. Reading the various definitions of the word is of little help, because they vary from source to source.

It seems that recently coined definitions of icon have surmounted, in many minds, the older definitions that define it as an object of religious worship. The newer definitions are exemplified by this, from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: "an object of uncritical devotion."

I find it hard to conceive of a Fawcett swimsuit poster or Cheerios as an object of devotion, uncritical or otherwise.

The definition that seems the best fit for such people as Jackson and Fawcett is this, from The Free Online Dictionary: one who is the object of great attention, idol.

Another definition, from an online dictionary, is "any person or thing that is revered." I suppose that some people revere Jackson. Not among them is Jonah Goldberg, a writer for National Review.

Goldberg recently wrote: "Generally speaking, I'm a believer in the rule that we should not speak ill of the dead. Or at least we should wait a decent interval before doing so (if we never spoke ill of the dead, history would be meaningless). But I must say I find the media's instinctive rush to sanctify Michael Jackson disgusting." Goldberg rested this estimation partly on the charges of child molestation against Jackson, charges he was acquitted of in 2005.

Other definitions of icon, stated in various ways, say that it is "someone or something regarded as embodying the essential characteristics of an era, group, etc." Is that what the media mean when they call Jackson an icon?

Whatever they mean, it seems to me that the media would do well to avoid calling anyone an icon. If they want to quote others as doing so, fine. To do it on their own is to play with a word whose meaning is elusive. It is also to risk the legitimate dissent of readers, listeners and viewers who object to calling anyone an icon by any definition.

Those who regard Jackson or anyone as an icon will do so without the media's telling them to. Reporting someone's strengths and foibles, accomplishments and failures, will enable us to decide whether or not someone is an icon, by whatever definition we choose.

The media's calling anyone an icon is a lazy indulgence in cliche.

■ Richard Creed is a retired Journal editor. He can be reached at richcreed@triad.rr.com.