The Harsh Truth about Media coverage on Mac Miller’s Death
I got on to my Facebook today and saw the overwhelming amount of posts about rapper, Mac Miller’s, untimely passing. Mac Miller from the outside seemed to be doing well with the release of a new album. Just the day before his passing he talked excitedly about starting his tour on October 27th. Out of all of the recent celebrity deaths, this one hit close to home for me. Maybe because we shared a common demon or maybe because of how close we are in age. It is also because when people talk about him they always say that he was a genuinely good person.
One of the things I realized contemplating this today was that there is SO much press on a celebrity when they die especially from an overdose (which is suspected, not yet confirmed), but not about how they need help in the first place. Mac Miller said in a recent interview with Vulture that was just published the day before his death, “I really wouldn’t want just happiness, and I don’t want just sadness either. I don’t want to be depressed. I want to be able to have good days and bad days … I can’t imagine not waking up sometimes and being like, ‘I don’t feel like doing s***.’ And then having days where you wake up and you feel on top of the world.”
In 2013, he admitted in an interview with Complex magazine that he struggled with an addiction to lean which is a combination of codeine and promethazine. Clearly, he needed help.
The media likes to criticize celebrities for their issues with drugs and alcohol, but you hardly ever hear of their recovery. This can actually summarize our society as a whole. In 2017, Miley Cyrus, opened up about her newfound sobriety in an interview in 2017 with Billboard magazine, “I like to surround myself with people that make me want to get better, more evolved, open. And I was noticing, it’s not the people that are stoned. I want to be super clear and sharp, because I know exactly where I want to be.”
Have you noticed that you don’t see as much media coverage on her now that she is clean? I feel that if the media covered more celebrities for getting off of drugs than dying from drugs, the world would be a better place.
One the forefront of recovery month, we need to remember to celebrate RECOVERY. We need to focus on acknowledging people when they are doing well and living sober instead of tearing them down when they are already at their lowest. Mac Miller is just one of the thousands of people that were taken too soon this year, and it will continue until we do something about it. Reach out to someone that needs help today and acknowledge someone that is on their path to sobriety. Changing the world starts with just one addict at a time.
