From From CNN.com's Kristi Keck and CNN's Paul Steinhauser

(CNN) – New York Rep. Peter King called on the media to "knock out the
psycho-babble" and stop covering Michael Jackson because "this guy was a
pervert."

"He was a child molester. He was a pedophile. And to be giving this much
coverage to him day in and day out, what does it say about us as a
country," King said Sunday in front of the American Legion Hall in
Wantagh. "We're too politically correct. No one wants to stand up and say,
'We don't need Michael Jackson.'"

King, a nine-term Republican representative from New York's Third
Congressional District, said the media has "disgraced itself," noting that
there are people dying everyday.

"There are men and women dying today in Afghanistan. Let's give them the
credit they deserve," he added.

Jackson went on trial for child molestation allegations in 2005, but was
acquitted after a 14-week media circus of a trial in Santa Maria,
California. A decade earlier, prosecutors in Los Angeles declined to file
charges in their own 13-month child molestation investigation. That case
settled out of court, reportedly with Jackson paying millions in damages.

"There's nothing good about this guy. He may have been a good singer, did
some dancing, but bottom-line is — would you let your child or grandchild
be in the same room with Michael Jackson? What are we glorifying him for?"
he said, asking instead that the public honor people like servicemen,
teachers and firefighters.

King was chairman of the powerful House Homeland Security Committee from
2005 until the Democrats took over the House in January 2007.

He won 64 percent of the vote in his re-election victory last November.

Earlier this year he said he was considering a run for the Senate next
year, taking on Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, who replaced Hillary Clinton
as New York's junior senator.

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