If you were never a weirdo you’ll never understand the Bowie fan. Through all of his various incarnations, with varying levels of artistic success, the one true message of Bowie was that the freaks and the outcasts were OK in his book. Bowie was a constant inspiration to the weirdos of the world that it could indeed all work out, that they weren’t doomed to life as outsiders, that they could build a happy life, and while they might never be understood, that’s OK too.
As for why a “respectable” news organ would devote so much space to covering him in his death, just who do you think GOES to journalism school? And really, the guy’s influence on popular culture is difficult to over estimate, especially in this day and age where nerd culture IS pop culture. The people who were going to San Diego Comicon 25 years ago, before it became the place to promote your tent-pole movie, were dorks and Bowie fans, and were laying the building blocks for the billion dollar movie franchises of today. In this day when the nerds are triumphant, that means the Bowie fans are triumphant, and when the people making most of today’s have a sad it going to be big news.
On the other hand he legitimized the notion that going tranny was ok, and look where THAT’s gotten us.
I do not think that appealing to weirdos should earn you reverence. Do we revere Larry Flint?
As someone noted earlier, he legitimizes aberrant behavior, as does mainstream culture in general. That is not necessarily a good thing.