My favorite Australian-born TV critic once wrote: "What the junk journalist doesn't realise — or does realise, and waxes more aggressive so as to shout down his vestigial conscience — is that he's not really a party to the star's fame, which is based on solid appreciation and would still be there even if the tabloid press disappeared overnight." But that was in 1981, and he was writing about his admiration for Billie Jean King, who was being outed as a lesbian.

Nevertheless, is what that critic said still true? (Hell, was it true then?) Is there a junk journalist alive today who even has a vestigial conscience? Is there still such a thing as solid appreciation as opposed to, say, leering fandom? For that matter, is there a star alive who hasn't been marketed, not to say manufactured, by the the most powerful instrument of the tabloid press: television?

One way of looking at all those questions is to point out that Janet Jackson's new single, "Just a Little While," has been rushed to radio stations, to make the most of the fuss about her bared breast. Another is to note that the Federal Communications Commission chief, an indignant Michael Powell, has been beating his breast in outrage about her bared breast. Still another is that the entire U.S. population — make that 99 percent, according to an unscientific poll — is either amused or bemused by the spectacle of both her bared breast and a government investigation into her bared breast.

For maximum exposure, Mr. Powell: Bring back Ken Starr.