"I feel sorry for the poor girl. I think she was totally exploited from the moment she went on Big Brother," he told Sky News Online.
"I thought it was very poor, I thought the people who did that should be ashamed of themselves.
"I have been a journalist for 60 years and I am appalled by what's happened to my profession, she was exploited mercilessly by the media."
Thousands lined the streets and left floral tributes to pay their respects to the 27-year-old as her funeral cortege made its way from Bermondsey, south London, where she was born.
Newspaper reports said the outpouring of gried and sea of flowers had echoes of Princess Diana's funeral.
But Sir Michael said: "Jade Goody has her own place in the history of television and, while it's significant, it's nothing to be proud of.
"Her death is as sad as the death of any young person, but it's not the passing of a martyr or a saint or, God help us, Princess Di."
The 74-year-old added: "When we clear the media smoke screen from around her death what we're left with is a woman who came to represent all that's paltry and wretched about Britain today.
"She was brought up on a sink estate, as a child came to know both drugs and crime, was barely educated, ignorant and puerile.
"Then she was projected to celebrity by Big Brother and from that point on became a media chattel to be manipulated and exploited till the day she died."
He added: "What bothers me is that the media first of all recommended we hate Jade Goody - 'a slapper with a face like a pig', remember? - and shortly thereafter tried to persuade us to celebrate her."
He also pointed to role models that people should aspire to - rather than people who had just become famous through reality TV shows.
"Certain people gift you ambition," he added.
"When I saw Tom Graveney I wanted to be a professional cricketer. When I first set eyes on Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca I wanted to marry her.
"And seeing Alan Whicker on television gave me the idea that a life in telly might be fun," he said, adding: "One out of three ain't bad."
I think there's a lot of truth in it. Things these days (sorry the grandad type sentiment) are very different to even when I grew up. There seems to be no rules, no respect (or respect for completely the wrong thing), no........well much of anything. Society has severely misplaced icons/rolemodels/heroes and what not. Media attention to actors/models/tv personalities/footballers is just beyond a joke. We are brainwashing the poor chavs of England to want to grow up with not a brain cell in their head, to not want to aspire more than a drunk, wife beating Ashley Cole- 'look at me, I'm a footballer'.
Lets just say I'm glad I'm not a kid now, I have aspirations/goals/dreams, non of which involve being based on appearing on Big Brother. Not realizing nearly all of todays films and songs are NOT originals is one of many examples why little fuckers these days need EDUCATING. Where does this come from? Well I'm not a family man, but the breakdown of the home is for me without a doubt, a huge source of the problems. To change this? Well don't have bloody kids when you aren't in a stable relationship, end of. Marriage is forever, kids are forever, balanced kids = 'good kids' = good future. This is hopefully the direction it will turn to when programmes like Big Brother are taken off TV. Or may be the whole TV should go.......
