Michael Jackson is the best selling artist of all times. The King of Pop. The Gloved One. Jacko. Wacko Jacko. Freak. Pedophile. Monster.
We are often told true talent always shines through and genius never goes by unnoticed, which is why we should learn to make the difference between the artist and the person s/he is in real life.
Clearly, that never applied to Michael Jackson, arguably the most talented pop artist ever to come out, and undeniably the most popular and successful: for nearly two decades, his last years of life, the media and the public deliberately chose to ignore the truth because scandal was a much more profitable business than actual fact.
Facts
In 1993, when his personal life had already become tabloid fodder and not a day went by without at least one Jackson story, Michael Jackson was accused of molesting a child. 13-year-old Jordan Chandler and his father, Dr. Evan Chandler, went public with the story, prompting authorities to launch an investigation into the claims.
In December that same year, Neverland Ranch is raided by police: documents and other items are removed from the premises, and Michael is submitted to a 23-minute strip search that leaves him feeling so humiliated he will never recover from it.
Because of inconclusive evidence, the jury is disbanded and Michael is never prosecuted.
At his lawyers’ recommendations, Michael settles with the Chandlers outside of court even though, as Katherine said just recently, he didn’t want to because he knew that would make him feel guilty.
Facts
In May 2002, Michael decides to do something he’d never done before: very shy and fiercely protective of his personal life (not that anyone can blame him, though), he agrees to allow BBC journalist Martin Bashir and his cameras into his life for the chance to tell the world his story, unbiased, unedited and brutally honest.
Bashir had previously achieved international acclaim after a very revealing and groundbreaking interview with Princess Diana – it was Di who convinced Michael to do this because she trusted Bashir, which would explain why the singer never saw what happened next coming.
“Living with Michael Jackson” aired in the UK in March 2003, 10 years after the first molestation allegation was made. One particular scene shows Michael holding hands with Gavin Arvizo (13), as Gavin leans his head on the singer’s shoulder, and they talk about their sleeping arrangements for when the boy spends the night in Michael’s bedroom.
In the footage that the public saw at the time, there was no doubting Bashir’s intentions, as he repeatedly tells Michael it’s not normal for a 44-year-old to sleep in the same bed with other people’s children, asking him if he at least understood why people may see something wrong with it.
Michael Jackson is brought in handcuffs to the 2003 trial
Unaware of what is being implied, Michael smiles throughout the whole “interrogatory,” saying there’s nothing wrong with it, that children need “touching” and “hugging,” and that love can heal the world.
The public was shocked by what it saw: the apparent admission of a guilty man who, most importantly, laughed in their worried faces while admitting he did, indeed, sleep with children in the same bed.
Authorities acted accordingly, with Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon out to get the public their guilty man: Michael was indicted for four counts of molesting a minor, four counts of intoxicating a minor, one count of abduction, and one count of conspiring to hold the boy and his family captive at Neverland.
On July 13, 2005, a jury finds Michael not guilty on all charges.
Also fact: Throughout the entire trial, the media deliberately reports only on the sensational claims made in court, ignoring testimonies and evidence that prove said claims are bogus, in what Charles Thomson of The Huffington Post aptly names “the most shameful episode in journalistic history.”
Monday, August 15, 2011
Michael Jackson the Flashback
8/15/2011
News Staff
