There’s a common practice in American society for the sharks to start feasting whenever there is a hint of blood in the water. The popular culture that is so anxious to glorify its icons is even more ready to vilify these same figures whenever the opportunity arises. The recent allegations that have surfaced concerning Michael Jackson are a prime example of this ‘feasting’ practice. One of the privileges we ALL enjoy as citizens in this country is the right of being ‘innocent until proven guilty’. Too often the courtroom of public opinion delivers its own judgment before the due process of the legal system takes effect. I am personally guilty of developing my own conclusions when presented with facts, as I think we all tend to do from time to time. But my experience of being part of the media machine, writing words that go into print for the public to read has given me a whole different outlook on the way in which I absorb information. Just because someone puts something in print, or broadcasts it on the TV or radio doesn’t mean that it’s entirely true.
The media industry is first and foremost a business. Printed media is generated to maximize circulation. Television news programs are designed to attract more viewers. Radio shows are broadcast with the purpose of gaining more listeners. No matter how noble the individual writers, newscasters and radio personalities may seem, their job objective is to attract and sustain the largest audience possible for that particular media ‘space’. The people who bring the news and information to the forefront are just a tool of the larger machine. Behind the scenes, these tools are really just a public mask that the machine uses to present information to the public. Each media outlet and entity has its own slant that is conducive to the will and ideologies of its executives and owners who sign all the checks. As a writer and a loyal citizen of the state, I have no gripe with this process. Everybody has their own different agendas and motives in the way that they take care of business, that’s just a reality of our capitalistic society. The problem I have is when the media’s offering is fed by hate and the public masses gather around the growing flame in a bloodthirsty frenzy.
Ha! I’m GLAD they’ve got that weirdo! I hope that put his sick az in jail!!
Michael Jackson bought his way out of those allegations several years ago, but I think they’ve GOT him this time!!
By the time he gets out of jail, he’ll have changed his name from Michael to Michelle, you know how they do those child molesters in prison!!
I hadn’t seen one news story or read one headline before I was inundated with all these personal rants on the developing story of Michael Jackson. It seems that every person I came in contact with, even complete strangers, made some mention of the recent events surrounding the case. Somehow, everyone seemed to have been anxiously waiting for the chance to jump on the ‘I Hate Michael Jackson Bandwagon’, and these recent allegations were just the lil push that they needed.
Unlike most people, I am not ashamed to admit that I am a Michael Jackson fan. My fascination with the ‘King of Pop’ started way before these recent allegations, before his marriages, even before his cosmetic ‘enhancements’. I officially jumped on the Michael Jackson bandwagon when I was 8 years old, when the youngest member and lead singer of the Jackson 5 released his first solo album in 1979, ‘Off The Wall’. The way Mike could dance and sing held my captivated attention and I wanted to dance, sing and grow an afro just like his. Those fond memories paved the way for the Thriller album, which had me wondering who Billie Jean was. Then came Bad, which was one of the first times that I started realizing that Mike must be feeling some pressure from the man in the mirror, because he wanted everyone to just leave him alone. I had grown out of my childhood adoration of him, but I still thought he was the #1 entertainer of all time, it just seemed that he was growing a bit ‘weird’ with his face and stuff. This spiraling into ‘weirdness’ just seemed to grow larger everytime Mike surfaced in public view. Dangerous, HIStory, Blood on the Dance Floor and Invincible were all albums released with their own trailers of ‘peculiar’ Michael Jackson info.
In a way, I feel sorry for Mike, because he’s led a life that most people could not even begin to imagine. Since his humble beginnings as a dancing machine from Gary Indiana, he has always been at the center of attention whenever he walked into a room, arena or stadium. Just the idea of always having every word, movement and action magnified for public scrutiny since childhood is burden that most of us could not even begin to understand. Add to that the obvious betrayal and distrust that he has experienced from those closest to him, and its not hard to surmise that Michael Jackson is by no means an ‘average’ guy. It seems the fame and fortune that vaulted him to the top of the recording and performing industry, is the same mechanism that’s causing so many to berate and talk bad about him now.
I share the same assessment of Michael’s current situation as Johnnie Cochran, the lawyer who defended Mike in 1992 when he reached an out of court settlement when threatened with a similar molestation charge. Cochran said he's tried to counsel Jackson "not to ever put yourself in that position" of being alone with young children. "But that's who Michael Jackson is, he's a very, very naive person in many respects, and there's no question about that. Yeah, he does wear a bull's eye," Cochran said. In a weird twist of coincidence, these allegations have been brought out at the same time of Michael Jackson’s latest album ‘Number Ones’, a greatest hits compilation that was released this past Tuesday. I have no clue on whether these allegations are true or not, and as disturbing as they may seem, I choose to assume Mike’s innocence unless proven otherwise. I pray that Mike learns and grows from this trying experience that he’s going through. Life ain’t so bad at all, if you live it off the wall.
