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Michael Jackson: Just Stop Talking Him Around
-- Jim Brachman
Why does the media demand that we hate Michael Jackson?
Barbara Walters was shocked, absolutely shocked. There she was, hosting the myopic 20/20 “news magazine” program that consisted of British reporter Martin Bashir’s lengthy interview with Michael Jackson.
To Walters, as well as to the Brit (who, toward the end of the two-hour piece, apparently decided he was the subject of the interview, rather than Michael), it was devastating.
How devastating was it? Quite devastating. For example, a breathless Walters reported the shocking scandal that Michael Jackson said he was “worth” one billion dollars, when the figure is actually somewhere between 200 and 300 million.
Wow. What an outrage. Never mind that Jackson didn’t want to discuss the subject of his personal fortune, and eventually just went along when the reporter kept asking if he might be worth one billion.
Are you ready for more? Well, it turns out that when Jackson’s two older children go out with him in public, he makes them wear masks. It’s another huge scandal. Never mind that it is because Jackson doesn’t wish them to be photographed, for their own protection and that both kids seemed to be having a grand time with their father.
Naw, that’s not important.
In fact, the more Walters and her colleague tried to argue that Michael is a one-man freak show, the more it appeared the brilliant entertainer and song writer was simply being used by the two of them.
If Jackson never again agrees to any kind of interview, it would certainly be understandable after this latest betrayal by people whom, I suspect, are utterly incapable of appreciating his music, his talent or his art.
Among the things rehashed — the dangling baby incident. From the tone of the 20/20 piece, you’d have thought Michael Jackson caused the world to come to an end. It was nothing. It was less than nothing, and yet these whining crybabies can’t stop talking about it.
Oh, but wait, there are even more horror stories. Michael Jackson likes to visit Las Vegas and, ohmygod, spent over one million dollars during a recent shopping spree.
And I guess that puts him in the same company of every other rock star and movie star, though you wouldn’t think so from the disdain of Ms.Walters and her colleague.
And then we got to go (once again) through the whole controversy about Michael’s plastic surgery. How dare Michael not admit to having numerous surgical procedures on his face, Walters wonders.
Jackson insists he’s had very little plastic surgery. Okay, so it doesn’t look that way, but there’s just one thing — who cares?
Interestingly enough, Walters missed a wonderful opportunity — to comment on all the plastic surgery she has had. Nor does it disturb her that journalists like Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw all insist they don’t wear makeup and toupees, when it couldn’t be more apparent that they do — and it appears that they, too have had plastic surgery.
We all know Barbara’s golden rule: one set of standards for people I admire, a totally different set of standards for those I do not.
Then there are all the “issues” with other children. None proven, nothing the government ever had the slightest interest in prosecuting, but that didn’t stop anyone associated with this program from convicting Michael — but of what, they couldn’t say.
He's had a child with a surrogate mother. So? He has an unusual arrangement with the mother of his two older children. So? What about the alternative lifestyles practiced by Walters’ countless and oh-so-trendy show business friends?
Same story. It’s perfectly okay for them; it’s only wrong for Michael Jackson.
Here’s another destruction-of-the-planet calamity as documented by the telecast. Michael Jackson went to accept a lifetime achievement award in Europe. And you know what? Michael made a mistake -- he started up the stage to accept the award… before he was supposed to!
Oh no! Not that! Anything but that!
You’re watching this and you’re thinking, what’s the problem? Haven’t the idiots who put this “documentary” together ever watched an awards program before? Haven’t they seen a missed cue or a camera focus on the wrong person who freezes in terror? Haven’t they seen someone announce a winner before all the nominees are read? Here’s a classic -- someone wins an award but he or she isn't in attendance -- a fact the program's executives seem to have missed.
So a mistake was made that had absolutely no impact whatsoever on the show. Who the hell cares? No one. Yet this program made it sound like Michael Jackson will be embarrassed for the rest of his life because of it.
What was missing from the overseas awards ceremony discussion? Mention of the fact that when two notes from Michael Jackson’s single “Thriller” were played — just two — all present reacted with joy.
A point the documentary inadvertently makes, even though Bashir and Walters didn't quite grasp it, is Michael’s respect for and accommodation of his fans — never mind that most celebrities want as little to do with their fans as possible.
Michael Jackson is not merely one of the world’s great entertainers; he’s also one of its youngest. A rock/pop star in the stratosphere of Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger, he is only 44, and thus their junior by close to 20 years.
Temporarily putting aside for the sake of discussion all the excellent work of the Jackson Five, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is among the great albums of all time, maybe the greatest. “Off The Wall” is a smaller masterpiece, but these are collections of songs that are not only a pleasure in their own right, they clearly inspired the work of countless artists who have followed Jackson.
Now, it’s a safe assumption that the musical composition libraries of the Beatles and Rolling Stones easily surpass Michael’s, but guess what? Michael Jackson is a better performer than the Beatles and Rolling Stones combined.
There is only one entertainer who was better at it than Michael Jackson; he’s no longer with us and his name is Elvis Aaron Presley.
Turn on MTV, VHI, or just watch an installment of “American Idol” or shows like it and watch the dance steps. Everyone seems to be doing a Michael Jackson impersonation — and it’s been going on for 20 years.
As for the team that assembled this rubbish, this mindless broadside, this intended hatchet job that ends up having the opposite effect, there is no escaping the conclusion of another great entertainer, Frank Sinatra.
Asked his opinion of the media, Sinatra described them succinctly: “pimps and hookers.”
:nav Source: http://www.brachman.com/cgi-script/csNews2...wone&id=26&op=t
Michael Jackson: Just Stop Talking Him Around
-- Jim Brachman
Why does the media demand that we hate Michael Jackson?
Barbara Walters was shocked, absolutely shocked. There she was, hosting the myopic 20/20 “news magazine” program that consisted of British reporter Martin Bashir’s lengthy interview with Michael Jackson.
To Walters, as well as to the Brit (who, toward the end of the two-hour piece, apparently decided he was the subject of the interview, rather than Michael), it was devastating.
How devastating was it? Quite devastating. For example, a breathless Walters reported the shocking scandal that Michael Jackson said he was “worth” one billion dollars, when the figure is actually somewhere between 200 and 300 million.
Wow. What an outrage. Never mind that Jackson didn’t want to discuss the subject of his personal fortune, and eventually just went along when the reporter kept asking if he might be worth one billion.
Are you ready for more? Well, it turns out that when Jackson’s two older children go out with him in public, he makes them wear masks. It’s another huge scandal. Never mind that it is because Jackson doesn’t wish them to be photographed, for their own protection and that both kids seemed to be having a grand time with their father.
Naw, that’s not important.
In fact, the more Walters and her colleague tried to argue that Michael is a one-man freak show, the more it appeared the brilliant entertainer and song writer was simply being used by the two of them.
If Jackson never again agrees to any kind of interview, it would certainly be understandable after this latest betrayal by people whom, I suspect, are utterly incapable of appreciating his music, his talent or his art.
Among the things rehashed — the dangling baby incident. From the tone of the 20/20 piece, you’d have thought Michael Jackson caused the world to come to an end. It was nothing. It was less than nothing, and yet these whining crybabies can’t stop talking about it.
Oh, but wait, there are even more horror stories. Michael Jackson likes to visit Las Vegas and, ohmygod, spent over one million dollars during a recent shopping spree.
And I guess that puts him in the same company of every other rock star and movie star, though you wouldn’t think so from the disdain of Ms.Walters and her colleague.
And then we got to go (once again) through the whole controversy about Michael’s plastic surgery. How dare Michael not admit to having numerous surgical procedures on his face, Walters wonders.
Jackson insists he’s had very little plastic surgery. Okay, so it doesn’t look that way, but there’s just one thing — who cares?
Interestingly enough, Walters missed a wonderful opportunity — to comment on all the plastic surgery she has had. Nor does it disturb her that journalists like Dan Rather, Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw all insist they don’t wear makeup and toupees, when it couldn’t be more apparent that they do — and it appears that they, too have had plastic surgery.
We all know Barbara’s golden rule: one set of standards for people I admire, a totally different set of standards for those I do not.
Then there are all the “issues” with other children. None proven, nothing the government ever had the slightest interest in prosecuting, but that didn’t stop anyone associated with this program from convicting Michael — but of what, they couldn’t say.
He's had a child with a surrogate mother. So? He has an unusual arrangement with the mother of his two older children. So? What about the alternative lifestyles practiced by Walters’ countless and oh-so-trendy show business friends?
Same story. It’s perfectly okay for them; it’s only wrong for Michael Jackson.
Here’s another destruction-of-the-planet calamity as documented by the telecast. Michael Jackson went to accept a lifetime achievement award in Europe. And you know what? Michael made a mistake -- he started up the stage to accept the award… before he was supposed to!
Oh no! Not that! Anything but that!
You’re watching this and you’re thinking, what’s the problem? Haven’t the idiots who put this “documentary” together ever watched an awards program before? Haven’t they seen a missed cue or a camera focus on the wrong person who freezes in terror? Haven’t they seen someone announce a winner before all the nominees are read? Here’s a classic -- someone wins an award but he or she isn't in attendance -- a fact the program's executives seem to have missed.
So a mistake was made that had absolutely no impact whatsoever on the show. Who the hell cares? No one. Yet this program made it sound like Michael Jackson will be embarrassed for the rest of his life because of it.
What was missing from the overseas awards ceremony discussion? Mention of the fact that when two notes from Michael Jackson’s single “Thriller” were played — just two — all present reacted with joy.
A point the documentary inadvertently makes, even though Bashir and Walters didn't quite grasp it, is Michael’s respect for and accommodation of his fans — never mind that most celebrities want as little to do with their fans as possible.
Michael Jackson is not merely one of the world’s great entertainers; he’s also one of its youngest. A rock/pop star in the stratosphere of Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger, he is only 44, and thus their junior by close to 20 years.
Temporarily putting aside for the sake of discussion all the excellent work of the Jackson Five, Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” is among the great albums of all time, maybe the greatest. “Off The Wall” is a smaller masterpiece, but these are collections of songs that are not only a pleasure in their own right, they clearly inspired the work of countless artists who have followed Jackson.
Now, it’s a safe assumption that the musical composition libraries of the Beatles and Rolling Stones easily surpass Michael’s, but guess what? Michael Jackson is a better performer than the Beatles and Rolling Stones combined.
There is only one entertainer who was better at it than Michael Jackson; he’s no longer with us and his name is Elvis Aaron Presley.
Turn on MTV, VHI, or just watch an installment of “American Idol” or shows like it and watch the dance steps. Everyone seems to be doing a Michael Jackson impersonation — and it’s been going on for 20 years.
As for the team that assembled this rubbish, this mindless broadside, this intended hatchet job that ends up having the opposite effect, there is no escaping the conclusion of another great entertainer, Frank Sinatra.
Asked his opinion of the media, Sinatra described them succinctly: “pimps and hookers.”
:nav Source: http://www.brachman.com/cgi-script/csNews2...wone&id=26&op=t