[quote name="Saphster"]Who was this Bob Jones character and what did he say?[/quote]
If there is anyone who betrayed Michael the most, it was Bob Jones. If you check out very old pictures of Michael (around Jackson 5 days), you'll sometimes see Jones in the background. The reason I keep mentioning him all over this message board is because of how long he knew Michael and how big of an about-face he made during the 2005 trial. He was around Michael for so long, it was extremely disappointing to see him betray Michael the way he did. He eventually wrote a "tell all" book with Stacy Brown (a guy) that made wild accusations about Michael, including a crazy accusation about Michael supposedly being racist and calling black people all sorts of names.
At the trial, Jones was on the witness stand for the prosecution, but during his testimony, he had to admit that some of his claims in the book were just for hype (to drive sales). He says it in his own words. Anyway, Jones died shortly after the trial. He never apologized to Michael, and I don't know how Michael felt about Jones' death.
[quote name="whisper"]Now we're getting into wanting him to answer questions like how we want him to answer them.[/quote]
You don't have to be defensive. We're all fans here, and it's just that I am somewhat more comfortable in criticizing Michael than many fans. I think it's healthy to criticize him.
If that were the case, then we'd be no better than anyone else expecting him to be how we wanted him to be instead of accepting him for who he is.
I asked those questions precisely because I wanted to know what he was thinking and what he was like.
I have absolutely no doubt that he was incredibly affected by exactly what he said.
I don't doubt him either (he was certainly genuine in his concerns), but I just wanted him to take the questions in a different direction. For the most part, Michael utterly failed in the Bashir documentary. Michael consistently took the bait and answered questions that were condescending, inappropriate, or bizarre. He should have refused to answer some of Bashir's questions and stood up for himself.
Mike has always been open about how he feels so when his answers are consistent with what he's been saying his whole life, all of sudden his answers are "predictable"?
Not all of a sudden. They've been predictable since some time in the 80s. Before then, he didn't really publicly talk much about children and their suffering (not that I know of).
By the way, whisper, it's good to see you back. You usually don't take part in discussions.