Yes, when you look at the way Michael Jackson
is being treated even after his death you can´t doubt
any longer that the media is in a sort of a stratagem against
Jackson. Why would they be doing it to him, I wonder?
Everyone has surely heard of speak no ill of the dead
saying. The wise advice Nil nisi bonum (Let
nothing be said of the dead but what is good) originated
in the times of ancient Rome and is still accepted as a universal
ethical norm the world over.
It may still be beyond human comprehension as to why we have
to respect this rule by all means. Is it because the dead are
helpless and cannot defend themselves? Or is it to be done for
our own good so that we don´t leave this world
bearing the guilt of a mistake that cannot be undone, as the
man of whom we spoke in ill terms is no longer here to forgive
us? No matter what the reason is the majority of people do manage
to check their evil tongue when speaking of those who are gone.
But what is good or possible for almost each and everybody is
no good or possible for the deceased Michael Jackson
My favorite journalist Charles Thomson has written a series
of articles about the on-going media attacks against Michael.
As someone in the industry the guy says he finds it increasingly
difficult to explain away the bias with which Jackson is being
treated by others in his trade. Same as Thomson I also used
to scoff at the theory of conspiracy around Jackson which always
sounded too simplistic to me, but now I really don´t know
Well, whatever the case is the only remedy against this evil
is the ability to think on our own and this is why it is exceptionally
interesting to observe a counter-media process emerging in the
internet the stronger the media pressure is, the bigger
is the desire of many to form an individual opinion about the
man whose name the press wants to smear so badly. What a fantastic
feeling it is to experience that despite all the fuss they are
making you get only calmer every day as the pettiness and meanness
of their methods convinces you more than anything else that
the truth is on your side. The process is truly interesting
to observe it is almost like seeing the ´bad guys´
frantically trying to get on a train which has already started,
is gaining speed and is leaving them hopelessly behind despite
all their effort to catch up with it
.
The excellent articles by the award-winning journalist Charles
Thomson provided below are written in the defense of Michael
Jackson who this time was defamed by a certain Gene Simmons
of KISS rock group whom I fortunately never heard of or listened
to. The story starts with the nonsense Simmons pronounces out
of the hell he is evidently living in:
GENE SIMMONS: Michael Jackson Was a Molester
04.02.2010
The latest issue of Classic Rock magazine has Gene Simmons laying
into Michael Jackson. Kiss bassist Gene Simmons has launched
a scathing attack on Michael Jackson, saying that there was
´no question´ that Michael Jackson molested children.
I knew some of the musicians he toured with, and specifically
one who quit because of seeing boys coming out of the hotel
rooms, Simmons told Classic Rock. And then you factor
in that his travel agent was put on the stand and in court said
that she was authorized to fly to Brazil and bring boys back
to America for him
Michael´s on tape going, ´Give the kids Jesus
juice.´ Which is wine. I mean, it´s just endless.
Well, you know, where there´s smoke there´s
fire. There´s no question in my mind he molested those
kids. Not a doubt. Metal
Hammer
CHARLES THOMSON
Charles Thomson is an award winning writer. Specialising
in music and celebrity journalism, Charles has contributed to
publications including The Sun, The Guardian, MOJO, Wax Poetics
and the Huffington Post.
February 5, 2010
Gene Simmons In Bonkers Jackson Rant
It seems that the lead in Gene Simmons´ make-up has gone
to his brain. In a bizarre rant during a Classic Rock interview,
Simmons accused Michael Jackson of child molestation, citing
several completely fictitious pieces of evidence.
The aging glam-rock star claimed that he knew a musician who
quit a Michael Jackson tour because of ´what he saw´
on the road. I am frequently paid as a Jackson expert and I
can state with certainty that I am unaware of any musician ever
quitting a Michael Jackson tour mid-way through. In fact, Jackson
used the same musicians every time he toured, with minor alterations
on a tour by tour basis, but never mid-way through.
Elsewhere, Simmons claimed that Michael Jackson was on tape
ordering ´Jesus Juice´ for children. This is a fiction.
It was alleged during Jackson´s trial that he served alcohol
to the Gavin Arvizo and his siblings, but they each gave contradictory
accounts of the incident. Staff accused by the children of serving
them booze all denied having ever done so, but did reveal that
the children had been caught stealing alcohol behind Jackson´s
back.
No audio tape of Jackson ordering alcohol for children was ever
brought forward and the star was acquitted on multiple counts
of serving alcohol to a minor. Simmons´ claim that Jackson
was on tape ordering alcohol for children is pure fantasy.
By far, Simmons´ most outrageous claim was that during
Jackson´s trial a travel agent testified that the star
had hired them to fly to Brazil and fetch young boys for him.
This allegation is a total figment of Gene Simmons´ imagination.
No such testimony ever occurred during Jackson´s trial.
Growing up, I was always taught that if you don´t know
what you´re talking about, you shouldn´t say anything.
Evidently Gene´s parents didn´t instill in him the
same belief. That, or he´s just going senile.
It is completely irresponsible to pass comment on a criminal
investigation that you know nothing about and even more irresponsible
to make a criminal accusation and then support it with non-existent
evidence. Simmons has heard fragments of reported speech from
Jackson´s trial and then assigned them entirely new meaning
as the years have passed, building up an arsenal of evidence
against Jackson which never actually existed.
However, the blame doesn´t lie solely at Simmons´
door. Classic Rock should do their research before regurgitating
such drivel. Yes, it is reported speech, but it is still irresponsible
for any publication to perpetuate baseless myths which indicate
that an innocent man is a paedophile.
Thanks to Google News, this story has now gone global. All over
the world people are reading it and many will believe Simmons´
comments, partially because he´s in the music business
and there is an element of presumed insider knowledge, but mostly
because the initial reporting on Jackson´s trial was so
inept.
Simmons´ comments have no basis in reality. Jackson is
categorically not on tape ordering children alcohol. There was
categorically not any testimony at his trial about flying boys
in from Brazil. These two allegations are without any evidencial
basis whatsoever, and for Simmons to state them as fact is despicable.
In future, Simmons should either do his research or shut his
trap. His irresponsible and unfounded allegations have now entered
the homes of millions around the globe and you can bet your
bottom dollar that nobody is going to print a rebuttal or a
retraction.
Gene
Simmons in bonkers Jackson rant
CHARLES THOMSON
February, 27, 2010
Jackson Guitarist: ´No Truth´ to Simmons Claims
Michael Jackson´s long-serving tour guitarist Jennifer
Batten has slammed Gene Simmons´ recent allegations against
the King of Pop.
Last week I sat down for an hour-long interview with Batten,
who accompanied Jackson on all three of his world tours. During
her decade of service she was also seen in the Dirty Diana music
video, Jackson´s feature film Moonwalker and the star´s
record breaking Superbowl performance, which was watched by
more than a billion people.
During our interview, I took the opportunity to quiz Batten
over allegations recently made by aging glam rocker Gene Simmons,
who claimed in a Classic Rock interview that a musician friend
of his had quit a Michael Jackson tour after ´seeing boys
coming out of the hotel rooms´.
Was it true, I asked her, that a musician had quit one of Jackson´s
tours while on the road?
Number one, said Batten, there´s no
truth to it. Number two, I would guess that it was somebody
who got fired. Somebody who was embarrassed that they got fired
and made-up a story.
But did any musicians ever get fired mid-way through a tour?
No. Nuh-uh. No, there were a couple of people who got
fired like a week before we took out on the road.
So there you have it, folks. No musician ever left a Michael
Jackson tour mid-way through. Some musicians were fired but
before the tour even hit the road, meaning that they couldn´t
have seen anything going on inside any hotels.
Jackson
Guitarist: No Truth to Simmons claims
CHARLES THOMSON
The Huffington Post
March 2, 2010
Michael Jackson: It´s Time For Outlets to Take Responsibility
in Covering the Rock Star
Last week Michael Jackson´s guitarist discredited widely
reported allegations about the star´s behaviour on the
road. So why is the media refusing to publish her comments?
British writer Charles Thomson explores media bias against black
music´s biggest star.
Aging glam-rocker Gene Simmons made international headlines
last month when he claimed to know that Michael Jackson had
molested children. In an interview with Classic Rock, Simmons
alleged that Jackson was on tape ordering alcohol for children
and that during the star´s 2005 trial a travel agent had
testified to importing Brazilian boys for Jackson´s amusement.
He also claimed that a musician friend had quit a Jackson tour
after seeing ´boys coming out of the hotel rooms.´
What followed was a classic example of copy and paste journalism.
Within hours the story had been duplicated by hundreds of blogs,
forums and news websites from Australia to India to the USA.
None of them had fact-checked the story before they re-hosted
it. Jackson was never on tape ordering alcohol for children.
There was never any testimony during his trial about young Brazilian
boys. Both of these claims were easily disproven by trial transcripts.
As a relative Jackson expert, I was also unaware of any musician
ever leaving one of the singer´s tours midway through.
So when I sat down a fortnight ago for an interview with Jackson´s
long serving tour guitarist Jennifer Batten, I ran the story
by her.
She told me that no musician had ever quit a Jackson tour. Two
musicians had been fired but both were let go before the show
hit the road, so they couldn´t possibly have witnessed
anything going on inside hotels.
When Sawf News published Batten´s rebuttal I observed an
all too familiar phenomenon. Although the story appeared on
Google News and was picked up fairly swiftly by the Examiner,
nobody else seemed willing to touch it. Whilst Simmons´s
speculative and ultimately baseless accusations had been reproduced
the world over, Batten´s expert rebuttal was being suppressed.
I soon began receiving emails from Jackson´s fans telling
me that they were sending the story to every celebrity news
outlet they could think of, including several of those which
published Simmons´s initial allegations.
But more than 48 hours later, typing an exact quote from Simmons´s
rant into a search engine produced almost 350 webpages. The
number of news outlets hosting Batten´s rebuttal? Three.
This was not the first time I´d had a Jackson story suppressed.
After Evan Chandler´s suicide in November 2009 I was contacted
by the Sun and asked to supply information about the 1993 allegations.
I spent quite some time compiling my research, advising the
newspaper of common myths and how to avoid them, being careful
to source all of my facts from legal documents and audio/visual
evidence.
When I read the finished article I was stunned to find that
all of my information had been discarded and replaced with the
very myths I had advised them to avoid. I alerted staff to the
inaccuracies but my emails were not replied. The same inaccuracies
appeared in every single article I read about the suicide.
The same bias manifested itself the following month when Jackson´s
FBI file was released. Across more than 300 pages of information
there was not one piece of incriminating evidence but
that´s not the way the media told it.
A videotape seized at customs in West Palm Beach and analysed
for child pornography was repeatedly referred to as belonging
to Jackson. In actuality, files stated merely that the tape
was ´connected´ to Jackson and that connection appeared
simply to be that somebody had written his name on the sticky
label.
In another document the FBI logged a telephone call from a tipster
claiming that the bureau had investigated Jackson during the
1980s for molesting two Mexican boys. The files made no other
mention of the supposed investigation and the claim was ascribed
no validity the call was merely noted. But the media
persistently referred to the anonymous tipster´s unsupported
allegations as the FBI´s own conclusions.
Jackson´s FBI file overwhelmingly supported his innocence
but its contents were routinely manipulated to give the opposite
impression.
Many are quick to scoff when Jackson´s fans speak of a
media conspiracy to destroy the star´s reputation and
I used to scoff with them. As a member of the industry I prefer
not to think of it as sinister and conspiratorial, but I find
it increasingly difficult to explain away the bias with which
Jackson is treated.
I wonder whether the problem is pride. When the 1993 allegations
broke, the vast majority of information available was released,
either officially or unofficially, by the prosecution. Jackson,
meanwhile, remained characteristically silent.
Perhaps because the prosecution´s version of events went
almost completely unchallenged (although I imagine that drama
and selling newspapers had something to do with it, too), the
media primarily chose to portray Jackson as guilty.
But as the facts started to trickle out it became increasingly
apparent that the case was full of holes. The allegations had
been instigated not by the boy but by his father, who had demanded
a scriptwriting deal from Jackson before he went to the police.
He was on tape plotting to destroy Jackson´s career and
dismissing his son´s wellbeing as ´irrelevant´.
Then the boy told cops that Jackson was circumcised, but a police
body search concluded that he was not.
Although Jackson´s innocence looked increasingly likely,
most news outlets had made their bed and to this day they seem
unwilling to do anything but lie in it.
Whatever the motivation, be it pride, profit or plain old racism,
the bias against Jackson is undeniable. The suppression of Batten´s
comments proves once more than when it comes to Jackson the
media is interested not in fact or reason but negativity and
sensationalism. Batten accompanied Jackson on all three of his
world tours and was known for a decade as his ´right hand
woman´. But Simmons who self-confessedly did not
know Jackson has been given over 100 times more media
coverage for his inaccurate ranting than Batten has for her
firsthand experience.
It is time for outlets to assume responsibility for their own
content. Websites should not re-host other publishers´
stories unless they can be completely certain that the content
is factual. Even if the media refuses to print the truth about
Jackson, they should compromise by not printing the lies either.
At least that way he can rest in peace.
It´s Time For Outlets to Take Responsibility in Covering
the Rock Star
Thank you Helena for your generosity
sharing your investigation!