myosotis
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And to demonstrate all that is being said about journalists re. MJ. here is today's contribution from 'The Guardian' - a UK non-tabloid that prides itself on its stance for human rights and justice: (I've only included the sections relating to MJ, but there is more about the others named in the header.)
R Kelly, Michael Jackson and Bryan Singer. Who knew? Everyone
Beset by allegations of predatory and abusive behaviour – including rape – the film director retains support in the film industry while he continues to bring in the money.
Given the entertainment industry prefers simple messages, forcefully packaged, there’s an inconvenient irony to the latest Michael Jackson documentary landing just as Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody continues its grimly disingenuous awards run.
.............................................
And so to Jackson, whose wingnut fans believe is currently riding the great ferris wheel in the sky, while his detractors hope he’s strapped to a flaming wheel in Tartarus instead. For those of us who idealise earthly justice, alas, the Leaving Neverland documentary that premiered at the Sundance festival last weekend is likely to be just another piece in a jigsaw whose picture should have been clear decades ago to all but the wilfully blind. Just as there were with R Kelly, unfortunately, there are whole kingdoms-worth of the wilfully blind.
The film, in which two men detail their alleged childhood abuse by Jackson and the endless damage still rippling out from it, was judged so disturbing that its producers made counsellors available in the lobby afterwards. As for the classic patterns of child abuse, shame and fear set out by Wade Robson and James Safechuck, we can only wonder if they will be the latest piece of evidence to cause otherwise perfectly intelligent people to wonder publicly: “Who knew?” Even those bent on posthumously taking him down still afford Jackson a kind of wizard-like mastery. This week, the lawyer for the two men declared that Jackson “was running the most sophisticated child sex operation the world has ever known”.
And yet, was it? There is hiding in plain sight, and then there is literally building a giant fairground in your garden, admitting you sleep with kids, and spending decades fighting and paying off children – always boys, always around the same age – who accuse you of sexual assault. I mean really, WHO KNEW?
The reality, of course, is that a huge number of people had specific knowledge of Jackson’s behaviour and ignored it ultimately because of money. “Sophisticated” is really a comforting euphemism for “expensive”. All of this is about money: who makes it, and why that makes things go away. How much of it Jackson was worth to a record company – Sony – which has incurred precisely zero public censure. How much of it he could throw at lawyers to silence a parade of children accusing him of the same things, in identical patterns. How much of it he could pass to servants, who were financially dependent on him, in order that they continue turning blind eyes to the endless sleepover parties with young boys, while they looked after his own children in some other wing of Neverland.
Who knew? In 1993, Jackson and his team fought the accusations of abuse by the pre-teen Jordy Chandler, right up to the point that the child was able to describe distinctive splotches on Jackson’s buttocks and penis. Following a legally mandated photoshoot of his genital area, Jackson suddenly U-turned and decided to settle for $23m. It goes on. A child cancer survivor; a child bedmate whose book he inscribed “to my rubba rubba boy”. And on, and on, and on.
.....................................
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...el-jackson-and-bryan-singer-who-knew-everyone
R Kelly, Michael Jackson and Bryan Singer. Who knew? Everyone
Beset by allegations of predatory and abusive behaviour – including rape – the film director retains support in the film industry while he continues to bring in the money.
Given the entertainment industry prefers simple messages, forcefully packaged, there’s an inconvenient irony to the latest Michael Jackson documentary landing just as Bryan Singer’s Bohemian Rhapsody continues its grimly disingenuous awards run.
.............................................
And so to Jackson, whose wingnut fans believe is currently riding the great ferris wheel in the sky, while his detractors hope he’s strapped to a flaming wheel in Tartarus instead. For those of us who idealise earthly justice, alas, the Leaving Neverland documentary that premiered at the Sundance festival last weekend is likely to be just another piece in a jigsaw whose picture should have been clear decades ago to all but the wilfully blind. Just as there were with R Kelly, unfortunately, there are whole kingdoms-worth of the wilfully blind.
The film, in which two men detail their alleged childhood abuse by Jackson and the endless damage still rippling out from it, was judged so disturbing that its producers made counsellors available in the lobby afterwards. As for the classic patterns of child abuse, shame and fear set out by Wade Robson and James Safechuck, we can only wonder if they will be the latest piece of evidence to cause otherwise perfectly intelligent people to wonder publicly: “Who knew?” Even those bent on posthumously taking him down still afford Jackson a kind of wizard-like mastery. This week, the lawyer for the two men declared that Jackson “was running the most sophisticated child sex operation the world has ever known”.
And yet, was it? There is hiding in plain sight, and then there is literally building a giant fairground in your garden, admitting you sleep with kids, and spending decades fighting and paying off children – always boys, always around the same age – who accuse you of sexual assault. I mean really, WHO KNEW?
The reality, of course, is that a huge number of people had specific knowledge of Jackson’s behaviour and ignored it ultimately because of money. “Sophisticated” is really a comforting euphemism for “expensive”. All of this is about money: who makes it, and why that makes things go away. How much of it Jackson was worth to a record company – Sony – which has incurred precisely zero public censure. How much of it he could throw at lawyers to silence a parade of children accusing him of the same things, in identical patterns. How much of it he could pass to servants, who were financially dependent on him, in order that they continue turning blind eyes to the endless sleepover parties with young boys, while they looked after his own children in some other wing of Neverland.
Who knew? In 1993, Jackson and his team fought the accusations of abuse by the pre-teen Jordy Chandler, right up to the point that the child was able to describe distinctive splotches on Jackson’s buttocks and penis. Following a legally mandated photoshoot of his genital area, Jackson suddenly U-turned and decided to settle for $23m. It goes on. A child cancer survivor; a child bedmate whose book he inscribed “to my rubba rubba boy”. And on, and on, and on.
.....................................
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeand...el-jackson-and-bryan-singer-who-knew-everyone
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