Michael Jackson

[brawburd]

Surprised there hasn't been more AB debate .....

[xyzzyplugh]

Well we're all too busy worrying about DeathWar! Just because we don't feel any personal threat, much, because we're miles away.. Apart from our 40,00 troops. Talk about cracking a sledgehammer with a Nut! Speaking of nuts, Shouldn't Jacko have had more sense than to trust the press again?? Now that's nutty.

[andy hughes]

Great minds think alike - I too was surprised at the lack of reaction, given the blanket media coverage the doc. has had. Personally, I see the thread that runs through MJ's life as the same that ran through Elvis's - a fundamentally flawed person who has the money to create his own universe, and populate it only with people who agree with him, and no-one to tell him things he doesn't want to hear, but are for his own good. That includes things like 'Don't open your world to the TV Mike, it's too strange for them to understand'. but of course, he didn't listen, and now he feels betrayed. As the line in 'American Beauty' so eloquently put it - "Never underestimate the power of denial." That just about sums it up don't you think?

[beenee]

I agree - I think it that because it was such a massive issue, it was almost intimidating to approach.

ANYWAY.... Not only did I feel terribly sad for MJ who I believe is a genuinely good guy who has just had too abnormal a life. For whatever reason he has been detached from normality and so seems to be out of touch with accepted norms and values. I have stronger, more negative views about Martin Bashir however who I found most patronising, disapproving and straying from what should be an interviewer's primary stance - unbiased questioning. He went in with a pre-determined agenda, only addressing issues that have already feuled the media for years, and he never helped shed light on the man himself. MJ did that for himself. Martin Bashir is a disgrace to British journalism.

[brianwaring]

who wants to discuss a madman with so much money and egotism that will eventually bring about his downfall

[brianwaring]

beenee would you say the same things to the people that manipulated the elephant man.Because surely there is someone behind M.J. that are in the position to control his actions I don't believe that a man with so few brain cells can control his everyday actions. (he's a nutter).

[Miss Zippy]

MJ - innocent til proven guilty, but I guess all these knee jerk reactions from the media following the interview is to be expected. Funny that Gloria Allred has already filed a suit against him (she has yet to find her 'victims') when it is her that negotiated a substantial financial settlement (c.�18m) with the parents of Jordy Chandler 13 years ago. If she had irrefutable evidence that MJ abused Chandler, surely she had a moral, if not legal, obligation to ensure that MJ answered those charges in a criminal court, thereby protecting other children suffering similar abuse. I'm not a parent (yet), but if my child had been sexually or physically abused by someone I would want them hung, drawn and quartered, not their dirty blood money. IF it is proven that MJ has indeed abused any children, then there are many other people who need to take some responsibility - the parents or legal guardians of the children who let them 'sleep over', MJ's staff who must have know what was going on, not to mention his various legal and other advisers and his friends and family.

[Miss Zippy]

For the pedants among you, I realise I should have said hanged, drawn and quartered!

[woodpam]

I am surprised at the criticism of Martin Bashir - how stupid would you have to be to give an interview and expect him and the TV company (who are a profit making organisation) not to show the excerpts which are most dramatic and extreme? Why would you let them film your children and show the world that you bleached the hair of one of them and made them wear masks like freaks? Why would you let them show you appearing to be off your head on something and feeding a baby? The programme makers are not to blame for showing the dramatic stuff - it's simply economics at work. MJ needs a friend to suggest that he gets therapy and lots of it immediately and the services of an adviser who can give him some sort of picture of what "normal" is before lasting damage is done. If he just wanted his music to be the centre of the show, he should have insisted on editorial control. I can only assume his manager advised him very badly unless he/she believes that there's no such thing as bad publicity.....

[blackburne]

I just felt sorry for him. He is obviously so remote from normal life that he behaves abnormally. Perhaps I'm naive, but the sleepover bsuiness could be entirely innocent. He didn't have a real childhood, and he could just be trying to live it now in his demented way. It is possible to share a bed with someone without sexually molesting them. Ask my wife!

[ABsolution]

Not neccessarily Miss Zippy, as they weren't 'Hanged' in the true sense of the word, but 'hung' by the neck until they had almost, but not quite, suffocated to death; then the party was taken down from the gallows, and disembowelled while still alive; and while the entrails were still lying on the street, where the executioners stamped all over them, the victim was tied to four large farm horses, and literally torn into five parts - one to each limb and the remaining torso. :-)

[Miss Zippy]

ABsolution - thanks for your most detailed narrative of that particular form of medieval torture! I stand corrected of correcting myself (or something). ;-)

[AB Editor]

In view of the intense interest in the Michael Jackson court case and because the legal position in relation to comments about ongoing trials in the USA is more relaxed, we are making an exception to our general rule that you may not post anything relating to any ongoing or pending court case or where there are court imposed restrictions on identification in place in any English speaking jurisdiction. It is acceptable to comment on the Michael Jackson trial and issues surrounding it but please remember that the site terms and conditions still apply and we reserve the right to suspend or terminate the accounts of anyone breaching these.