Probably the most perverse thing about the dying news media is their bottomless capacity to frame what should be an interesting story in a way that’s either boring or so untrue that they must have been so motivated by an intense hatred, or evil, that they would risk their credibility for the sake of telling a brazen lie. The way they talk about Michael Jackson, even nearly 20 years after his death, is some combination of both.
Two things I’ll say from the jump: First, I didn’t love the new Michael biopic. I’ve seen it three times, and it’s harmless and enjoyable enough, but not what a die-hard fan would hope in what is sure to become accepted as a definitive piece of Jackson’s historical record. Second, Jackson’s relationship with children too often ventured into the inappropriate and indefensible, but at the same time, the overwhelming evidence is that he was not guilty of sexually abusing children and was in fact the victim of multiple extortion schemes.
But even today, when the world has rendered its own judgement, that Michael Jackson remains beloved, the media cannot bring themselves to talk about him without suggesting he was likely a pedophile. They refuse to do it. They refuse to tell the truth and they refuse to acknowledge that their preferred version of his story has been rejected by the public.
The biopic came out last month and despite universally negative reviews by the “experts,” plus what is known to have been a disastrous production process — a substantial portion of the film was canned, rewritten and reshot, delaying the release a full year — the movie has so far grossed close to half a billion dollars and is on a quick path to breaking a record as the best selling music biopic. Yet, it’s impossible to find a professional reviewer who doesn’t grab themselves while whining that the film’s plot has no references to the beaten, reheated and worn out allegations that Jackson sexually abused children.
In The Wall Street Journal, some woman named Maureen Orth opened her critique of the film with the original observation that Jackson “was a stone cold pedophile.” Wild! The world has never heard that piping hot take before!
New York Times magazine writer Mark Binelli called the movie “a piece of propaganda.” The Times also ran an interview with critic Eric Hynes, who faulted the film for “trying to undo the truth that a lot of people have suffered.” And if that weren’t enough, the publication’s critic Wesley Morris called the biopic “all too happy” and “the definition of fanfic” (a diminutive of “fan fiction”).
Yes, they’re all very upset that the movie didn’t indulge their irrepressible urge to talk about pedophilia. What’s it called when a person is preoccupied, for years, with thinking about deviant sexual activity?
I could understand some of the obsession if there were any proof that Jackson did something criminal. He’s been accused and after the one and only time it went to trial, he was acquitted because the jury was introduced to the alleged victim’s wretch of a mother who had a proven history of theft and fraud— schemes that she used her kids to execute.
There was the 2019 Leaving Neverland documentary in which another two accusers, now grown men, laid out graphic details of their own alleged abuse. Both of them are demonstrable liars in ways both big and small, and both made their charges only after Jackson was dead and in pursuit of money (they’re both actively suing his estate).
The details of all of these cases are genuinely riveting, just not in the way the media would prefer. They like the story about sexualizing children, even though it’s both untrue and boring. If a child has been abused, the perpetrator deserves to be physically tortured, no matter how talented he is. But however inappropriate it is for an adult man to sleep unsupervised in the same room with children not his own, it’s neither abuse nor a crime. What is interesting, though, is how random people of seedy backgrounds managed to ingratiate themselves to the greatest entertainer of all time, the parents allowing their children to stay nights with him alone, and their attempts to extract money and favors in return, only to ultimately accuse him of the most despicable crimes imaginable.
Whatever. That’s not the story they want to tell. And it’s not the story told in the biopic, though not for trying. (Preexisting legal agreement forbade the Jackson estate from dramatizing the original child abuse allegations and their legal settlements.) Instead, the movie is about Jackson, his raw talent, and his calculated determination to be the best. He was phenomenal. There’s never been anyone like him since and there never will be. The public has made up its mind. They’ve moved on from the lies. It’s a tragedy that the dying media refuse to do the same.
