Media Issues
What if things you see on TV or read in newspaper are false?!
Michael Jackson was slandered, his name and legacy ridiculed, and his life ruined with changing of stories, complete lies about him and fabrications of things. He was the most bullied man on the planet, right in front of our eyes.
People don´t dislike Michael Jackson, they dislike the narrative the media has made up about him.
"I think my image gets distorted in the public's mind. They don't get a clear or full picture of what I'm like, despite the press coverage I mentioned early. Mistruths are printed as fact, in some cases, and frequently only half of a story will be told. The part that doesn't get printed is often the part that would make the printed part less sensational by shedding light on the facts."
Michael Jackson in his book "Moonwalk"
"I'm upset at the way he's being treated in the media. I think they're really trying to slander his name, and I really think that's unfair for the way that he's contributed to the American culture since the day he was born. I think he deserves much more than that."
Alicia Keys, November 21, 2003
"The tabloid press are bastards, and you've got to have rhinoceros skin to deal with that kind of ignorance mentality."
Michael Jackson
"The media tend to want to twist what you say and judge you. I want to keep it on the music and the art."
Michael Jackson, 12/14/01
"I don´t think I'll be judged solely on my music cuz the press has made me out to be this monster who's bizarre and weird."
Michael Jackson
“I have always had a soft speaking voice. I haven't cultivated it or chemically altered it; that's me - take it or leave it. Imagine what it must be like to be criticized for something about yourself that is natural and God given. Imagine the hurt of having untruths spread by the press, of having people wonder if you're telling the truth - defending yourself because someone decided it would make good copy and would force you to deny what they said, thus creating another story. I've tried not to answer such ridiculous charges in the past because that dignifies them and the people who make them. Remember, the press is a business: Newspapers and magazines are in business to make money - sometimes at the expense of accuracy, fairness, and even the truth.”
Michael Jackson
Frank Dileo, Jackson's manager, responded to ridiculous allegations the media was making up in 1984:
"After the allegations, he married Lisa Marie. In their first TV interview the two newlyweds were asked if they have sex. Can you imagine a reporter asking Paul McCartney the same question shortly after he married Linda? Would any reporter ever ask newlyweds if they have sex? Why else should two people marry - to not have sex? The question was an insult but Lisa the little jewel answered, 'yes, yes, yes' - I love her for that. And so does Michael."
Joe Jackson, 2003
"It's not easy being in my position because it creates so much sensationalism and tabloid. People lie. They create rumors and stories and none of it's true and it's very, very difficult, you know? It's not easy, it's very hard, and you end up, you hurt sometimes and you try to be as resilient as possible but it's very, very difficult because there's tabloids who, they hate, they're jealous. When you read this, know it's a lie. Don't believe it. Burn it. We should have a tabloid burning. Make a mountain out of them and just destroy them... What can I do but bring forth the talent that God gave me? That's all I wanted to do. To share the love and gift of entertainment. That's all I want to do. I don't want to hurt anybody."
Michael Jackson in interview with Steve Harvey
"I can't help but pick up on some of the criticism leveled at me at times. Journalists seem willing to say anything to sell a paper. They say I've had my eyes widened, that I want to look more white. More white? What kind of statement is that? I didn't invent plastic surgery. It's been around for a long time. A lot of very fine, very nice people have had plastic surgery. No one writes about their surgery and levies such criticism at them. It's not fair. Most of what they print is a fabrication. It's enough to make you want to ask, ´What happened to truth? Did it go out of style?´"
Michael Jackson
A pillow that MJ signatured for a charity auction in India:
Tired of injustice
Tired of the schemes
Your lies are disgusting
What does it mean
Kicking me down
I gotta get up
As jacked as it sounds
The whole system sucks
Michael Jackson in "Scream"
"The worst was anything on Fox News, which was home to all of the female talk show hosts, from Diane Diamond and Lisa Bloom to Nancy Grace...They talked about Michael as if he were dirt and tried to convince the world of these lies. I'm not even sure why, except to boost their ratings. He was acquitted on all charges, and he had been driven into hiding with his children. They had no news of Michael to report, but Michael was news, and if you're an avid news watcher the way I am, you realize that most news is 90 percent bad and 10 percent good, and they really went for that 90 percent."
La Toya Jackson, Michael´s sister in her book "Starting Over" (pg. 255)
“You gotta remember something - the minute I started breaking the all-time record in record sales, (…), overnight, they called me a freak, they called me a homosexual, they called me a child molester, they said I bleached my skin! They made everything to turn the public against me! And this is all a complete, complete conspiracy. You have to know that.”
Michael Jackson, talking at the "Equality For Blacks In Music World" event in Harlem, New York (2002)
"I told the truth and told them everything about me and they twisted it around. I don´t know what to do anymore. I tell the truth and it doesn´t work."
Michael Jackson
"Words may not hurt you physically, but they can destroy you emotionally."
Michael Jackson
"...The last time I was here (in Britain), I flew Mickey and Minnie Mouse from Euro Disney to a hospital in London for the sick kids and took them a load of toys and things to cheer them up. The next day’s papers said: "Wacko Jacko Snubs Sick Children". That really hurt me - I tried to help those children.... It was cruel and unnecessary."
Michael Jackson, The Daily Mirror Magazine, 1999
Example of offensive and dishonest tabloids covers
As for the 3rd one - They listed every drug known to man. None of which was in MJ's system. None of them listed propofol. It shows how easily people lie about MJ for money.
“The press is so hard on me here (in Britain). I try to do so good. I go to the hospitals [here], and I give presents to the children. As soon as I leave, the next day they go, ‘Wacko Jacko left the hospital and he ignored all the children’, and it hurts my heart! Because I purposefully flew Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse all the way from Euro-Disney and brought them with me to surprise the children, I brought bags of presents and everything, and I spent time with the kids and they make fun of me.
I’m touched by [working with children]. [Sobs] If it wasn’t for children I would throw in the towel! I would kill myself. I wouldn’t care to live. They give me my inspiration. They inspire everything I do. Every song I write, every dance, everything I do. They try to use it against me. It’s just been so unfair. I’m very upset about it, you know?”
Michael Jackson, 1999
"Michael always looked for the good in people, but he also wanted people to understand him, and what he was here for. This made the ridicule he endured so much harder to bear. How can someone who gave so much, be the subject of so much hate? Why is it, the more blessed we are, the tougher our times are destined to be?"
Jermaine Jackson
Michael Jackson - I´m not a Jacko I´m Jackson
[These documents I’m holding are] crazy stories that people have created, things I wanted to set straight in an interview […] I think it could have been [the interview with Diane Sawyer], (or) whatever the interview was that I wanted to do. To set the record straight that if people hear a lie long enough, people believe it, the people have lied on me. I’m a black American and I’m proud of it and… I’m honored of it. The bl
each-skin rumor - which is a rumor, I don’t bleach my skin. They once said I wanted a white kid to play me as a child [for a Pepsi commercial], which was a rumor. [The Bill Clinton] inauguration rumor, saying I didn’t wanna do President Clinton’s inauguration [is another false rumor]. I’m not gay! This [sheet] says, ‘Don’t judge a person unless you have spoken to them one on one’, which is true, ‘cause what you hear is a lie’ […], ‘And Jesus said to love children and be like children’, and be youthful and be innocent and be pure and honorable. I mean, He was talking to his apostles, and they were fighting over who’s the greatest among themselves, and He said, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest among me”. And He always surrounded himself like, with children!... And that’s how I was raised to believe and to be like that and to imitate that. So, I don’t know what you’re trying to make out of this.”
Michael Jackson, during a 1996 deposition
“The tabloid press are bastards, and you've got to have rhinoceros skin to deal with that kind of ignorance mentality. They do it simply to sell papers, because bad news sell, not good news. They simply make it up. If they don't have anything, they just make it up. I'm nothing like the way the tabloids have painted me out to be, nothing. Nothing like that. They're the ones who are crazy. They're ignorant. I always say to my fans, 'Let's have a tabloid burning. Let's make a big mountain out of tabloids and just burn them.' The real fans who love me know that garbage isn't true. They know. They're smart.”
Michael Jackson in excerpt from “Gold” magazine interview (2002)
Money
“I will say I am particularly upset by the handling of this mass matter by the incredible, terrible mass media. At every opportunity, the media has dissected and manipulated these allegations to reach their own conclusions. I ask all of you to wait to hear the truth before you label or condemn me. Don’t treat me like a criminal, because I am innocent.
Michael Jackson
“Haven’t you heard the rumor about me from Hollywood? They say I’m having an affair with this TV actor. It’s really terrible, because there’s nothing I can say or do to counter it. The more I deny it... well, you know..”
“The gossip magazines out there are the worst. They are full of color pictures and all the ladies read them in the beauty parlors. They superimpose pictures together with unbelievable headlines. I once saw one about Cher having an affair with a woman. And they had her face to face with her own sister. If they had known that was her sister in the shot, I bet they would have written a piece about incest instead."
Michael Jackson in 1977-‘78 interview
False story printed in US Weekly:
MJ with a jacket he got from his fans:
"
I trusted Martin Bashir to come into my life and that of my family because I wanted the truth to be told. Martin Bashir persuaded me to trust him that his would be an honest and fair portrayal of my life and told me that he was the man that turned Diana's life around. I am surprised that a professional journalist would compromise his integrity by deceiving me in this way. Today I feel more betrayed than perhaps ever before; that someone, who had got to know my children, my staff and me, whom I let into my heart and told the truth, could then sacrifice the trust I placed in him and produce this terrible and unfair programme. Everyone who knows me will know the truth which is that my children come first in my life and that I would never harm any child. I also want to thank my fans around the world for the overwhelming number of messages of support that I have received, particularly from Great Britain, where people have e-mailed me and said how appalled they were by the Bashir film. Their love and support has touched me greatly. My greatest accomplishment, my greatest joy are my children. This is what life is all about. This is what love is all about.”
Michael Jackson´s reaction on British TV documentary by Martin Bashir, broadcast February 3, 2003
The Michael Jackson Trial : One of the Most Shameful Episodes In Journalistic History
Based on the article "One of The Most Shameful Episodes In Journalistic History" by Charles Thomson for The Huffington Post on June 13th, 2010.
"Reading the court transcripts and comparing them to the newspaper cuttings, the trial that was relayed to us didn’t even resemble the trial that was going on inside the courtroom."
"Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, "I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight," people would say, "Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a damn word that comes out of his mouth."
Michael Jackson
Tabloid Junkie
Speculate to break the one you hate / Circulate the lie you confiscate / Assassinate and mutilate / As the hounding media in hysteria / Who's the next for you to resurrect / JFK exposed the CIA / Truth be told the grassy knoll / As the blackmail story in all your glory
It's slander / You say it's not a sword / But with your pen you torture men / You'd crucify the Lord / And you don't have to read it (read it) / And you don't have to eat it (eat it) / To buy it is to feed it (feed it) / Then why do we keep foolin' ourselves
Just because you read it in a magazine / Or see it on the TV screen / Don't make it factual / Though everybody wants to read all about it / Just because you read it in a magazine / Or see it on the TV screen / Don't make it factual, actual / They say he's homosexual
In the hood / Frame him if you could / Shoot to kill / To blame him if you will / If he dies sympathize / Such false witnesses / Damn self righteousness / In the black / Stab me in the back / In the face / To lie and shame the race / Heroine and Marilyn / As the headline stories of / All your glory
It's slander / With the words you use / You're a parasite in black and white / Do anything for news / And you don't go and buy it (buy it) / And they won't glorify it ('fy it) / To read it sanctifies it ('fies it) / Then why do we keep foolin' ourselves
Just because you read it in a magazine / Or see it on the TV screen / Don't make it factual / (Everybody wants to read all about it) / Just because you read it in a magazine / Or see it on the TV screen / Don't make it factual / (See, but everybody wants to believe all about it)
Just because you read it in a magazine / Or see it on the TV screen / Don't make it factual / (See, but everybody wants to believe all about it) / Just because you read it in a magazine / Or see it on the TV screen / Don't make it factual, actual / She's blonde and she's bisexual
Scandal / With the words you use / You're a parasite in black and white / Do anything for news / And you don't go and buy it (buy it) / And they won't glorify it ('fy it) / To read it sanctifies it ('fies it) / Why do we keep foolin' ourselves / Slander / You say it's not a sin / But with your pen you torture men / Then why do we keep foolin' ourselves
Just because you read it in a magazine / Or see it on the TV screen / Don't make it factual / (Though everybody wants to read all about it)
Michael Jackson in his song "Tabloid Junkie"
Michael Jackson; excerpts from the “Simulchat” interview (1995)
And then there is this..... 4 years ago. pic.twitter.com/SmLXmbw712— Jolanda (@LunaJo67) February 13, 2019
"Scream" with lyrics
Forget the Facts–We Want the Story!
How media put Michael Jackson on trial in 1993:
“I don't want paparazzi really, but if they come, be kind. Write the right, kind thing to write. […] What you saw, what happened to Lady Diana, you tell me. There should be some boundaries. Some kinda way. The star needs some space. Give him a chance to relax, he has a heart, he's human.”
Michael Jackson in his interview with Barbara Walters (1997)
"The media first turned the trial into a freak-show by emphasizing Jackson's peculiarities rather than his humanity, and stoked the ratings with constant, trivializing coverage while other, far more important stories went under-reported or completely ignored in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, and Washington, D.C. The press might respond by saying, We gave the people what they wanted. My response would be, My job is to give them what they want. When he steps into a recording studio, it's Michael Jackson's job to give them what they want. Your job is to give the people what they need."
Stephen King
I’m a #MichaelJackson fan. I was at The World Music in 2006, have a quick look on YouTube 4the #MJ part. The media collectively said he was booed off stage. I have an actual early print of @DailyMirror where they said he stunned the place, then they changed it, same rag, same day
— MartyFlan (@invinciblekop) February 17, 2019
Michael Jackson speaking to Ed Bradley & “60 Minutes”, 2003
Leave Me Alone
“When Jackson, a severely misunderstood genius, was charged with hideous and false accusations, I was one of the few who defended him during that ordeal.
I never believed that Michael Jackson did what the publicity-seeking Los Angeles Police Department and a twisted, fame-grabbing district attorney crammed down the insensitive, sycophantic media's throats. Of course, Jackson was acquitted.
But the theater of celebrity justice killed him then, and he disappeared, feeling humiliated and unrecovered.
Now he is gone, and all I gave him was my courage that he was just as he said: a man who loved children, and a childhood that was robbed from him by us. Michael Jackson was one of the most talented performing artists of the 20th century.
This morning, scanning the news, I see that the media are up to our old tricks.
Instead of simply celebrating the joy Jackson brought a worldwide audience, dead-tree outlets and cable bobbleheads obsess over the more tawdry and seemingly inexplicable facets of his too-short lifetime.
I once claimed that we had lynched Michael Jackson. I stand by that opinion. As surely as others close to him sucked him dry, stole his treasure, and accused him with vicious malice, we lynched him. I will miss him. We will all miss him.”
Jeff Koopersmith, an internationally renowned political consultant, opinion research authority and policy analyst
It´s 2019 and tabloid press is still attacking. Here's what The Sun does: changing the headline and narrative of an entire article once they've realised that the original premise was incorrect / defamatory / lies. The original headline is in the first picture. Note the use of the word "paedo" based on expectations of the announcement made by MJ´s former manager Rymone Bain. The second headline, edited 1 day later. Once it became clear that Raymone Bain was not going to spill some salacious crap but defend MJ on the contrary, the article had to be quickly altered and focused at least on money. It was under the same URL on their web:
"I'm gonna be / Exactly what you wanna see / So did you come to me / To see your fantasies / Performed before your very eyes / A haunting ghostly treat / The foolish trickery / And spirits dancing / In the light / But if you came to see / The truth the purity / It's here inside / A lonely heart"
MJ in Ghosts
I'm NOT worried about Michael Jackson's legacy because he is innocent & the greatest of all time. I'm worried about our society and how sick & perverted it has become. I'm worried about how fake news spreads all over the place & brainless people believe everything they read.
— Keya Morgan (@KeyaMorgan) March 3, 2019
Michael Jackson has been dehumanized for over three decades. It’s time to take the narrative back
Forget the Facts–We Want the Story!
How media put Michael Jackson on trial in 1993
