"People loved to hate him and, as long as the media could perpetuate the image of Jackson as "weird"

[Triana]

"...their ratings stayed high. It wasn't until after the trial that a few media insiders admitted that Jackson's fans had the last laugh. Throughout the trial, his fans yelled at the media screaming: "You don't ever report the truth!" Perhaps they were right." -Aphrodite Jones, M.J.

(no PERHAPS about it - the goddamned lame$tream media rarely reports the truth, as we on DU well know - or *ought* to know)

http://www.amazon.com/Michael-Jackson-Conspiracy-Aphrodite-Jones/dp/0979549809/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1249840146&sr=8-1

[hobbit709]

1. No matter what, the fact is the he WAS weird.

[mzteris]

2. not nearly as "weird"

as he was made out to be - and not in the ways he was portrayed as weird.

Why wasn't more press given to the REAL "why's" of his so-called "weirdnesses"?

[Triana]

5. Exactly. What was REALLY "weird" was the media's penchant for finding/making up reasons

(many outright lies) to call him "weird".

They defined HIM as THEY are. Then punished him for it.

[Triana]

4. I'm sorry for your lack of understanding. n/t

[hobbit709]

8. I understand "weird" quite well.

I know more about weird than I let on.

[Triana]

10. ...

"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
So 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
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 read all about it

Just because you read it in a magazine
Or see it on the TV screen
Don't make it factual
Just because you read it in a magazine
Or see it on the TV screen
Don't make it factual
Just because you read it in a magazine
Or see it on the TV screen
Don't make it factual, actual
You're so damn disrespectable

[Triana]

3. self-delete n/t

[Lerkfish]

6. sigh

[earthside]

7. I'm with you ...

... but MJ was a freakin' weirdo; no gettin' around it.

[MADem]

9. +1 nt

[Triana]

11. you don't have to read it. Why click on the thread? It is obvious what it is.

...just don't do it.

The fact that you can't stop yourself from looking - is a YOU problem. :)

[Lerkfish]

13. sure, its MY problem.

[timeforpeace]

12. Just goes to show, everyone thinks the media takes sides.

[Triana]

14. the lame$tream media is no more accurate or truthful about what they report about MJ...

...than they are about what they report about health care, pre-invasion Iraq, climate change, torture, etc. etc.

Few on DU believe the media or tabloids when they report on political issues - it's well-known that they ignore very relevant news, completely ignore important facts about various issues, and/or slant/twist it to their own liking for profit.

No different when it comes to reporting on M.J or any other celebrities - whatever they have to say to get the most clicks to their stinking websites, to sell the most magazines or get the most viewers to watch their latest hit-job expose on someone - they'll say it - no matter who or what it destroys (the economy, the environment, or Michael Jackson) - it's all about PROFIT and their bottom line - and some talking head launching his/her "journalism" career by destroying someone else's - or the environment - or who/whatever.

This isn't NEW. It's been going on since the 80s at least. Yea. Hello. Pfft.

It's funny to me that some DUers seem to have no trouble discounting what the lame$tream media says about political issues as lies, distortions, twisted "facts", omissions, and bunk - but when it comes to M.J. (or anyone else) - they swallow the tabloid stories and rediculous sensationalism whole and buy the definitions - believing them, apparently - AND repeating them.

Beats me why they do that and what their logic is. :shrug:

Whatever. I'd ask that people find out the damn truth before labelling anyone or anything as the media does - because the media doesn't DO truth. I'd think people would have learned that BY NOW.

[ezgoingrl]

15. The poor guy had no frame of reference for normal.

He did the best he could, given the circumstances and it's a shame that even after he is dead people continue to bash him. No one wants to talk about how much he gave to charities AND the Democratic Party, no one wants to talk about the lives he saved by paying for liver and kidney transplants. Get over it already, if you feel you need to bad mouth a dead guy so that you can feel superior or whatever, just don't click on the topic. Skip it and save the rest of us the aggravation, please.

[Triana]

16. Thank you.

Very well said.

ESPECIALLY this part:

"how much he gave to charities AND the Democratic Party, no one wants to talk about the lives he saved by paying for liver and kidney transplants"...

He was a little different but not nearly as "weird" as he was defined to be. The media were SO busy finding excuses to call him a "freak" and a child molester (and if they couldn't find any they'd make some up) - that is what took front and center in the national convo about him - the truth and the rest - went ignored. Just like it is now. He was "different" - Oohhhh! That must make him a criminal - or at least an amusing object of derision (for profit, of course!).

It's just like in politics - the stuff that takes front and center regarding health care right now in the media (or the invasion of Iraq or anything else) is hardly accurate or true for the most part - it mostly amounts to the media handing a megaphone to the insurance-company-bought wingnuts and their brown-shirt domestic terrorists (or war-mongering chickenhawks in the case of pre-invasion Iraq) so they can kill health care reform - ie: to make or preserve somebody's PROFIT. THAT is what it's about with the media whether the subject is M.J., health care, Iraq, torture - anything.

"How can we DEFINE this person or issue to get or retain the most PROFIT?" That's their primary concern. NOT truth or facts.

They don't DO accuracy, or facts or truth about anyone or anything - if it doesn't SELL or make a PROFIT for them or their myriad divisions - they don't do it. If it destroys a person, or the environment, or the economy, or our national standing in the world - they don't care. It's all about PROFIT.

They wouldn't have gotten NEAR the viewership or magazine sales talking about how much he gave to charities AND the Democratic Party, or about the lives he saved by paying for liver and kidney transplants or how many orphanages he visited or concert profits he donated to charities - as they did trying him and persecuting him on the public airwaves over that child molestation crap (which was naught but extortion attempts as all accusers have since admitted they were lying). OR their claims that "he hated being black so bleached his skin", or "he slept in a hyperbaric chamber" or whatever other garbage they vomited onto the airwaves about the guy - and are still vomiting. All THAT sold magazines, got website clicks and viewers - still does. Youbetcha. Bunch of tabloid junkies just sucking it up.

But - reporting about charities - and saving the lives of children or what he did to advocate protecting the planet doesn't make profit or increase viewership, advertising, or magazine sales. So it's not done. Not in the 80s, not in the 90s, not NOW.

It's odd to me that DUers grok what's behind the lies about political issues - but not what's behind the lies about M.J. - or anyone else they dish dirt about. Especially since it's the same thing that's behind it - profit. Corporate profit and the destruction of who or whatever it takes to GET it.

Duh.

Oh well.

I'm reading Michael Jackson: Conspiracy - it is absolutely HIDEOUS and what they did to M.J and is SO MUCH LIKE WHAT THEY'RE DOING NOW REGARDING HEALTH CARE. It's the SAME M.O. Helloo...?

They are DEFINING it in a manner that gains or keeps the most profit for the media or the insurance companies (many media conglomerates are also in health device, pharma, or insurance business as well as defense and energy industries ie: GE). They DEFINE things in such a way that THEY can make the most profit and get the most advantage out of it (viewers, controversy, whatever). TRUTH loses every time - they don't care about it. The corprat media has been in major suckage for decades. That ought to be obvious.

So to see DUers get on here and repeat the derisive mantras from the lame$tream media about M.J. - the crap they've been spewing for years about him (and still are) - makes me wonder - how are they so clueless and gullible about M.J. -- but not about politics when it comes to the crap coming from the news media and tabloids? It's the SAME source - just different subjects. They don't cover M.J. any differently or more honestly or accurately than they do anyone or anything else (health care or any other issues). So why do some DUers buy into that crap and repeat it?

Puhleeze. I know we're smarter than that here, aren't we?

...


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
See, but 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
Just because you read it in a magazine
Or see it on the TV screen
Don't make it factual
Just because you read it in a magazine
Or see it on the TV screen
Don't make it factual, actual
You're so damn disrespectable

[Onceuponalife]

24. This is a public message board

When you put up an OP, expect comments from all points of view. If you can't handle that, then go to a private board to worship your idol. It's called free speech. You don't have to agree with everybody but please at least have the courtesy to respect their right to speak their minds.

[NashVegas]

17. Bullshit. One Has Some Choice. Even Celebrities

Can choose whether or not to share their beds with pre-pubescent children.

Can choose whether or not to encounter the pains and realities of growing up and being a responsible adult.

Can choose to ask for help in taking their head out of their ass.

[Triana]

18. There you go. I'm sorry you bought it

read the book. Find the truth. You obviously don't have it. Also see post #15. I'm also sorry for your ignorance and easy, media-provided McJudgement. You're welcome to hang onto it for dear life, of course. Yea. He had choices:

http://www.thesilencedtruth.com

He made them quite well, from what I can tell - not that we'll ever hear about it much. After all - if the lame$tream media doesn't cover it, it's not true, is it?

[Bluenorthwest]

19. The DU fools don't see a thing

And for that, their 'political views' are worthless, as they bite the hook and swallow the bait with such glee. They think tabloid stories were ABOUT Michael, when they were in fact things that were done to him. And those that can not discern that difference know nothing about anything but what the media tells them to think.
The vast level of racism I've seen around Michael and his family from DUers has left me cold, and the way so many of them buy the tabloid crap has left me knowing that there is not much here of worth.
Let me add for what it is worth that the subject of Michael's death has taught me more truth about how people perceive those in the media than I have ever known before. Chilling, not thrilling, but it is what it is. They buy the lie.

[Catherine Vincent]

21. Same here!

[Triana]

23. Well said. His death has brought into even starker detail...

..how much and how long - and to what hideous extent - the media is so utterly corrupt for me, too. That anyone (besides Fox "news" viewers and Rush fans) can believe anything at all they report is surprising to me. They persecuted MJ the worst back in the 90s-2000s - though they've been ridiculing him for decades longer even before and after that. It sold them a lot of viewership and magazines and web site clicks - and nothing's changed. In fact they've gotten many times worse. Publishers outright TOLD those trying to publish the TRUTH about Jackson that "we're not interested in any pro-Jackson stuff."

And that's the same attitude the media has about pro-progressive or pro-Democratic stuff - they aren't interested. No (or not as much) profit in it. Public service, service to humanity, and truth are NOT lame$tream media values. Their ONLY service is to corporate profit.

Somehow, though, some DUers (who I thought smarter than the average Joe) have bought the lies and become part of the machine that generates the perpetuation of them - the very thing they claim to despise about the media and the Republicans and corprats whose mouthpiece they are. Amazing, sad, and shameful. They should know better.

If these same DUers are as disinterested in the truth about other things and people (health care, for instance, or the President and his family) then that is cause for some concern, IMO - on many fronts.

Here is a man who supported world change, supported Democrats, supported diversity, quitely and very generously helped many children and charities enough to end up in the Guiness Book of World Records for it, and was worried so deeply about the earth and climate change that he wrote and performed songs about that, too, and that his last curtain call/performance was very heavily themed about the subject - but DUers persecute him, hate him. Why? Because of what the media/tabloids assert about him past and present - facts not considered.

Just.

Wow.

:wow:

[Catherine Vincent]

20. And they're still writing crap about MJ!

F'ing low class parasites!

[Triana]

22. effing shameless vultures n/t

[sunnybrook]

25. I don't think MJ was weird

I think alot of people made a fortune from behaving towards him like schoolyard bullies; endless ridicule and hatred. And the questions that "journalists" felt free to ask him. Oprah asking if he is a virgin, as if that is anyone's business in the first place. I am a huge fan of Michael Jackson first and foremost because of his caring and sensitivity toward others, and next because of his great talent.

However, having said all that, I do believe he made some bad decisions, just in dealing with the media. I think that he also baited the media, and as his manager said recently, he knew how to get media attention. He played the media as well, probably more so in the early years. And he was not an absolute saint, but a human being.

I feel enormous empathy for him in having to deal with that jackass of a father and all of the other indignities he had to deal with. I love him, from afar, but I do not think he is perfect. I think he is human. And considering all he went through, a very strong individual.

[Catherine Vincent]

26. ....

"I think that he also baited the media, and as his manager said recently, he knew how to get media attention."

Yes he did. Hopefully he's baiting the media even in "death".