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Michael Media Spin Out of Control
With a gag order in place, the prosecutor and defense attorneys involved in the Michael Jackson child molestation case have been effectively muzzled. In the absence of 'real' news from 'real' sources, the media has run amok. This week alone, more than a half dozen "bombshell" revelations, "shocking" stories and "startling" new allegations have surfaced in the news media.
The woefully tainted barrage of irresponsible reporting has run the gamut from a Vanity Fair story filled with tales of harassment, kidnapping, drug addiction and sneaking wine to kids in Coke cans and calling it 'Jesus Juice,' to death threats and stories about disappearing caretakers. Then there's the story that broke in the U.K. about Debbie Rowe suing Jackson for custody of their kids, and the baby daddy drama questioning Jackson's biological parentage. The media's endless stream of unsubstantiated stories based largely on unnamed and unquoted sources are systematically crucifying Jackson in the court of public opinion.
Good morning -- it's time to wake up America! Don't let the media spin fool you. This is much ado about ratings and money. Today's profit-driven news organizations are under enormous pressure to boost ratings by sensationalizing the news and focusing their attention on lurid, highly emotional stories. Michael Jackson has become a means to an end in the battle for news (real, imagined or totally fabricated) to lure viewers and readers. The pop star's legal woes have produced an epic miniseries, a tragic melodrama. It's a full-court press for the media spin doctors. It's a ratings bonanza.
As a journalist I am deeply disturbed by the unethical, biased, opinionated and deliberately distorted reporting on the Michael Jackson case. I am dismayed by the extremely sensational and negative tone of the media coverage. Greed-driven journalists, in their zeal to stay on top of this 'hot' story, have shown an inexcusable disregard for neutrality, integrity and professionalism. The line between legitimate journalism and purveyors of news and tabloid-style yellow journalism has been blurred. The principles of accurate, fair and balanced reporting have been thrown out the window. The more torrid the story, the higher the ratings, the greater the profits. At the end of the day it's all about money -- no pun intended.
Is it no wonder that Geraldine Hughes' book, Redemption: The Truth Behind the Michael Jackson Child Molestation Allegations, appears to have been sabotaged by anti-Jackson forces. Hughes, the sole legal secretary of Barry Rothman (who represented the alleged victim in 1993) comes forth to set the record straight about what really happened behind the scenes in the 1993 child molestation case against Jackson. In the book, which is set for release on Jan. 31, Hughes reveals facts that have never been made public, court documented information, public statements and records that she insists prove Jackson’s innocence. The media has an opportunity here to balance the playing field but has chosen to virtually ignore Hughes' dissenting viewpoint. Instead, Vanity Fair writer Maureen Orth has appeared on almost every single broadcast and cable news channel depicting Jackson as a wine guzzling, pill-popping, drug-addicted pedophile who is not the biological parent to his two oldest children. Why? Because Orth's racy story contains a bizarre cast of characters and the type of jaw-dropping, gripping story that the media loves to tell.
Promotional teasers pandering to lurid curiosity keep viewers glued to the tube, channel surfing for even more salacious Jackson stories. In the competition for the best ratings which translates into more $$$, accusations, allegations and well-placed leaks will continue to circulate in the press. The gag order imposed by Judge Melville on Jan. 16 has hurt Team Jackson. Without the ability to respond to these stories the media wheels will continue to spin out of control.
http://www.blacktalentnews.com/index.asp?page=music&ActionButton=View_detail&ArticleID=917
Michael Media Spin Out of Control
With a gag order in place, the prosecutor and defense attorneys involved in the Michael Jackson child molestation case have been effectively muzzled. In the absence of 'real' news from 'real' sources, the media has run amok. This week alone, more than a half dozen "bombshell" revelations, "shocking" stories and "startling" new allegations have surfaced in the news media.
The woefully tainted barrage of irresponsible reporting has run the gamut from a Vanity Fair story filled with tales of harassment, kidnapping, drug addiction and sneaking wine to kids in Coke cans and calling it 'Jesus Juice,' to death threats and stories about disappearing caretakers. Then there's the story that broke in the U.K. about Debbie Rowe suing Jackson for custody of their kids, and the baby daddy drama questioning Jackson's biological parentage. The media's endless stream of unsubstantiated stories based largely on unnamed and unquoted sources are systematically crucifying Jackson in the court of public opinion.
Good morning -- it's time to wake up America! Don't let the media spin fool you. This is much ado about ratings and money. Today's profit-driven news organizations are under enormous pressure to boost ratings by sensationalizing the news and focusing their attention on lurid, highly emotional stories. Michael Jackson has become a means to an end in the battle for news (real, imagined or totally fabricated) to lure viewers and readers. The pop star's legal woes have produced an epic miniseries, a tragic melodrama. It's a full-court press for the media spin doctors. It's a ratings bonanza.
As a journalist I am deeply disturbed by the unethical, biased, opinionated and deliberately distorted reporting on the Michael Jackson case. I am dismayed by the extremely sensational and negative tone of the media coverage. Greed-driven journalists, in their zeal to stay on top of this 'hot' story, have shown an inexcusable disregard for neutrality, integrity and professionalism. The line between legitimate journalism and purveyors of news and tabloid-style yellow journalism has been blurred. The principles of accurate, fair and balanced reporting have been thrown out the window. The more torrid the story, the higher the ratings, the greater the profits. At the end of the day it's all about money -- no pun intended.
Is it no wonder that Geraldine Hughes' book, Redemption: The Truth Behind the Michael Jackson Child Molestation Allegations, appears to have been sabotaged by anti-Jackson forces. Hughes, the sole legal secretary of Barry Rothman (who represented the alleged victim in 1993) comes forth to set the record straight about what really happened behind the scenes in the 1993 child molestation case against Jackson. In the book, which is set for release on Jan. 31, Hughes reveals facts that have never been made public, court documented information, public statements and records that she insists prove Jackson’s innocence. The media has an opportunity here to balance the playing field but has chosen to virtually ignore Hughes' dissenting viewpoint. Instead, Vanity Fair writer Maureen Orth has appeared on almost every single broadcast and cable news channel depicting Jackson as a wine guzzling, pill-popping, drug-addicted pedophile who is not the biological parent to his two oldest children. Why? Because Orth's racy story contains a bizarre cast of characters and the type of jaw-dropping, gripping story that the media loves to tell.
Promotional teasers pandering to lurid curiosity keep viewers glued to the tube, channel surfing for even more salacious Jackson stories. In the competition for the best ratings which translates into more $$$, accusations, allegations and well-placed leaks will continue to circulate in the press. The gag order imposed by Judge Melville on Jan. 16 has hurt Team Jackson. Without the ability to respond to these stories the media wheels will continue to spin out of control.
http://www.blacktalentnews.com/index.asp?page=music&ActionButton=View_detail&ArticleID=917
Vastaukset 6
Vanhimmat
Tuo nyt näyttää enemmän mielipidekirjoitukselta kuin joltain artikkelilta: "As a journalist I am deeply disturbed... jne.
Ja julkaisijana: Black Talent News
-Ei ole näemmä teidänkään lähteet ihan objektiivisia :-)
Mutta hyvä mielipidekirjoitus se oli, en tiedä kaupiteltiinko sitä sinulle 'uutisena' muka?!
Joo. Ei olis voinu paremmin sanoo kun tossa artikkelissa. Toi on kyllä kanssa aika juttu, että tuomari määrää ettei saa kommentoida vaikka tollasii paskajuttuja tulee joka paikasta.
ossoon mie
Jatka samaan malliin, niin varmasti pärjäät!
MJ Accuser's Mom: Just Call Him 'Daddy'
Monday, February 02, 2004
By Roger Friedman
The mother of the 12-year-old boy who has accused Michael Jackson of child molestation implored her kids to call the pop singer "daddy." The woman had told a British newspaper interviewer early last year that her son called Jackson "daddy," but made it seem like this was solicited by the singer. This was not the case, my sources insist.
"You can call him 'daddy' since you don't have one," she reportedly told her children.
The woman also encouraged them to become close to other father figures besides Jackson, close inside sources have told me -- people who know her and her kids well and have solid proof to back up their claims.
The accuser's mother is divorced from her husband, whom she accused of domestic violence.
That, at least, is not disputed by Jackson insiders, who also say that the woman did not have a previously reported drug problem. "She has other problems, not that," my sources said.
The woman, living on a small income, was introduced to Jackson through a hair stylist who had been contacted by comedy club owner Jamie Masada. Her son was quite ill with cancer at the time, as I first and exclusively reported back on Nov. 17, 2003. The boy asked to meet Adam Sandler, Chris Tucker or Jackson.
Jackson did not, according to my sources, give the boy's family money or do much more than invite him to visit Neverland -- as many ailing children have -- when he was feeling better.
My sources tell me now that the mother was so dead-set on bonding Jackson to her kids that she instructed them to call Jackson "daddy" as a way of ingratiating themselves with him.
Problems arose, the same sources say, after the child and his siblings were filmed without permission for Martin Bashir's British documentary about Jackson. The boy was shown holding hands with Jackson and discussed sleeping in his bed. As I was the first to report two-and-a-half months ago, the boy was subsequently taunted by schoolmates and at a gas station.
The special aired in the United States on Feb. 6, but the Santa Barbara District Attorney's charges against Jackson say that he did not commence any act of child molestation until Feb. 7 and that it ended on March 10, even though the boy and his family had stayed at Neverland earlier.
I reported in this column first that Jackson had been accused by the mother of giving her son wine and sleeping pills. The National Enquirer subsequently reported in December that Jackson disguised the wine in soda cans and called it "Jesus Juice." Vanity Fair, in its upcoming issue, liberally summarizes all this reporting without proper credit.
My sources tell me that Jackson was not the first man whom the mother tried to enlist as a surrogate father for her three kids, and that other names will soon surface. They suggest that Masada, who also runs a camp for ill children, may also have been an intended target whom she hoped to ensnare. Masada has steadfastly defended her in interviews.
The mother, who is said to be ingratiating and charming, in a coarse way is said not to have stopped there. Another man whom she encouraged her kids to call "daddy" after leaving Neverland, my sources say, was used by her to get her kids into a desired Los Angeles school. Jay Jackson, whom she met much the way she did Masada, at program for kids, let her clean his apartment in exchange for use of his address to get her children into a good junior high school.
Meanwhile, Jackson insiders were amused by the Santa Barbara sheriff's "raid" on Saturday of Marc Schaffel's house in Calabasas, Calif. Schaffel, a video producer with a background in pornography, has been working with Jackson on projects like "What More Can I Give?" for three years. Why detectives waited 10 weeks from the day of their Neverland search to investigate Schaffel's home for evidence is a real mystery. I'm told that if there was any evidence, the place was swept clean long ago.
"All they could have found were contracts for the Jackson specials on Fox," says a source. "They took the computer, but there was nothing on it." Homes of two Schaffel associates were also said to be searched Saturday with similar results.
Another source -- and I mean, these people are right in the middle of this thing, not just bystanders or outsiders -- told me with great confidence: "It means the D.A. has no case. He's gone from the top down, instead of the bottom up, looking for stuff. He obviously hasn't found anything."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,110125,00.html