Screaming fans Greet Jackson with Hugs in London – MiniBullet#33
Media greets him with disgusting contempt and disrespect

MARCH 21 2007 - Despite certain news outlets’ attempts to convince the public that Michael Jackson is irrelevant and has no fans, events all over the world continue to illustrate how purposely misleading their reports appear to be.

Reading and watching all of the online news coverage -- mostly from the Associated Press -- both from Japan and London sparked by Jackson’s visits this month, it’s difficult to come away thinking that Jackson is on his way down as far as popularity is concerned or that the media’s credibility is on it’s way up as far as respect is concerned.

Did the recent news stop the Daily Mail and DailyIndia.com from lacing recent reports with dubious information about the reason for Jackson’s recent visit to London? Hell no!

Neither source is particularly known to be a bastion of accurate Michael Jackson news. Both agencies preferred to refer to him as ‘Jacko’, which has become equivalent to a hackneyed expletive, at least among some in the fan community.

Since both entities appear to have long since jettisoned their manners and decency when the names “Michael” and “Jackson” are mentioned in sequence in the same report, excuse me if I feel that I am under no obligation to extend any courtesy when referencing the hacks who wrote the article(s).

As with many things found in the press which are Jackson-related, it often takes someone who doesn’t hold him in total contempt to actually give a factual account of current events involving him. When this collective “they”, called ‘the media’, witness evidence contrary to their preconceived notions, they appear baffled and fall into doing one of two things: (1) Downplay the importance of these public appearances by lacing reports with asinine insults; or (2) Move on to other ‘news’ with unsubstantiated claims and make fun of him for a day or two with smart-assed comments, of course.

A perfect example of the second point is new tabloid reports about Jackson’s recent stay at a London hotel where he’s allegedly “demanding” candy. Oooo! That DIVA! (see article)

I’m almost positive he’d send a bodyguard or somebody to get a Snicker’s bar from a vending machine before calling down to room service in an expensive-ass, £3,000-a-night hotel, and demanding sweets; sweets they’d probably greatly overcharge him for anyway. If it was me paying £3,000 a night, and I asked for some damn candy, you had better bring me some damn candy! That’s all I’m saying.

What exactly is the going rate for a 60 cent Snicker’s bar in an expensive hotel anyway? Like $50 a bar? I’m kidding……It may only be about $25. But I’m seriously digressing here.

Right now, however, this MiniBullet will use a few recent reports to focus on the insidious way in which ‘the media’ tries to convince an otherwise ill-informed public that Jackson will never be as important or as loved as his 25 year old self from 1983.

Check out this statement from the Daily Mail report: “Despite his fading popularity, singer Michael Jackson, 48, was mobbed by a diehard collection of fans at his London hotel” (see article).

Obvious assumptions are in that statement. First, it assumes that the ‘diehard collection’ of fans – instead of just regular fans – were the one’s doing the ‘mobbing’. Second, it assumes that Jackson has ‘fading popularity’ and despite that, the fans are mobbing him.

How asinine does one have to be NOT to notice that his popularity apparently can’t be as ‘faded’ as claimed considering the fact that there were people MOBBING him in the first place! Hello?

I don’t think people regularly go out mobbing kinda-popular, sorta-used-to-be popular, or absolutely-unpopular folk.

The DailyIndia.com report goes a step further with the insults, calling him the “former King of Pop”.

As if somebody else has the talent—or the testicular fortitude to deal with being the ‘King of Pop’—to have taken the title away from him. Both “uncannily” similar reports carried the unsubstantiated allegation that Jackson was in London to meet with Paul McCartney about selling part of the Beatle’s catalog. Both reports also regurgitated rumors about Jackson’s finances.

According to the articles, not only did his trip to London have something to do with trying to “stave off bankruptcy”, but he was also “frail looking” too! Poor Mike! Poor Mike! Cue the violins!

My analytical thinking skills immediately forces me to ask: Since when could people allegedly on the verge of bankruptcy afford a £3,000 a night hotel room in the first place?

At some point, they’re really going to have to take the ‘bankruptcy’ report out of the 'news' category and let it fall into the ‘wish’ category.

As for ‘frail looking’……well Jackson’s never looked like a 6’2’’, 250 pound bodybuilder. So that means he’s been ‘frail looking’ since at least 1978.

But I suppose getting a break from the melodramatics of such reporting is too much to hope for from some entity other than the A.P. S

o how does this collective body known as ‘the media’ try to explain why Jackson still has hundreds sometimes thousands of people chasing him and screaming in delight even though he’s not on stage, hasn’t song a word and isn’t moonwalking down the street?

I guess we’re just supposed to believe that the people chasing his van down the streets of London in that video above all had a voodoo spell placed on them and were showing him adoration against their will?

Hey! Maybe he threatened to kidnap them and send them to Brazil in a hot air balloon if they didn’t greet him with hug and kisses? Geez.

Let me stop before that becomes the next headline in some hack reporter’s bull$hit article.

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