Year: 2005

When Did Jackson Ask for Your Sympathy for Having the Flu? – MiniBullet #5 FEB 20 2005 — Once again I find myself disgusted with media coverage of Michael Jackson’s hospitalization for a severe, viral flu with the last straw being another inane article from local Santa Maria “reporter” Steve Corbett. The media has been rife with speculative nonsense, collectively claiming that Jackson ‘just wants sympathy’ or is ‘being dramatic’. And they lace their pundit’s view with tales of their own illnesses and how they just….took Tylenol and stayed in bed. Probably one of the most ridiculous articles on Jackson’s illness came from Santa Maria Times’s Corbett, completely with whiny, complaining comments from people who probably didn’t like Jackson to begin with. Then they complain about a “ruckus” in the hospital. What they may not realize is that this “ruckus” was not caused by a “queasy” Jackson, but by the media and by city employees who are duty-bound to protect him. But Corbett’s crowd of quoted locals aren’t the only one’s taking leave of their senses. What some of these jaded lunatics don’t seem to understand is that 1) Jackson has never asked them for their sympathy, 2) He probably couldn’t give two craps about whether the media ‘feels sorry’ for him, 3) Not even Michael Jackson can fake a viral-based flu, and 4) Just because your flu didn’t land you in the emergency room, it doesn’t mean Jackson’s faking. To be more blunt: You ain’t Michael Jackson. Given the media’s history of treating him like garbage, I highly doubt Jackson is wishing, hoping or praying that the media – who all act like tabloids when it comes to stories about him – would suddenly ‘feel sorry’ for him. He hasn’t asked for the public’s sympathy on this issue.

Family ‘Kidnapped’ for Interview Public Never Saw? – MiniBullet #4 FEB 20 2005 – One of the accusations made by the prosecution in the Michael Jackson “case” is that the accusing family was allegedly “kidnapped” so that they could be kept away from the public and appear in a rebuttal video exonerating Jackson. They want the public to believe that Jackson was so “panicked” about his image that he would conspire to kidnap a family of four. However, the rebuttal footage to the Martin Bashir hatchet-job of a “documentary”, in which the family was allegedly supposed to appear, was aired just days after Bashir’s, but without any new footage of this family at all. “Take Two: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See” aired on the Fox network Feb 20 2003. The explosive rebuttal showed subpoenaed witness and accused blackmailer Martin Bashir telling a completely different story than the one that made it on air. He said, both to Jackson and Jackson’s staff, such glowing things as “The problem is you see, that nobody, nobody actually comes here and sees it. But I was here yesterday and I saw it, and it’s nothing short of a spiritual kind [of] thing…”. Then he gets on TV during promos, apparently to sell the advertising for the show and to increase the ratings, and says, “One of the most disturbing things is the fact that a lot of disadvantaged children go to Neverland…” This was only one of numerous contradictions that Bashir was caught in; sure to be brought up under cross-examination at trial. But one thing which was not in the Take Two special was an interview with the family defending Jackson. Why not? How is the public supposed to believe this family was “kidnapped” by a “panicked” Jackson, and essentially forced to say nice things about him, when the public wasn’t shown any video or audio of them defending Jackson? Wasn’t that the point, according to the prosecution?

Ridiculous Propaganda Continues from Prosecution Supporters? – MiniBullet #3 FEB 18 2005 — Amazingly, certain people are pumping media propaganda that the defense would be “desperate” enough to leak grand jury transcripts. And they’re banking on the media to be stupid enough not to ask questions about the logic of their allegation. It would seem that to even take this seriously, one has to be either on drugs or so incredibly desperate that they want to point the finger at someone else to get the attention off of them. Most feel it’s safe to say that the defense did not leak this information. According to reports, Jackson spokeswoman Raymone Bain said its “ridiculous” for anyone to claim that the defense leaked this one-sided garbage. “One-sided garbage” is my term, by the way. Apparently, this accusation is coming from pro-prosecution sympathizers who may want to get prosecutors off the hook for this illegal leak or who are trying to inject themselves into this “case”. What prosecutors or pro-prosecution sympathizers may be trying to do is have their cake and eat it too. They want to be able to taint the jury pool, smear Jackson AND blame the smear job on his lawyers. This is disgusting. The first question most family with the defense’s arguments, via released court docs, ask is why would the defense have to leak anything at all at this point? Once one starts to realize the massive amounts of ammunition the defense already has against the family – at least the info that can be gleaned from the court documents (docs) – it does become “ridiculous” to even suggest that they would have to break the law to leak anything for any reason at this point.

Jackson Bash-fest a Ratings Loser – MiniBullet #2 Update #2 FEB 18 2005 — According to a website that keeps data on ratings, zap2it.com, the 2-hour ABC Michael Jackson bash-fest was a ratings loser last night (Feb 17 2005). The defamatory report brought to the public by what is apparently the new face of ABC, accused blackmailer Martin Bashir, didn’t pull in anywhere near the numbers ABC was hoping for. The program came in third behind CBS’s “CSI” and NBC’s “The Apprentice” (for the first hour), and came in third again behind CBS’s “Without a Trace” and NBC’s “ER” (for the second hour). From the report:

At 9 p.m., “CSI” built on its strong lead-in and delivered an 18.7/28, its highest rating in at least a month. “The Apprentice” posted a 9.6/15 for NBC. The ABC special “Michael Jackson’s Secret World” averaged 6.1/9 for the hour, better than the network usually does but a far cry from the 2003 ratings monster “Living with Michael Jackson,” which had ratings nearly twice as big. …”Without a Trace,” 13.5/22, completed the CBS sweep of the night at 10 p.m. “ER” averaged 11.8/19 for NBC, and the second hour of ABC’s Jackson special came in at 6.6/11. (see ‘Survivor’ Hot, [Jackson] Not on Thursday )

One thing some observers hate more than pile-on jobs, is being told what to think by the media. What ABC should learn, and quickly, is that a number of people are just tired of being force-fed a diet of baseless speculation and innuendo; especially when they may already have reservations about the validity of the allegations against him. Allegations partially sparked by the subpoenaed Bashir himself.

Contradictory, Disgusting, & One-sided Leaks May Be from Prosecutors?– MJEOL Bullet #246 These newest leaks come after prosecutor Gordon Auchincloss supposedly threatened the defense that Sneddon would release all he knows about Jackson if they try to impeach Sneddon on the witness stand Some pro-prosecution nut has once again decided to spit in Judge Rodney Melville’s face by giving the media another go-round with the 1900 page grand jury transcripts. The judge in the case had said he would release this information AFTER a final jury panel has been selected and sworn in. But apparently the wait was too long for the prosecution or prosecution-sympathizer who handed over the info to a Court TV backed website. Through all of this unsubstantiated, one-sided garbage, there are some key things missing that one would expect to be there if an actual crime had occurred. Not to mention all of the blaring brick walls the prosecutors will undoubtedly run into once this thing – can’t even call it a “case” anymore – gets rolling. Maybe someone should send them a memo: the bridge is out. MJEOL won’t dare attempt to clean up the prosecution’s story by pointing out the numerous, ridiculous, Pacific Ocean-sized holes in these contradictory stories. But there are a few incredibly obvious things that a number of observers are pretty much aware of right now. The first missing thing, which was quickly picked up on by a number of people, is the fact that no witness other than the accuser’s brother – hardly an objective party – has ever seen Jackson behave inappropriately with any kid. Not this kid, not his brother, and not anyone else. One would think that would be the tip-off number one. Another odd story is the fact prosecutors are claiming this alleged “conspiracy” started BEFORE the prosecution-alleged “molestation”, and that the alleged “molestation” didn’t start until AFTER the family acquired passports to go to Brazil. Huh? It makes no sense at all that one would allegedly obtain passports for Brazil – reportedly the mother has family members there, by the way – and THEN Jackson would START molesting him.