Month: January 2006

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Trial Review: Marie Barnes Testifies to Trust in Jackson – MB#300

Trial Review: Marie Barnes Testifies to Trust in Jackson – MB#300 JANUARY 27 2006 – MJEOL continues to review some of the details which were revealed during the Michael Jackson trial which often went under-reported or unreported. Our Trial Reviews are especially important as they continue through the midst of the James Frey (A Million Little Pieces) scandal and about it being important that the public knows how to separate truth from fiction. Being someone who had just come off of covering the Michael Jackson trial where the truth seemed to hold little value to the media and to segments of the public, I screamed at the top of our lungs to anyone who would listen after Oprah Winfrey called into Larry King’s show implying essentially that the truth didn’t matter. As her later mea culpa suggested, the truth DOES matter. There is still truth yet to be recognized concerning Jackson by an industry which concealed or outright lied about a plethora of factual information which gave context to a number of issues during the trial. With that said, we pick up with the testimony of Brett Barnes’s mother, Marie Barnes who testified on May 6 2005.

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Vet Defends Jackson, Blames Business Assoc. for pay oversight – SBNP

Walk with the animals, talk with the judge: a real life Dr. Doolittle William Etling January 23, 2006 12:00 AM You heard it here first. “I’ve not talked to anybody else in the media at all,” said veterinarian Dr. Martin Dinnes, the real life Dr. Doolittle who manages Michael Jackson’s menagerie at the sprawling 2,676-acre Neverland Valley Ranch. “The animals are fine. Our dispute is all settled.” “Through all of this, all the principals, and Neverland, and MJJ, and all of Michael’s entities knew that even if I didn’t get paid,” he added, “I was going to take care of those animals.” Dr. Dinnes, who for 20 years has helped Jackson assemble and maintain his exotic zoo, was just the latest in a long line of creditors to trundle a wheelbarrow full of unpaid bills to the county courthouse when he dunned the expatriate prince of pop for $91,602.05 on Dec. 27.

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Absurd Kapon Allegation Not New – MB#299

Absurd Kapon Allegation Not New – MB#299 JANUARY 22 2006 – How can you tell when some media entities are trying to score their next Michael Jackson fix? You can tell when the so-called legitimate news media start to take us for another ride down that tabloid-road, filled with unfounded allegations about Michael Jackson which –had they been about anyone else – would never be given the time of day. Earlier this month, Celebrity Justice –redux site tmz.com posted news of a “new molestation suit” against Michael Jackson. When doing so, they may not have realized how some in the public would react to such absurdity. Or maybe they did? Even a poll on their own website at the time of this writing showed that 69% of their visitors think the lawsuit is bogus. Tmz.com, however, left out more than a few facts about this “new” allegation in their initial article; namely that this isn’t a “new” allegation, that the accuser’s claims were investigated by two separate police forces, and that the allegations were dismissed as wholly unbelievable.

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Jackson animals found to be fit – SBNP

[b]Jackson animals found to be fit[/b] SCOTT STEEPLETON, NEWS-PRESS SENIOR WRITER January 18, 2006 12:00 AM The animals at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Valley Ranch zoo are not being mistreated, according to a federal agency that inspected the menagerie after a complaint by an animal rights group. On Tuesday, Darby Holladay, a spokesman with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told the News-Press that claims of cruelty by the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were unfounded. “Whoever files a complaint, we usually send someone out to check out the situation as quickly as possible,” said Mr. Holladay. “PETA filed their complaint on Dec. 19. On the morning of the 21st, one of the animal care veterinarians went on-site and determined that the animals were in good health.” The zoo at Mr. Jackson’s 2,600-acre ranch off Figueroa Mountain Road in Los Olivos has been home to elephants, giraffes, snakes, orangutans, tigers and a crocodile. Recent reports in European media and in tabloids allege the animals are being kept in substandard conditions. But Mr. Holladay, speaking by phone from Washington, D.C., said the federal animal care specialist who saw the animals last month reported “they did not have any problems.”