Blogs and Stories
Michael Jackson's Afterlife
)
Gabriel Bouys / Getty Images
Celebrating the King of Pop’s many gifts is fair enough. Making him into a saint, not so much.
Today we witnessed the apotheosis of Michael Jackson.
To hear Berry Gordy tell it, Jackson was “the greatest entertainer that ever lived.” According to the seemingly ubiquitous Al Sharpton, Michael Jackson deserves as much or more credit than Martin Luther King for the success of black achievers from Tiger Woods to Barack Obama.
Yes, this is a sad day but not because we are mourning the passage of the King of Pop. He’s been long gone, really. The real pity is that today’s spectacle demonstrates that a big segment of our society remains fully capable of deliberate blindness. That was obvious when Sharpton declared in defiant tones that there was “nothing wrong with Michael Jackson” and was answered by thunderous applause. Even Martin Luther King’s children helped with the ritual, as his daughter edged “accusations” against him into “persecutions.”
Even Martin Luther King’s children helped with the ritual, as his daughter edged “accusations” against him into “persecutions.”
Celebrating Jackson’s gifts is fair enough. Making him into a saint, not so much. If romance is the willing suspension of disbelief, turning Michael Jackson into a deity is a willing suspension of belief in what we know to be true. And as a country, we can’t afford to live in Neverland any more.
Despite Sharpton’s assertion that nothing was wrong with Jackson, everything about him had become a mess: his physical and mental condition, his finances, his medical records, and now his estate. The music and the dancing were unforgettable but what I can’t forget is the appalling degree to which Jackson was both victim and victimizer.
When the old photos of that wide-eyed little boy were on the monitor, it reminded me that Jackson was another abused child star whose torment became manifest in every imaginable way. When Berry Gordy said that Jackson, as a 10-year-old, sang with “the sadness and passion of a man who had been living the blues and heartbreak his whole life,” it struck me that very possibly the 10-year-old Jackson had done exactly that.
And what about the other little boys? If Jackson dodged the bullet on child-molestation charges, does he seem like an innocent man? Who hands over a settlement worth more than $20 million if there was no crime? Something indeed was wrong with Michael Jackson. He stood repeatedly accused of a crime so heinous that most people would not want anyone facing those allegations living on their block. Unless, of course, that individual was a celebrity.
As St. Michael rose into the clouds this afternoon, other reality-based thoughts persistently intruded into my reality-addicted mind. At this time of crisis on many fronts, I couldn’t help thinking about the media’s prolonged prostitution of itself to this event. At a time of financial ruin, the city of Los Angeles has been asking citizens to donate money to help pay for the management of this spectacle.
As we have already learned, Jackson’s death may produce more profit than the improbable comeback tour that those around Jackson persisted in believing was possible for the frail, skeletal individual who they supposedly so loved. No doubt Jackson will be as ruthlessly exploited in death as he was in life.
And there was one big bonus winner at the Jackson service. Can you guess? When Magic Johnson described his delight at learning that Jackson loved Kentucky Fried Chicken, it’s easy to imagine that there was celebrating at the Colonel’s headquarters. A double celebrity endorsement, seemingly a spontaneous gift from the celebrity gods! I can’t imagine that the KFC people—still getting over that little dustup over the Oprah giveaway—aren’t even now figuring out how to make the most of that.
Kim Masters covers the entertainment business for The Daily Beast. She is also the host of The Business, public radio's weekly program about the business of show business. She is also the author of The Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
The Right Dumps Carrie
Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
Geithner's Stock Plummeting
Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
Oprah Changes Channels
Kim Masters covers the entertainment business for The Daily Beast. She is also the host of The Business, public radio's weekly program about the business of show business. She is also the author of The Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else.
New Moon Rises Over Hollywood
Kim Masters covers the entertainment business for The Daily Beast. She is also the host of The Business, public radio's weekly program about the business of show business. She is also the author of The Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else.
Meet the Movie Theater of the Future
Kim Masters covers the entertainment business for The Daily Beast. She is also the host of The Business, public radio's weekly program about the business of show business. She is also the author of The Keys to the Kingdom: The Rise of Michael Eisner and the Fall of Everybody Else.
Well written indeed.
Chandler's Dad tried to get MJ to invest in some sort of deal, like a movie, or something that costs around 20 million. When MJ refused then thats when the false accusations started. MJ never agreed to give the Chandlers that money. MJ's insurance company paid that liar off. Read the facts, not the tabloid trash. Diane was fired from Court TV because of her unethical, manipulating reporting and hiding behind her "confidential sources". The so called "love letters" Diane kept talking about has never been seen and MJ filed a multi million dollar lawsuit against Diane BUT her buddy Sneddon all of a sudden wrote a letter saying he had seen those letters, the letter didnt surface until after MJ filed the lawsuit. Yep, Diane is very articulate and it's a shame that she's wasting it away.
Michael Jackson never paid the 20 million dollars -- it was paid by his insurance company who didn't want to take the case to a civil court. Do a little research -- thisi nformation is easy to find.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
This user is no longer registered.
I agree with Kim and Alcamadus. It was a great show that we saw today and his history is being rewritten; but the books haven't come out yet. The books will tell the real story, if the authors are allowed to write them. One of them has to publish his book overseas not in the U.S.
Where's Grace the nanny?
MJ visited wounded troops at Walter Reed Hospital and did many other similar things without benefit of cameras. He was a very complex person with both virtues and vices, but the fact that he was generous cannot be disputed. He donated millions of dollars and would have liked to have saved the world. However, he never declared himself a saviour and in the end, sadly, he couldn't even save himself.
AMEN! Absolutely beautiful words!!! I totally agree - thanks for your great posting. Miss MJ very much.
I think that his tribute is fitting. I have always listened to many of MJ's songs for inspiration:when my baby sister died, when my mom died, grad school, and many of life's milestones. On the the other hand, anyone is entitled to dismiss him but I don't think anyone has the right to tell people who their heros should and should not be.
The word was not "wrong," but "strange." Sharpton said: "To the children: There was nothing strange about your daddy. It was strange what your daddy had to deal with."
I thought it was a wonderful thing to say to young children who are orphaned. Gracious and kind.
Would that you were the same.
Dixie-chick -- until Michael's death a WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE THOUGHT HE WAS STRANGE, INCLUDING ME. Michael Jackson went off the rails about 10 years ago. and let's face it, he hadn't performed in a concert or cut a record in about 10-15 years. We don't know what this comeback would have been. It might have been a freak show, it would have been lucrative for sure.
But for me, he did just at the right time. He was sick, he was addicted, he wasn't the "old" Michael, he had become the old Elvis. I wouldn't want to hear or see that Michael. And the only reason he was going to do the concert was for the money. No one talks about that. No one talks about his being fooled into 50 concerts when he though it would be 10 concerts. He wasn't up to 50 concerts every other night.
So yeh, for me MJ was "strange" and regardless of what the family wants to rewrite history, MJ wanted to be strange.
Why tell the kids he wasn't "strange" when they obviously know or will know otherwise? Kids aren't stupid. All one had to do was look at this pitiful, childlike man and realize that he had willed himself into looking (and behaving)like "a brother from another planet" long ago.
Jackson's preference for social, emotional and possibly sexual contact with young boys was a sign of his deep mental illness. Most mental health professionals would classify him as a sexual predator. He would probably have been in prison had his wealth not bought off his accusers.
I feel sorry for the young Michael Jackson who was exploited by his parents and others and abused by his father. Later,he had every opportunity to heal those wounds and yet he never did. He irresponsibly brought three children into the world and then increased his drug habit as he parented those kids. His poor drug-addled parenting was evident when he dangled one of his kids over a hotel balcony.
Now his poor kids and mother will suffer for years trying to resolve custodial and monetary issues. What a sad legacy to leave those he supposedly loved.
I agree, baptox, and in fact, I've written similar thoughts in my blog www.manhattanbutterfly.blogspot.com. He WAS strange. He made himself that way. And he acted strangely. And he left those poor children in the wreckage he left behind, along with the potential of riches which will guarantee the presence of vultures forever.
chicago48, Michael Jackson went off the rails much earlier than 10 years ago! The first molestation investigation was in 1993 and that boy was not the first one to become his "special friend." That had been going on in the Hayvenhurst bedroom in Encino, long before he bought Neverland.
Michael Jackson told us he was "Bad" and "Dangerous" and thought he was "Invincible." "HIStory" ultimately was not a pretty one.
You're right. At the memorial for the father of three innocent children, who obviously adored that father and KNEW a very different man than we did, they should have been reminded over and over how strange the guy was.
This was a memorial. The family was kind enough to let the world in because the guy had fans (including me). Like the far less public memorials of other musicians that have gone before, this was filled with musicians paying musical tribute. I have a feeling that, had the public not been invited, much of the same would have occurred.
The people who spoke were the people who knew the man. I saw real emotions. I didn't see anyone pretending to love Michael Jackson. Rev. Al did what reverends do: he gave an uplifting eulogy.
You know, though nothing has ever been proven, MJ may very well have molested some boys. But even the worst in our society are often sent away graciously by the ones who love them. We had an open window to a very personal mourning.
And I'd like to address Ms. Master's question with one of my own. Who hands over $20 mil if there is no crime? Who accepts $20 mil from someone who they think molested their child and then lets the guy walk away? Most parents would want to see the guy locked up. There's a very real possibility that these people noticed an odd, but not sexually inappropriate relationship between MJ and their child and saw dollar signs, never planning to go to trial in the first place. If we find later that the accusations were indeed false, then perhaps 'persecutions' is an appropriate word. Finally, unless you have some solid proof, your use of the word 'victimizer' with absolutely no modifier in describing him is inappropriate. In the end, maybe you'll be right. But right now, it's all empty accusations.
Still, if he was guilty of molesting children, it's fair to be hard on him. I don't think we've heard the last either way. But, it's totally unfair to bring up his financial troubles, physical or mental state, posthumous estate issues as premises to the argument of Jackson's strangeness (or wrongness, as Ms. Masters would put it) that deserve to be presented at his memorial.
Also, the last time I checked, inheriting half a billion dollars in assets and untold amounts of after-death profits is not such a bad financial position to be in.
So only your opinion counts, Hey Kim why don't you try and give the $300 million to charity and have MJ returned to the state, why don't you do the same with the 60 million generated by We Are The World, why don't you file a court case objecting 20% of the MJ state be donated to charity, oh and tell me the right thing to think is the way Kim thinks. So easy to sit down and write bla bla bla bla bla bla just try just try to go on stage and be liked by the crowds. So the perfect perfect perfect Kim is her way or no way. Take a look at yourself before you get so opinionated. Oh, just forget about me reading you again, opinion dictator.
Cold.
The cold hard facts usually are...
When you die everything that was good about your life is exaggerated a million-fold, how are you surprised by this?
I'm typically at least somewhat well-spoken in my criticism, but all I can muster for your speculative and unread backside is a monumental: Fuck off.
I'm all for perspective, but what kind of garbage is this? "Who hands over a settlement worth more than $20 million if there was no crime?" Thanks for the insightful innuendo, hack.
seriously. total hack. sensationalist hag.
Thank you for reading my invisible thoughts, with those of your own.
Another blogger called this a "canonization" the other day and that person was right on the money.
The media is making him into a saint. Jackson was talented but he seemed to have serious problems with inferiority, with all the surgeries. Now it comes out that he was having problems so much to the point that he needed strong drugs in order to sleep. Where was his doting family then? Of course, they, and Michael, can do no wrong. But just wait, the media will be tearing him down the first chance they get. I don't think Michael was the greatest entertainer of all time as Gordy said, I think he was a talented musician with mental issues and he needed help. But he did not warrant all this TV coverage.
Where's Grace, the nanny?
I think my comment was rejected. Darn, I think it was pretty good.
No, it is there, and it was good. I agree.
You just don't get it. His music transcended race, age and culture. It became part of the fabric of people's lives. If you did not have that experience, then you need to be open to others.
There is not another human being in the world that will have such an outpouring of sentiment at their death...no one. I would think that the poem from Maya Angelou and the letter from Nelson Mandela would have gotten your attention. Yes, he was addicted. He can join the club of millions of addicts in this country alone! Long after we are gone, people will be dancing to his music. Now that is a legacy.
Best article I have read about this spectacle. The man was a man; a very sick, strange man who denied everything black while he lived (even his kids are white for goodness sake). Why the black community would band together to "celebrate" a strange example of a member of the black race in denial and rejection of his own color is baffling, especially when it includes people such as Al Sharpton (reverend? after what he has said and done himself?), Magic Johnson, etc. I wonder if the black community has as much esteem for a prime great example of a modern black man as President Obama? Dying does not wipe out a lifetime of eccentric privileged behavior. I can't wait to hear the truth come out now that the whitewash is over.
Why is the media making such a big fuss over Michael Jackson? He has been irrelevant for the last decade. In the 80s he made some good music, but with his melting nose, his increasingly bizarre appearance, his odd if not criminal behavior towards children, and his lack of any hits for the past decade, why does the media seem to care so much?
micheal jackson was one of the greatest if not the greatest performer of all time. he did have a strange side to him, but now that is between him and his god. i dont think it is the time to push him down nor to lift him above what he was. let his memory be what is really is, no more no less. each of us will have to face death with our own failures.
Well said, wapete. It's good to hear some good old fashioned wisdom once in a while.
I agree. He could have done alot more good with his money and his life. Though he did do a lot. And the service was great, he would have loved it. And we love him. The good and the bad.
Exploora:
More from the dilberately blind...keep telling yourself he was innocent but that won't change public opinion. What if it was YOUR kid who was involved and it could have been, apparently, because you think the man was innocent...the perfect foil for pedophilia.
I think the same thing, there is a real possibility the parents noticed Micheal's aloness, and lack of prudence, and took advantage of him, and he settled to prevent the hassle, and he possibly deteriorated because he was innocent, otherwise if he had done something like that he would have acted more flip about it but not deteriorate the way he did. And we still don't know how long he had lost his hair, and if that had to do with his injury.
He did settle to prevent hassles and wanted to get on with his life. He even said so in an interview with Lisa M Presley sitting next to him. He admitted why he paid off that ADMITTED LIER Chandler to make it go away. That damn kid LIED - just did what his father told him to do.
I think this article is sensationalizing the whole thing for effect. Lots of people settle to avoid a hassle, People know that. That is why legal abuse happens so often.
Exploora:
Yes, people do settle to avoid a hassle, but when a person settles more than one case (especially a case involving pedophilia of a kind) at the sum of $20 million and they are in bad straights financially, it doesn't project innocence; it projects guilt.
This is a white person writing the article so what do they know anyway about the double standards in the justice system, the way minorities have to fear if every day of their lives.
Michael was, is and will continue to be an icon. He broke barriers and that he made mistakes show that he was human as even Jesus Christ said he wasn't perfect. The criticism on his daughter's comments on her father are uncalled for. Remember, she wasn't forced to do it, because she said she "wanted to say". She made up her mind and informed Janet Jackson that she had to say something about her dad that people know, but because of their unnecessary, selfish and non-challant attitude they pretend as if they don't known. It would have been pain in her heart for a long time if afterwards people like you, now as you've started, portray MJJ as something else and she had the opportunity to silence you all forever but she was denied that priviledge. MJ's father like Williams sisters' father discovered his children's talents and perfected it.WHY NOT ALLOW MICHAEL TO REST? BECAUSE MICHAEL'S NAME PULLS CROWD ANYTIME AND ANY DAY. If not for Michael, I've never known you -Martin Bashirs in disguise.
exploora: Then after his "innocent" sleepovers and his being taken advantage of, and all that he risked-- money, reputation, career, even prison--- why not just stop?? Just STOP sleeping with little boys??
But he didn't. He couldn't because it was a compulsion. His language that "it's loving" and that he wouldn't harm children is exactly how pedophiles talk and think.
Michael Jackson also took the Fifth when deposed in the civil suit by the fired bodyguards.
As to credibility- Jackson claimed to have had NO PLASTIC SURGERY except on his nose. And I can see that's an absolute lie.
I believe the boys.
"Where's Grace, the nanny?"
"The real pity is that today's spectacle demonstrates that a big segment of our society remains fully capable of deliberate blindness."
excellent article.
that's the lesson that i've drawn from all of this. somehow, at some point, it became desperately necessary for millions of people to reclaim the Michael Jackson narrative from the clutches of reality. the need to see a saint, a genius, a pioneer where there is not one is not so uncommon in history, but this case is fascinating by virtue of what has to be overcome to make even a flimsy icon from such pedestrian materials.
if you're willing to look, this little circus says a lot about where we are.
Amen, kudzu!
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.
Please log in to leave comments.