So reports the AP: AP Source: Michael Jackson dies in LA hospital.
UPDATE: Freaky that he would die on the same day as Farah Fawcett, two pop culture icons who rose to national (and international prominence) in the 1970s
UP-UPDATE: E! Online has more on the death of the King of Pop.
Jackson enjoyed a level of success that none have since equaled and few could even imagine. Perhaps the most gifted musical performer of all time, yet happiness seemed to elude him throughout his life. While we may have envied his success, it came at a terrible cost, a childhood without friends his own age, an adolescence entirely in the public eye and an adulthood lacking in both privacy and sustaining human companionship.
Sorry about the redundant e-mail. I went there before I came here.
Even though he turned into a God-knows-what later in life, he did have incredible talent that can’t be denied. I remember when I was in 4th grade and Billie Jean was every other video on MTV. Thriller is still a great album.
Poor tragic man! How is it that a man with so much talent could have devolved into such a grotesque life?
The Rule of Threes strikes again. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson.
I can’t believe it–I truly admire this man’s talent. Thriller was a part of my life. Off The Wall is one of the greatest albums ever. I hope we will focus on the good and not the controversial.
Ayn Rand, of all people, reportedly liked _Charlie’s Angels_.
P.S. As for Jackson, I feel awful for his family, and the fans his music touched. I must also acknowledge having the thought pop up, “Well at least he can’t mess with any more defenseless kids”.
“Thriller” was one of the very few “pop” albums I ever bought. It was one of the greatest of all time. Yes, he was very talented, but such a tortured soul. He led a really sad existence.
Poor Michael Jackson. He was an enormous talent. I remember going to a party at a friends house just to watch the debut of Thriller. But I have always felt so sorry for him. He is undeniably f*cked in the head, but I have never been convinced that he molested children. Inappropriate behavior from a strange man robbed of his childhood? hell yeah, but the only allegations that he actually molested anyone came, surprise surprise, from people seeking large amounts of money. People like McCauley Culkin who was a child who befriended Jackson and whom prosecutors claimed Jackson molested, still claim those charges are ridiculous and false.
The man was taken advantage of by almost everyone his entire life and apparently never found peace. How sad.
Elton John gave an interesting interview at the time of one of the civil suits (claiming molestation) against Jackson. I think Jackson was hiding from the paparazzi at John’s house. John said something to the effect that, if it were him and he knew the allegations to be false, he personally would spend his wealth to the last penny, to fight the claims. John seemed to be hinting that if his friend Jackson settled and paid the claims readily (which Jackson did in that instance, for a sum that was rumored to be in the low eight digits), a reasonable person could be forgiven for wondering why. I accepted John’s seeming hint. Having said that: Jackson was never convicted of molestation, so I also accept that I probably shouldn’t use that word. “Inappropriate” strikes me as a fair minimum – a very fair minimum – for describing Jackson’s behavior with children.
I promised I wouldn’t do this, but here we go–Jackson was not a pedophile. He suffered from the prejudice that all single men suffer. I resent the implication that there was any truth to any of the rumors. I never saw any evidence except that of a man who simply didn’t consider what people were going to think. All gay men face the same prejudice and anyone who continues to support the stereotype that if he looks weird and likes children, he must be a molester is, well, just evil. The gay community should take this moment to stand behind all who have had to face false accusations based on innuendo and prejudice.
I am saddened by the news of Michael Jackson’s passing. The frustrating part for me is he let his talents ossify. He could have had several more landmark albums & dozens more hit singles if not for the descent into weirdness. He was amazingly talented, but was damaged goods from the age of 10 or so. RIP, Michael.
I dont say Jackson was definitively innocent of the accusations leveled against him, but no one ever provided anything more than innuendo and circumstantial evidence to suggest he did.
The fact that a prosecutor claimed Jackson molested McCauley Culkin, and Culkin took the stand and said the prosecutor had never even talked to him before, and that no, Jackson never molested him, is pretty damning evidence….against the prosecutor. Is it possible that a public official who would engage in such egregiously unprofessional behavior was pushing a case with merit? Possibly. It is more likely someone engaging in such unprofessional behavior had ulterior motives? I think its highly likely.
And I think Jackson could have spent his entire fortune, and then some, trying to clear his name (I’m not sure exactly how money helps you prove a negative) and the same people who assume he is guilty now, would still assume he is guilty.
Again, the “descent into wierdness.” “Damged goods.” This is a gay message board, isn’t it? To some degree, we have all suffered accusations of a “descent into wierdness.” We know what it means to be “damaged goods.” I think it is really, really unbecoming to perpetuate unfounded rumors. Were they fair to Freddie Mercury? Oscar Wilde? Harvey Milk? The Stonewall crowd? I think it’s insane that gays would jump on the “Wacko Jacko” bandwagon when we know what it’s like to suffer from peoples’ prejudices just for being ourselves. I admire Michael Jackson for his courage to be himself when he knew that people would think the worst. That is something that the gay community can learn from him.
Whatever. I mean, even if Jackson wasn’t a pedophile (i.e. sexual acts), he did other inappropriate things with children, like insisting that his own kids be called Prince Michael I, Paris Michael and Prince Michael II – and shaking the latter over a high balcony railing. His extensive sleepovers with kids happened; they have not been imagined by the prejudiced. Even in the absence of sexual acts, the sleepovers were inappropriate because kids should have sleepovers with their actual peers; not with a grownup trying to repair his damaged childhood by pretending he’s their peer, be that grownup gay or single or anything else. So, again: Whatever. Each person who followed the molestation accusations against Jackson must appraise them with their own mind; none of us here truly know the answer in either direction.
AE, I think it’s more the effort or the principle of the stance, than the money. Elton John was making a point that it would be worth it to him (Reg Dwight) to spend his whole life’s product and his remaining time maintaining a certain stance: the stance that he had done nothing wrong, even if he couldn’t prove the negative or even if the law mistakenly found against him. If in fact he (Reg Dwight) had done nothing wrong.
(fighting for the stance actively, I mean: not paying the accuser $25 million in a pre-trial settlement that concedes “negligence”, then declaring victory and innocence safely afterward)
it is so sad that the king of pop is already dead. we are going to miss him but his music will be remembered forever.
My point was that you can’t prove a negative. He had the very people the prosecutor claimed he molested saying, “um, no he didn’t” , I seem to recall that his accuser’s mother was shown to be a gold digger who had sued others before, and yet there are people who nonetheless are STILL absolutely certain Jackson was guilty.
Spending every cent he owned probably wouldn’t have changed that outcome one whit; it only would have destroyed him all the more.
but then again, I can think of few people I would be less likely to take advice from than Elton John.
Ash, I stand by my comments. I think his art suffered as a result of his weirdness. Yes, he was weird. How the hell else would you describe him? He desperately tried to relive a childhood that he never received.
Fair enough, but that was the 2005 case and I’ve been on the ’94 civil case.
(been talking about it, I mean… not literally on it)
Whether he actually molested the children he had sleep-overs with, he most definitely spent way to much time with them inappropriately so.
I do believe he set himself up for any and all scrutiny by being so naive (if in fact he was). However, I do blame the parents of these children as well, they pimped their own children to Michael for the all the benefits that entailed. There is no way on God’s green earth my children would have been having sleep-overs with an adult male or female for that matter.
Sad for me is, I keep hearing the song “Man In the Mirror”, and think what a beautiful song, but Michael for all his talent could not accept the man he saw in the mirror. His constant plastic surgeries are evident. No amount of surgeries will erase what was missing inside of him.
I think with the children he kept trying to relive a childhood he never had.
I sure hope he finds more peace in death than he had in life, RIP Michael!
Jackson didn’t spend any more time with children than the average camp counselor. If he had been a straight Boy Scout leader, there would have been no suspicion. How many gay couples adopt children as a means of helping themselves come to terms with a bad childhood? Just because a couple “looks wierd” and grew up in a bad situation doesn’t mean they can’t raise children. Or look after children. I CANNOT BELIEVE that I am working to undo one of the most pernicious stereotypes of gay people–that we are all secretly pedophiles–on a gay blog. How self-loathing are you people?
Jackson wasn’t a camp counselor. Also: when I was, we certainly didn’t have the kids sleep in our beds, then give the media detailed statements about how we tucked them in and snuggled them and how innocent and “charming” it was.
I find that claim absurd, sorry. *Of course* there would have (and should have) been suspicion.
Wait. You *seriously* consider Jackson gay? (I don’t.)
Yikes! I don’t know and I truly, from the bottom of my heart, wish and hope and pray that the number is zero! Kids aren’t, or shouldn’t be, a “means” to be used in anyone’s “helping themselves come to terms” with anything. Ever.
FWIW, Michael Jackson never slept in the same bed with children. He slept on the floor nearby or in another room, like a camp counselor. There were also other adults on the premises, as well as cameras in all the rooms, monitoring the activities. This all came out in the trial in which he was acquitted. But, of course, it’s easier to believe vicious rumors based on lies than actual evidence. Your favorite movie must be The Children’s Hour. That movie depicts reality for many gay people, but I thought we’d gotten past all that.
I don’t know if MJ was gay, but his public behavior suggests that he struggled with his orientation, as we all have.
Ash, hate to disillusion you, but Michael Jackson told the world something different from what you’ve told us. I can’t seem to quickly the interview I saw on Google last night, but here are a couple people’s summaries:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=30853
http://www.8bm.com/diatribes/volume02/002/037.htm
Some key quotes:
Please forgive me if I do take Michael Jackson’s word over yours.
And again: At the camp I worked out, the counselors wouldn’t have slept even in the same room as the kids (much less the same bed). Just my experience. As for this:
I have never thought that. You have said it yourself: gay does not equal pedophile. A grown man interested in little boys (whether asexually or sexually) is not a gay man and vice versa. Also, Jackson always claimed heterosexuality and never a gay identity. Again, please forgive me if I take his word over yours.
(sorry, “worked -at-“)
More from the World Net Daily’s summary of the interview:
I concede again: It’s possible that Jackson never sexually molested anyone. Possible. But even if he never did, the way he carried out his interest in children was still inappropriate. At best, he *used* them as props “helping [himself] come to terms with a bad childhood”, as you put it Ash. That’s the best quasi-realistic interpretation, and the ‘inappropriate’ factor in it is still high. And the more genuinely realistic interpretations go downhill from there.
Really? You’ll take Jackson’s word over mine? (Incidentally, that interview was addressed during the trial. Oddly, people will say things for shock effect when the truth turns out to be different. Unless you believe Ozzy Osborne really eats the heads off chickens.) Then you must believe that there was nothing sexual in his behavior with children, however odd it must have looked. I certainly think Jackson had bad judgment. When I taught at a community college, I had to keep my door open during student conferences. Anyone who shut the door was just asking for a lawsuit. But bad judgment is not illegal.
Did you see Neverland (the movie)? Was Barrie weird? Was Lewis Carroll?
Shel Silverstein? The Wiggles? The guy from Blue’s Clues? Captain Kangaroo?
Beat you to it… see the comment just above yours, #31.
sorry, mine would be #30
Let’s say you’re a single gay man. Or a single eccentric man who likes to dress flamboyantly. You apply for a job as a camp counselor. Or a Santa Claus. Or a day care assistant. Let’s say you are, in fact, good with children. You’re a foster parent. You want to adopt. What do you think the weight of public opinion will be? Let’s say you’re a mega-superstar with lots of money. I wonder if it’s possible that there are those who might, just might, make false accusations to get money knowing that they are exploiting peoples’ prejudices.
there would be no other King of Pop like Michael Jackson. he would always be the King.