A temporary loss of possession of the remote control resulted in me being subjected to Brook Shields’ speech at the Michael Jackson memorial. I can safely say that a tape of that can be used to coerce false confessions in minutes without the use of water torture. In fact, I can think of nothing more nauseatingly painful to my brain than what I just witnessed. Even Sarah Palin pales in comparison. Mental anguish doesn’t even begin to describe it. I would have done or said anything to make it stop.
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
except get up and change the channel … ?
My solution was to walk outside.
Pfft. I took pity on you when Jermaine began to sing “Smile”.
no, that is when I walked out.
I can’t stomach one second of the coverage.
Okay I know were not suppose to make rude comments. But I wonder Brooke and MJ ever played Doctor and Patient. She did say “two little kids having fun.”
I await your 1’s or 2’s.
.
Brooke Shields and PPD
Behind PPD a very personal story of my daughter.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."could not get this link to work, but you reminded me, this was why I really liked Brooke Shields – and how she stood up to Tom Cruise insulting her about this. I was puzzled why she spoke at the spectacular, b/c imo, all the lawsuits aside, Martin Bashir’s 2003 documentary, the scenes with Michael and his chidren, showed something extremely dysfunctional, too creepy to write about actually.
You hurt my soul with this.
I must be slipping from my perch as the world’s most cynical person, because I thought it was pretty nice…up until the last 30 seconds or so.
He was just a strange, sad, brilliant man with a tortured soul.
Can the world get on with things, now?
I came in on the middle of it, and seeing the first half, it looks a little less bizarre.
Refresh my memory, but did anyone other than Princess Diana get this much media coverage of their funeral? And even she didn’t have a promoter running the funeral plans…
Maybe I’ll just borrow your cynicism crown this week. 🙂
Seriously, it is fucking ridiculous the amount of coverage this is getting. It’s embarrassing in what it says about both the media and the U.S.
The media is relieved to have an excuse to avoid real news, which is out of the league of most of them.
It’s an embarassment that puts the Sarah Palin worship into some sort of perspective. N wonder people think Americans are dumbasses.
I’m ready for it to be over but frankly it seems kind of tame except for the fact that it is televised.
Compare Rudolph Valentino’s funeral:
If television had existed then … 🙂
I agree and I’m as (almost)cynical as you. I would never have bothered watching this if I was home. But I watched this clip and I thought what Brooke said was nice.
I loved every minute and agree he was the world’s best entertainer, hands down.
I was particularly moved by Brooke’s comments on the two of them growing up as child stars together.
I don’t understand how anyone can make fun or be cynical at a moment like this. But evidently, people can.
Me either. Pickin’ on the dead, and makin’ fun of people at a memorial tribute for a dead person, makes my skin crawl. I guess “Freakshow” is truly in the eye of the beholder.
I don’t think anyone is picking on the dead – just picking on the fact that personal grief becomes a televised spectacular. I find it awful and disrespectful of the deceased, frankly.
Brooke Shields is not dead.
Yeah, I realize Brooke Shields isn’t dead.
To me, finding fault with people speaking at a memorial tribute for a dead person, IS picking on the dead.
I see no difference of any kind-here.
There’s a time and a place-in my book-for everything; and a memorial service ain’t it.
Poor timing.
Just my opinion.
well, I obviously don’t care about this memorial service which I find totally distasteful. I respect Michael Jackson’s talent and I feel badly about how his parents treated him. But I don’t forgive him for the way he behaved in life, and it makes me sick to see him held up as a tremendous person. He wasn’t. He may have bought his way out of facing consequences for his actions, but being rich doesn’t excuse it. Sorry. I have no respect for him and think this all dishonors his victims.
http://www.counterpunch.org/reed06292009.htm
Couldn’t get the link to work-but all this is verifiable, too:
None of the media descriptions of Jackson’s career, including a superficial pop-driven survey of the star’s career by Anderson Cooper, referred to the 2005 plaintiff’s lies and his mother’s shabby history of conning individuals and institutions including J. C. Penney’s, which she accused of sexual abuse.
She claimed that she had been “fondled inappropriately” by store personnel. Documents also hinted that “…the mom rehearsed her children to corroborate her story.”
During the 2005 trial, Jackson’s Attorney, Tom Mesereau Jr. got the teenage boy to admit that he lied under oath during the J. C. Penny case. USA Today reported on March 1, 2005, that the mother used the boy as a prop to get money from Mike Tyson, Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey, Jay Leno and others, “even though insurance was paying his bills.”
Linda Deutsch, one of the last of hard-nosed shoe leather journalists, reporting for the Associated Press on March of 2005. said that Mesereau got the 15 year old to admit that he’d told Jeffrey Alpert, a school official that “nothing happened” between Jackson and him.
Connie Keenan, editor of Mid Valley News, wrote of a hoax that the boy’s mother perpetrated on that newspaper. She made a pitch that her son needed medical care and that she had no financial means to provide it. During the first week of the newspaper’s appeal, the mother received $965 in donations.
It turned out that the boy was being treated at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles with no cost to the family. Connie Keenan concluded that “My gut level, she’s a shark. She was after money. My readers were used. My staff was used. It’s sickening.”
I don’t find the memorial service distasteful…I find the fawning non-stop TV event coverage of it distasteful.
And like most people, I assumed MJ was guilty, but he is supposed to be given the benefit of the doubt since he was never found guilty. I think at the time of the big payoff he had a million bazillion dollars. Given his strangeness I don’t find it unbelievable that he’d throw a few bucks around just to make it go away even if he was totally innocent. He seemed to live his whole life in denial and that fits. Who knows.
I just don’t get the whole hero worship we have with athletes and entertainers.
giving people the benefit of the doubt is a bit difficult when they pay out huge cash settlements and the accusations don’t stop.
After that he became an easy target. I’m not saying he wasn’t weird and he did things that should creep everyone out. But nothing was ever proven and I can certainly leave room for doubt.
Well, yeah, habitually sleeping the same bed with underage boys does tend to make you a target, especially when you deliberately choose boys from dysfunctional needy families. The allegations against him come from a number of people. There’s not much doubt in my mind that he was acting inappropriately over a long period of time.
I’m not saying he didn’t do it, but in the absence of a conviction I leave room for doubt. It will be interesting to see if any of those youngsters, now grown, will come out now that Jackson is dead. The ones who weren’t paid off should be free to speak.
I’m not a fan. I never owned any of his music. I didn’t watch the memorial except for the clip you showed. So I’m not on the MJ fan bandwagon. I simply think he had some weird psychological baggage that could very well offer a somewhat less evil explanation for the bed-sharing than sexual molestation. Or not.
Here’s a link regarding the settlement-
http://surftofind.com/settle
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Dimond
Court TV refused to renew her contract-and her “investigative unit” was disabanded, wasn’t it?
The settlement:
http://surftofind.com/settle
For context. And no, I don’t believe there is no fire behind all the smoke.
I turned on my TV at 6:00 in the morning and had it on till 1:00 and had completely forgotten Jackson had died until Booman posted about it.
I had the Tour de France on a continuous loop.
nalbar
Was never to be counted as part of the MJ following but after watching for 2 hours I couldn’t help but think of the history made in his short lifetime. The press has been so entrenched in the murky side of his life they completely glossed over a) he gave more to charities than any other performer b) went to Congress to try and help with AIDS in Africa c) went to visit Walter Reed and the soldiers there d) co-wrote We Are The World that was so groundbreaking to help a desperately needy continent.
MJ did indeed break down alot of glass ceilings for Black entertainers and we are the better for it. Besides that, he simply wrote and performed some damn good music.
As for Brooke Shields, well, after the barrage of stories of his tortured life it was a relief to hear that someone made him laugh and that he enjoyed life, even if the messenger herself was a wee bit daft.
Thanks Booman! Awful, maudlin. and why the hair tossing??
I didn’t realize one of the children really is named Blanket – thought that was a Southpark invention.
Prince Michael Jackson II; his nickname to differentiate him from his like-named brother is Blanket.
According to his late father, this child is from his sperm cells and the egg of a German surrogate.
We don’t know whose sperm helped create the two eldest; I wish DNA tests could be run on them all to clarify the situation. I have no doubt that Michael Jackson was a good father to them.
Re Brookie baby: I thought she was a bit off myself, but that’s her and how she felt. I could endure it until she got off the stage. She kept tossing her head because her hair kept interfering with her eyes, I thought.
But the MJ free-for-all is by no means over…
and what’s with that weird image in the lower right hand corner of the screen – like that helps us know what we’re watching?
Ya know what, you and others were already tired of the coverage even before the memorial, so surprise surprise you of course hated it. But if you or anyone else actually watched the memorial itself, and not the “coverage” then you would have seen that it was actually VERY tastefully done. No extravagant dance numbers, nobody hawking their albums, no moonwalking impersonator circus. Just a family paying respects to their brother, father, and son. Yes it was public, but hell unlike Anna Nicole Smith Michael Jackson has been making music and hits, no not pop tart hits like Britney & Justin, but global hits none the less since about 1970 his last was I think just last year (non-us, but global hit). So that’s 38 years of MUSIC talent.
I really think that some people need to seperate the news “coverage” from the actual memorial. Whatever YOU think of Michael Jackson the celebrity personality, he was also a father to 3 kids, and I challenge anyone to not have their heart bleeding when his little girl actually got to the mike an said that her “daddy was the best daddy in the world”
I guess that girl needs to be told the cold, hard truth ala Congressman King.
Jeez I know it’ just a blog, but man have a little respect for the dead man.
Now if the coverage continues tomorrow beyond the entertainment sections then bitch away. Hell, I’ll be bitching with you.
Thank you-man. You’re a totally “human” being.
Speak well of the dead
does that apply to everyone?
I don’t think it does.
But I don’t want to piss off people who are fans and who don’t believe the accusations against him, so I’ll stop commenting on the matter.
Actually, that`s just an overall opinion that I have.
It is not specific to MJ at all, nor was it directed at you personally, in any way.
Ishmael Reed: The Persecution of Michael Jackson
An interesting read.
Damn, man. That was harsh. I found her remarks moving and heartfelt.
I’m sorry, y’all: his music touched me, was the soundtrack of my youth (both in good times and those times I nursed a broken heart). He was culturally important; Black achievement had another face. He broke barriers. He was incredibly generous. I watched and was touched by the ceremony (which, btw, was a million times better than that awful tripe on BET).
Yes, there are about a miliion more “important” things to talk about. But ya know what?
Today, this sendoff was most important news to me. I can catch up with news about Russia and Al Franken (very cool that he’s co-sponsored ECFA) and Baucus’ weak news later.
Er, that would be Baucus’ weak knees.
But whatever…tonight I won’t stop ’til I get enough.
I read your article but I have to erase it because it violates fair usage rules and doesn’t come with even a link for acknowledgment. We cannot steal writers’ work like that. Feel free to use excerpts and a link.
Sorry-Booman. Not a problem.
http://www.counterpunch.org/reed06292009.html
I like the article, but obviously don’t agree with all of it. But I already made a commitment not to discuss this further today.