Basically, MJ is claiming police brutality in his handling during the arrest. He's also claiming that they exceeded their search warrant and damaged his personal property.
On the other hand, he claimed that his shoulder is "literally dislocated" and that he could raise neither hand above chest level. Then proceeded later in the interview to brush stray hairs from his face. So he did at least display greater mobility than he claimed. Oh well.
I'm not even going to comment on the child abuse allegations except to say that the whole set of allegations does look a bit iffy given past statements from this same kid.
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I also wasn't so sure about the whole mobility thing. As for his claim that they never gave him a list of things taken from the ranch, my father says they've probably given it to his lawyer.
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It was a disturbing interview to say the least. Bradley had a tough job and I felt that he went in with his hands tied: to get the interview, he had to throw softball questions at MJ and you could see it in his eyes that he new he was walking a tightrope throughout. In the end, the lawyers called off the interview the moment MJ started to talk about the recording industry. What we ended up with was what MJ had been coached to say and Bradley subverting his journalistic integrity for a ratings based interview that was more on the level of a Barbara Walters interview.
What happened to the 60 Minutes of old?
Did Michael Jackson do what he is accused of? I honestly don't know and the interview only helped a little bit.
What I did see is the modern equivalent of Howard Hughes -- a man of brilliance in his youth who eventually slipped into a paranoid delusional fantasy. The two men's links to reality are remarkably similar and tenuous.
Jackson is incredibly willing to put forth conspiracy theories, no matter how unfounded they appear on even the lightest of scrutinies. His lawyers know that, hence the shut down of the interview.
Jackson's defense will have to be that he is a rational individual who does behave properly around the children he is exposed to. Sadly, though, when given the chance to speak he comes across as far from the societal norms. While that doesn't make him guilty, it makes his claims of innocence less credible. If he speaks in his own defence, his defence is doomed for he plays into the public perception of his persona. But that perceived persona is what he has cultivated over the last 30 years. As he sunk into his fantasy world and still clamored for international attention, can the public be blamed for seeing him as odd and off the beaten track?
After such intense scrutiny and attention mongering over the decades, isn't it easier to see him as a monster than as a normal guy? He turned himself into a man of myth and fable, the outrageous seems normal in the light that he sheds.
If he did the deeds, he should be punished and pitied. If he is innocent, then these accusations are just a side-effect of the public face he has chosen to wear (and change) over the years.
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The man's face is the stuff of nightmares. That's all I can say, as I only caught glimpses of the muted TV while I was at work.
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And his speaking voice has become so strange too. I can't quite place it, it's just weird. I did get the impression he was playing a role, though.
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It seemed to me in his voice, and when he talked about how it was okay to sleep with children, that there was this "mommy" quality to his voice -- like he sees himself as a mommy, tucking his children in and keeping them safe. (very delusional).
So stupid question -- does Jackson really think of himself as a woman?
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He said that his shoulder was dislocated from the cuffs. Maybe that happened after he was released, when he did the big victory wave to the press?
[ December 29, 2003, 01:26 PM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
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That bruise seemed like it was kind of far up his arm to be from the handcuffs. Don't they ususally go around the wrists?
But you know what bothered me the most? "Doodoo." I have a problem with a 45-year-old man who is not talking to a child but to another adult, calling it "doodoo." Maybe it's just me, but there was just something wrong with that.
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