Radio has buried Glitter and should do the same with Jackson
SUNDAY. Mid-morning and background radio is on as breakfast is being sorted. While the porridge hums in the microwave, the disengaged ear is grabbed by the voice of a minor league actor declaring why he got into the business. “It was totally Michael Jackson’s influence,” he reveals.
What? You wanted to emulate someone who spent nights cavorting under duvets with young boys, ended up paying off families with millions of dollars and drug-hazed, in exile?
The Jackson track that followed, Human Nature, or something equally exquisite, confirmed the late superstar to be a singer and songwriter with often sublime talent. But hearing the actor rhapsodize over the pop legend almost put me off my porridge. because the thought that’s been in my head for years boiled over; it’s almost impossible to push aside the feeling that Jackson was the Jimmy Savile of pop, rock and soul.
My colleague sitting inches to my left however dismisses the argument. “He wasn’t found guilty. Therefore he’s innocent. And as a journalist you know well the laws on defamation.”
He’s right. Jackson was found innocent of child abuse in Los Angeles in 2005. Yet, the star is being judged again his week in the wake of a two-part film Leaving Neverland, co-produced by Channel 4 and HBO.
It tells the story of James Safechuck and Wade Robson, now adults, who claim that as young boys they were abused for years by the star. They filed lawsuits against the Jackson estate in 2014, dismissed on statute of limitations technicalities, and the fact they both supported the superstar in the 2005 trial of schoolboy Gavin Arizo v Jackson.
However, audiences at the Sundance Festival were left in no doubt Jackson’s accusers were genuine. A Rolling Stone magazine editor attended a screening and described the audience as dealing with PTSD. “During a 10-minute intermission, audience members appeared slightly dazed,” he wrote. “By the end of the screening, the crowd looked completely shellshocked.” It produced a standing ovation for the two participants.
The film-makers say the documentary was “deeply researched and with every attempt made to verify the claims of the accusers”. But, as expected, Jermaine Jackson has leapt to his late brother’s defence. “My brother isn’t here to defend himself.” Yet what Jermaine Jackson doesn’t wish to recall is that his brother didn’t actually defend himself in 1994 against claims of abuse by schoolboy Jordy Chandler. Instead, Michael Jackson paid off the family with $22m. The year before he paid $2m to the parents of Jason Francia, the 13 year-old son of his former maid, who claimed “Jackson tickled his genitals.”
Jackson’s estate will argue that famous people are subjected to false claims from the desperate – the dead pop star made $75m for his estate in 2017. Yet, what the film suggests is that its two star witnesses had been brainwashed by the star, that growing up they feared for career retribution, that their parents, seduced with charm, faux sincerity, lots of money and holidays in
Hawaii and New York, were supportive of the relationship. (Wade’s father subsequently took his life, allegedly guilt ridden, and Jordy Chandler’s father did likewise).
Yes, you will say Safechuck and Wade are after a book deal. True.
But that doesn’t mean their claims are invalid. And sometimes we need to look past legal judgement to protect the vulnerable of the present.
The #Metoo movement arrived after a series of accusations against Harvey Weinstein, resulting in an international movement which searchlights and probes the behaviour of male predators. And who would argue that should not be applauded – even though Weinstein has yet to be found guilty of anything?
Had an avalanche of complaints not arrived on the head of Bill
Cosby he would surely have escaped jail. Had Kevin Spacey’s initial accuser not opened up, the following dozen may not have followed. And the actor is yet to go to court.
Yes, Jackson was found innocent by a court in Los Angeles but he had “bought” Safechuck and Wade. And sometimes judges get it wrong. OJ Simpson. Oscar Pistorius. Amanda Knox?
Sam Adams in American online magazine Slate said: “We were collectively, wilfully blind, because the thought of losing, or even tarnishing, Jackson’s monumental contribution to popular culture was too much to bear.”
He’s right. Sometimes we have to listen to the voices in our heads and forget the voice which produced great records. Sometimes we have to factor in that abused children can be coerced into almost anything.
This documentary is important because it signals to abusers that they can be called to account at any time, even from the grave.
So, beat it, Jacko. Public broadcasters and commercial radio stations desist. Radio has buried Gary Glitter and we should do the same with the King of Pop. Let us enjoy our porridge in peace.
Sometimes we have to listen to the voices in our heads and forget the voice which produced great records