I haven't seen any TV news because I just don't watch it, but the response on the online sources I read has been complicated. Remembering the talent he once had, acknowledging how disturbed he was, and regretting the shambles his life became.
Also, in the actual trial for child molesting wasn't he acquitted? I still believe he was a pedophile, as I'm sure do many, but I think the MSM would have to be careful to treat him as innocent since a court declared him so.
They can say anything they want now: the dead cannot sue for libel. Of course, that isn't limited to him or to that charge: a headline "Nation Mourns Beloved Drug Dealer" could legally, if embarrassingly, be written about any dead celebrity, regardless of the facts or even previous rumors or lack thereof.
At least the 1993 incident (a kid named Chandler) never came to guilt or innocence, but was settled out of court by Jackson with a big payment to Chandler's family. Chandler purportedly could describe Jackson's penis in detail.
So, at least in that case, Jackson was not found guilty, but neither was he found innocent. I do not generally assume that settling=guilty, but it looks kind-of bad in this case.
According to Wikipedia (where I checked my memory), Chandler (with a journalist) wrote a tell-all book, and I'm trying to decide whether O want to try to get a used copy online: is that too sleazy, or just sleazy enough?
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Date: 2009-06-27 11:57 am (UTC)Also, in the actual trial for child molesting wasn't he acquitted? I still believe he was a pedophile, as I'm sure do many, but I think the MSM would have to be careful to treat him as innocent since a court declared him so.
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Date: 2009-06-27 12:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-06-27 01:55 pm (UTC)So, at least in that case, Jackson was not found guilty, but neither was he found innocent. I do not generally assume that settling=guilty, but it looks kind-of bad in this case.
According to Wikipedia (where I checked my memory), Chandler (with a journalist) wrote a tell-all book, and I'm trying to decide whether O want to try to get a used copy online: is that too sleazy, or just sleazy enough?