Ishmael Reed's MJ article
overpriced_artisan_butter
318 Posts
Worth reading. See Counterpunch.
overpriced_artisan_butter
318 Posts
Comments
But, next time, instead of asking if no one cared, try posting a link, and then see.
I don't always post links; but, I then don't come on here to whine about it.
BTW: I'm a Plugra man. Love the name.
By ISHMAEL REED
Last Thursday, while working on some writing deadlines, I was switching channels on cable. On CNN they were promoting ???Black In America," an exercise meant to boost ratings by making whites feel good by making blacks look bad, the marketing strategy of the mass media since the 1830s, according to a useful book entitled ???The Showman and the Slave,??? by Benjamin Reiss. The early penny press sold a ???whiteness??? upgrade to newly arriving immigrants by depicting blacks in illicit situations. By doing so they were marketing an early version of a self esteem boosting product. One of the initial sensational stories was about the autopsy of a black woman named Joice Heth, who claimed to be George Washington???s nurse and over one hundred years old. It was the O. J. story of the time. Circus master, P. T. Barnum, charged admission to her autopsy, which attracted the perverted in droves.
And so, if the people broadcasting cable news appear to be inmates of a carnival, there is a connection since the early days of the mass media to that form of show business. According to Reiss, early newspapers were not only influenced by P. T. Barnum, but actually cooperated with him on some hoaxes and stunts.
I would classify CNN???s ???Black in America??? as a stunt. In preparing for a sequel to the first "Black In America," which boosted the networks ratings (the O. J. trial saved CNN!), CNN rolled out the usual stereotypes about black Americans. Unmarried black mothers were exhibited, without mentioning that births to unmarried black women have plunged since 1976 more than that of any other ethnic group. Then we got some footage that implied that blacks as a group were homophobes even though Charles Blow, a statistician for The New York Times, recently published a chart showing that gays have the least to fear from blacks. Recently, the media perpetrated a hoax that blacks were responsible for the passage of Proposition 8, the California proposition that banned gay marriage. An academic study refuted this claim, but that didn???t deter The New York Times from hiring Benjamin Schwarz to explain black homophobia. Schwarz is the writer who wrote in The Los Angeles Times that blacks who were victims of lynchings in the south were probably guilty.
In the last ???Black in America," Soledad O???Brien, CNN???s designated tough love agent against the brothers and sisters, scolded a black man for not attending his daughter???s birthday party. The aim of this scene was meant to humiliate black men as neglectful fathers. Ms. O???Brien won???t be permitted by her employees to mention that 75% of white children will live at one time or another in a single parent household and that the Gov. of South Carolina???s not showing up for Father???s Day isn???t just a lone aberration in ???White America.???
How would CNN promote a ???White in America???? The thousands of meth addicts who have abandoned their children? The California rural and suburban white women who do more dope than Latino and black youth? The suburban Dallas white teenagers who are overdosing on ???cheese??? heroin? Why not? Can???t get State Farm, Ford and MacDonald???s to sponsor such a program? All of these companies are sponsoring ???Black in America,??? the aim of which is to cast collective blame on blacks for the country???s social problems. For ratings.
During CNN???s carnival act disguised as news, the scene of Zimbabwe???s Prime Minster being urinated upon by a monkey while sitting in his garden drew snickers in the newsroom. This is what passes for coverage of the African continent by CNN.
When the bulletin that Michael Jackson had died flashed across the screen, I was prepared for TV at it???s worst and I wasn???t disappointed. The man wasn???t cold before the familiar adjectives were rolled out. ???Weird, bizarre, eccentric,??? the traditional language used to disparage artists by the bourgeoisie. Dan Abrams, who made his reputation by convicting O. J. Simpson before the opening arguments of his criminal trial, made a snarky comment about Jackson???s weirdness. Mr. Abrams, a higher up at MSNBC, employs a Hitler admirer named Pat Buchanan. Given Abram???s background, why isn???t that considered weird?
Former Calfornia poet laureate Al Young called to inform me that CNN???s Jeffrey Toobin, another O. J. alumni, and a man who said that blacks shouldn???t be ???patted on the head??? or ???patronized??? for believing in O. J. Simpson???s innocence, had made some ugly comments about Jackson. (A star who has had at least a dozen facelifts called into the ???Larry King Show??? to comment about MJ???s altering his appearance).
Also weird was MSBC???s Savanah Guthries??? air-headed depiction of the trial. (For a list of Ms. Guthries??? false reportings see MediaMatters.com). She said that the evidence against Jackson in the trial was ???devastating." So devastating that some legal experts said that Jackson should never have been brought to trial and that the aim of the trial was to seek a pound of flesh from Jackson for being uppity and for putting the name of Thomas W. Sneddon Jr., a vindictive District Attorney, into a song. In my opinion it was the prosecution of Jackson by this District Attorney, who, among other things, violated Jackson???s fourth amendment rights, and made disparaging remarks about the star during a press conference, and the side-show pro prosecution media coverage that killed Jackson.
In my lengthy examination of the trial printed in my book, ???Mixing It Up, Taking on The Media Bullies,??? I concluded that though millions of Jackson???s fans celebrated his acquittal, the District Attorney, who was allowed to squander the California taxpayers??? money so that he might humiliate a rich black man, whom he felt had sassed him, was the victor. At the beginning of the trial, Jackson was dancing on top of a van. During the trial he had to be hospitalized. At the end, he was a frail emaciated wreck.
Because of the malicious prosecution of Jackson by Sneddon and Sneddon???s claque in the media, Jackson will always be regarded as a pedophile. (When the trial opened, a USA Today / CNN / Gallup Poll found that 72% of whites and 51% of Blacks believed that the charges against Jackson were ???Definitely??? or ???Probably??? true.) Wherever ???Mad Dog??? Sneddon, this hateful man might be in his retirement, he can gloat over the death of the man against whom he waged a vendetta with all of the power of the state at his disposal. Sneddon even tried to introduce photos of Jackson???s genitals during the 2005 trial, which proved too much even for the pro prosecution judge.
Of course, none of Sneddon???s abuse or the abuse of Jackson by his accusers was mentioned by an old corporate media, out of touch and on life supports. For infotainers like Katie Couric, Jackson???s father Joe was MJ???s sole abuser. In the eyes of yesterday???s media, black fathers are the principal actors in domestic violence.
Guthrie also said that the prosecution ???had conducted mini trials within the trial,??? which brought up ???a whole history of prior bad acts of molestation.??? She was referring to 1994 case in which Jackson was accused of pedophilia by a youngster who, according to writer Mary Fisher, a serious journalist, was used by his father to wrest some cash from Jackson. In"Mixing It Up,??? I summarized Mary Fisher???s serious and thorough investigation that was originally published in GQ, October, 1994, under the title ???Was Michael Jackson Framed???? Jackson settled out of court because Johnnie Cochran didn???t want him to face one of those all white suburban juries that O. J. faced.
Fisher wrote: ???It???s a story of greed, ambition, misconceptions of part of police and prosecutors, a lazy and sensation-seeking media and the use of a powerful, hypnotic drug. It may also be a story about ho w a case was simply invented.???
Fisher claimed that the first case arose from the ambitions of the thirteen-year-old accuser???s stepfather, Evan Chandler, who exploited Jackson???s friendship with his son. At one point, he asked Jackson to build him a house. Fisher said that the child denied being abused by Jackson until he was administered the drug sodium amytal, which is known to induce false memory. Chandler refused to be interviewed for the article and refused to appear on the Today Show, where Fisher repeated her charges before a nationwide audience. She said that the whole scheme was concocted by the child???s stepfather to destroy the superstar.
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."
While referring to Jackson as ???bizarre??? none of the cable reporting about Jackson???s death cited the bizarre courtroom testimony of the plaintiff???s mother, Janet Arvizo. At one point during her testimony, she said that feared her children would disappear from Neverland, Jackson???s ranch, in a hot air balloon.
On Apr 18, 2005, Agence France-Presse reported ???The mother of Michael Jackson's young molestation accuser claimed that she feared her children would be spirited away from the star's Neverland Ranch in a hot air balloon. In some of the most bizarre testimony of Jackson's frequently surreal trial, the woman revealed that she told police she feared her three kids would vanish from Neverland into California's blue skies.
"Did you tell the sheriff that you thought your children might disappear in a hot air balloon from Neverland?" Jackson's lead lawyer Thomas Mesereau asked the woman under cross-examination.
"I made them aware," she said.
Finally, in November of 2006, according to TMZ, Janet Arvizo pled no contest to a welfare fraud charge in Los Angeles. She was ordered to 150 hours of community service and to pay $8, 600 in restitution. During Jackson's trial, Arvizo invoked the Fifth regarding welfare fraud. Seems that she applied for welfare even though she???d received a $150, 000 settlement from J. C. Penny???s. Even with the mother???s behavior and the boys lies, Nancy Grace, commenting on the death of Jackson, said that she was surprised by the not guilty verdict in the Jackson trial. No wonder Ms. Grace has been called??? a cheerleader for the prosecution.???
Yet, these journalists insist that their news product is superior
to that of bloggers. (Journalistic bottom feeder, Diane Dimond, a Sneddon fan and Jackson stalker was invited by MSNBC to weigh in during which she was allowed to engage in doofus speculation much of it ugly about Jackson???s life and death)
G. Q. s Mary Fisher accused her colleagues of lazy journalism of the sort that defamed Jackson in life and in death. Maureen Orth from Vanity Fair didn???t read Mary Fisher???s findings. She was on the Chris Matthews Show accusing Jackson of ???serious felonies??? involving pedophilia. Another reporter who seemed to nullify the 2005 Jackson jurie's decision was ???Morning Joe???s??? adjunct bimbo, Courtney Hazlett. She said that there would be no pilgrimage to Neverland and as there was to Graceland, because ???bad things happened at Never Land." We are led to believe that Presley and his entourage spent their days at Graceland drinking milk and reading each other passages from the scriptures.
All of these opinions seem to indicate that Cable???s talking heads have taken it upon themselves to nullify the judgment of juries whenever they please. This all white electronic jury has placed itself above the law.
But at least Jackson didn???t suffer from the kind of hi tech lynching accorded the tragic Patsy Ramsey. For years cable, which now not only calls elections but acts as judge and jury, accused her of murdering her child. Only after her death was it found that she was innocent.
If the reporting on Jackson???s death by the media wasn???t salacious and ignorant enough, it didn???t get any better the next day, June 26.
Ignoring Jackson???s philanthropic pursuits and contributions to forty charities, on the ???Today Show,??? it was all about what happened to all of the nigger???s money and whether he died from too many drugs and what???s to become of his children, questions meant to attract the prurient. Again, Diane Dimod was invited on to spread scurrilous unconfirmed rumors about the dead star. Some of the modern day carnival barkers like Chris Matthews expressed surprise that Jackson???s death resulted in such an outpouring of worldwide mourning. This is what happens to people like Matthews who dwell in an insulated white supremacist bubble (that includes the Anglo wannabe and Churchill admiring Irish among them) which holds that a narrow cultural strip between New York and Washington represents the world.
I would like to have seen more independent African-American journalists comment on the passing of Michael Jackson, but, according to Richard Prince, who runs a media blog for the Maynard journalism Institute, hundreds have lost their jobs over the last two years, including Pulitzer Prize winners like Les Payne.
With the absence of black and Latinos from journalism, the media have become a spare all white jury always ready to take down a black celebrity for the entertainment of the types who used to attend those acts created by P. T. Barnum.
i've been cranky lately. sorry, all.
p.s-actually, after re-reading this article i have to say that it was mostly paranoid, conspiratorial, hysterical, self righteous clap trap. MJ's problems stemmed from racism? bullshit
the idea that he was set up unfairly by a racist media and a mad-dog prosecutor so white people could feel better about themselves is just wishful thinking on the part of someone who is desperately trying to salvage MJ's legacy.
...and the legacy is really complicated matter here. there seems to be near-universal agreement on the importance of his life's work and the scope of his talent but beyond that it gets very murky. was he a martyr who was exploited by others or a sexual predator who manipulated young boys, their families, and ultimately the criminal justice system with his fame, wealth and power? i'm not sure it's one or the other. as i said, i think the matter of his legacy is very complicated
You think MJ is exempt from the historical media coverage of Black folks?
All those years of "Wacko Jacko" coverage evaporate during the trial and his post-mortem reports?
i am not sure i get your point...can you rephrase that?
All the years of the media portraying MJ as Wacko-Jacko suddenly isnt applied to when he was up for trial and the post-mortem coverage?
I can agree w/ Reed that Racism is a factor in how MJ is covered in the media.
How has Woody Allen been portrayed?
I dont understand why MJ gets this look, yet every other musical great goes down w/ out this critique?
Miles Davis??? U dont know the stories? Marvin Gaye......???
i still don;t fully understand the point. my recollection is that "wacko jako" was a product of cheeky british tabloids who revelled in the extreme surgeries and the increasingly "eccentric" lifestyle he began to openly adopt in the early 90's. was he ridiculed unfairly and viscously by the tabloid press? probably. but was this because he was a successful black man who needed to be taken down because he represented some sort of threat to the white power structure or rather because he kept providing the tabloids with fodder?
woody allen has been ridiculed and portrayed as a weirdo who likes little girls but his image has been rehabilitated somewhat in the past few years, especially since he married his adopted daughter, she has given birth to his children, and he has produced some ok films. he was never charged with anything and for all we know he hasn;t been carrying on relationships with underage individuals. MJ on the other hand was alleged to have been involved with numerous young boys over a period of decades and while this may be an unfair double a double standard it made the story seem more lurid. also, there seemed to be a rapid drop off in artistic output and quality that made it hard to ignore that he was involved in some extremely odd and possibly illegal activities.
i think the media loved to document and indeed cheer on his his increasing detachment from reality and self-destruction in the same way that it did for brittany spears but i just don;t see how race is the key factor here. in fact, if anything, i think sexuality trumps race in this case.
i read bios of both miles and marvin and while those guys were far from being saints, their flame-outs were not quite as public or prolonged as MJ's. also, marvin and miles' issues seemed to revolve around drugs (read: cocaine) which is regarded as being more forgiveable or understandable than paedophilia.
Partially because he was a 'pop' star who had huge appeal across the board, including millions of children. (It seems the less mainstream you are, and the more adult orientated your act is, the more likely people are going to gloss over your adult transgressions)
He was also the most famous man in the world, whose every move in life was played out in the public eye. People never watched Miles Davis dangling a baby out a forth story hotel window, on the news.
Since the end of the Bad era, Michael as a musical entity began to loose its appeal, but Michael's life, especially his bizarre behavior, was still 'great entertainment'. For the last 15 years the focus has been on this and not his music or performances.
The crime he was accused of, is probably modern societies number one fear and most hated of crimes. Even though he was never convicted, he still openly admitted to inviting other peoples children to share his bed. Which is very odd behavior for a 40 year old man.
I was watching re-runs of Fresh Prince the other day, in the episode Will and Carlton get caught in some girls' room by the boyfriend. The boyfriend is a huge black dude. Will Smith quips at him "shouldn't you be climbing the Empire State and fighting planes or something".
the embrace the black community has given to MJ after his death is sort of strange - he was a beloved boy & young adult but the dude has been trying to become white for years - any discussion of racism in Michael's case should start with his internal racial issues that caused him to F*ck up his face & complexion
Buggin.
The joy his music gave overrides all that shit.
U should just accept that Black Heroes whove sinned get a different pass in the Black EXP than they do in the white exp.
Even when he was bleachin himself, dude still repped the Black Exp.
Was his OFW Nosejob a reason to "kick him out"?
MJ could be the victim of media racism AND a victim of his own excesses. Reed may go too easy on the latter but that doesn't negate the basic idea of the former.
is that even possible?
I'm just saying that the idea of 'the most famous man in the world' being a beautiful black boy who progressively 'whitened' himself( to death basically) raises some DEEP issues - for you, me, everyone really
a much more interesting & convoluted topic than this 'he was persecuted' 'lynch mob' schtick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzdXcTIBDW0
*being Katt Williams it pretty raw. If you're easily upset by someone talking ill of MJ I wouldn't watch it.
sure
I think the kid lied AND MJ touched little boys
Did he? When that story broke on the net a week or so ago, the only websites reporting it were bullshit sites (which after a few hours or days removed the story/link). I want that story to be true, but it didn't seem like it was. Has more came out or has it has been proven true by a reputable source that the kid did in fact admit his dad was scammin' Mike?
I guess what I'm saying is that I really question whether greater White America has the acute sense of Michael Jackson's blackness that these arguments require.
Ask R. Kelley.
I don't think the article means to say this. Reed is saying that the intentions of the white-controlled mass media can be summed up into a reason for MJ's demise. It was all these singular instances that led to this.
Big white soul 45 dealer in Detroit thinks award-winning black novelist's take on racial responses to MJ is wrong... fails to consider that most folks -black and white- understand that, however MJ felt about being black, he WAS black, and cosmetic surgery couldn't alter that. His accomplishments were the accomplishments of a black man. A black American man became the most famous entertainer the world has ever seen.
When Woody Allen dies the first thing that's gonna cross my mind is "sleazebag".
Then "Sleeper".
rehab or something?
hope everything is ok
go back & read james insightful post & get off my dick