Wow … just wowI was not a big MJ fan, but the Jackson family is all kinds of messed up. Does he even have a clue how crass this looks?
Break out the publicist, assert your authority through tons of legalese, and as for his family–they’re “fine”, “great”, etc.
What was worse was that the CNN anchor kept summarizing Joe’s words to make him sound more classy than any of the actual things that came out of his mouth.
Ugh.
It’s surprising enough to see a father who just lost a child even attend a gala, but his utter lack of any expression of grief is just stunning. I know we all grieve in different ways, and there are many emotions that go with the process, but I’ve truly never seen anyone react in such a neutral way. He seemed more focused on business and legal matters than anything remotely associated with the human aspect of losing a loved one. And that, to me, is just sad.
Joe Jackson has always been an asshole. He probably wouldn’t be there if not for the tribute to Michael. And he gets to soak up all the attention.
We just lost the biggest super star in the world. Not his little boy who grew up to fulfill every dream he could have had for his family. No, no. Not his son. The biggest super star in the world.
The entire show is supposed to be a tribute to Michael. I honestly can’t get too worked up about his attendance.
Didn’t Michael say Joe used to rehearse the boys with a belt in one hand? I think he’s probably the most responsible for Michael growing up as screwed up as he did. Latoya said Joe used to beat Michael worse than any of them.
It is slightly more about his words and delivery of said words, than just his attendance.
Joe seems to be always the publicity hound, but being an old timer, when I was a kid, many times I knew of my parents friends dying and they didn’t go to the funeral. This was the 70s before plane trips were that common and people didn’t expect it. I knew people who immigrated and got letters from “back home,” saying their mother had died two months ago.
This immediate grief and closure is really kind of an 80s and on type thing.
I’m not saying it’s not tacky, but it doesn’t mean he didn’t care or whatever. The practice of an older generation regarding death aren’t like today. When I was a kid you went to funerals. There wasn’t any question about whether a child could handle it, even if it was your father, mother or brother.
Again, I’m not saying he was right to go, but he is from another generation who had a more realistic approach to death and the aftermath.
Even then, there was a difference between losing a parent and losing a child.
Just 'cos you’re related doesn’t mean you care. Haven’t they been estranged for most of Michael’s life, and haven’t the family been pretty up-front in saying Joe was a shitty father?
If the relationship was more or less genetic-only with a side-serving of brutal management, then it’s not really shocking that he’s largely unaffected.
I can’t believe people would want to meet Joe Jackson, the very man who created the freak-side of Michael.
I mean, he slammed Michael’s head against the ground sometimes and beat him while holding him from his leg.
While people have doubted/questioned Michael’s accusations, I’ve never seen anyone doubt or question whether or not Joe Jackson was abusive.
He was and he should be scorned.
Joe comes across as a scary, abusive asshole even in the Jacksons: An American Dream TV movie commissioned by the Jackson family. It seems the kids (and Katherine) all hate him - but they realize that without his maniacal zeal they would not have been as successful as they were. As Michael often commented, they spent their childhood practicing and traveling through the Rust Belt, touring instead of playing and going to school.
It’s hard to believe in our age of American Idol and the internet, but there was no guarantee that the Jacksons, as talented as they were, would have been noticed by anybody outside of Gary, Indiana, without the relentless touring they did.
Also, keep in mind that there are 8 or 9 Jackson children. Michael was the most talented, but by all accounts most mercurial and held the cards once they got famous, when Joe was replaced by the Motown apparatus. So they were estranged at best, and likely hated each other. Joe likely saw MJ as a commodity from an early age, and that hasn’t changed.
That having been said, I’m not surprised that a family member showed up. There’s a lot of them, they live in LA, the BET Awards were being dedicated to them, and they are an old-school “the show must go one” types too.
I don’t think that Joe ever loved his kids. They were just a way for him to make money, like a troupe of trained ponies. Except that most pony trainers would care more for their animals than Joe cared about his kids.
Like Diosa I was unnerved by his words. “The biggest superstar in the worls has died” is a phrase a fan would use. Even a friend in the business might use those words. But good Holy Og a man’s father should have a more personal statement than that. Even the goddess Elizabeth Taylor was too choked up to speak about her dear friend.
Joe Jackson is the devil.
You know, Joe Jackson just might, possibly [/sarcasm], be a factor in why Michael was so screwed up in the head. This is not the first time Joe Jackson has shown himself to be a crass jerk, and I wasn’t surprised at all - it’s rather typical of him from what I’ve seen.
No, it is not the first time at all that Joe Jackson has been shown to be an ass, But it is the first time on this message board I have dared to defend Michael Jackson. I really don’t care anymore if anyone questions my decision .
Michael has never molested any chld, he has never hurt any child in any way in the physical sense. You know that is true. He would never do that.
There are things MJ did that might be thought of as inapproprriate, but that is a long way from illegal. And don’t even start with me about the spelling. I don’t care.
The BBC had this interesting video on their web page this morning. Though they don’t point it out, the choice of clips shows an interesting contrast between Janet the Sister, who was having a hard time keeping it together while delivering a short statement on stage, and Joe the Sperm-Donor, who seemed to enjoy talking to the press and certainly wasn’t acting like someone who had just lost a close family member. After I watched it I felt like I wanted to comfort Janet - and give Joe a thorough cluesticking :dubious:
“I’m fine” is not an answer I’d expect to hear from a bereaved father unless closely followed by “I have to be, my wife is devastated”.
That original video is creepy. He hardly said much until the publicist read the bits about them being the only persons authorised to speak- I could not watch it after that.
It’s one thing to assert your opinion and say that you don’t care if anyone questions it. That’s your prerogative, as the opinion holder.
But I, personally, do not “know it’s true” that Michael Jackson has never hurt a child, molested a child, whatever. I don’t know that he did. I don’t know that he did not.