# Michael Jackson Dead **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2009, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988 "2009-06-25T21:15:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/201 "2009-06-26T02:02:50Z")
Jermaine had a hard time with that. ---
**Author:** ![MyFootsZZZ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/myfootszzz/32/12580_2.png) [@MyFootsZZZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MyFootsZZZ)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/202 "2009-06-26T02:03:58Z")
I’m indifferent about him personally and little skeptical about the child molestation stuff. What an artist though. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/203 "2009-06-26T02:09:37Z")
> [@rocking\_chair](#): > > a moment of funny in the reporting: > > fans are placing flowers, candles, and tributes at the WRONG star on the hollywood walk of fame. there are 2 michael jackson stars on the walk, the one for the king of pop is under a red carpet that is out for the premier of bruno. Just out of curiosity, what did the other do in the entertainment industry (I’d Google, but I have a hard time believing I’d find the right one right now)? I assume the only difference is with their industry icons? ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/204 "2009-06-26T02:13:15Z")
> [@uglybeech](#): > > I’m still not clear on what the consensus is among reasonably people about the pedophile charges. > > Personally I didn’t follow it closely, but it did make an impression on me that nothing else ever came up outside of that one accusation. So I had sort of thought - it was probably bogus. I go only by what he said himself about the Jesus juice and sharing a bed with a child. It doesn’t look good to this father of two. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/205 "2009-06-26T02:15:08Z")
As Howard Stern once said, “If Michael Jackson likes kids so much, where are all the little girls?” ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/206 "2009-06-26T02:15:45Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Just out of curiosity, what did the other do in the entertainment industry (I’d Google, but I have a hard time believing I’d find the right one right now)? I assume the only difference is with their industry icons? [List of Stars](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_on_the_Hollywood_Walk_of_Fame) The other [Michael Jackson.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jackson_(radio_commentator)) ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/207 "2009-06-26T02:18:19Z")
i believe the other michael jackson is in radio, british, and alive. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/208 "2009-06-26T02:20:40Z")
[QUOTE=uglybeech] Personally I didn’t follow it closely, but it did make an impression on me that nothing else ever came up outside of that one accusation. So I had sort of thought - it was probably bogus. [/QUOTE] [There was another one](http://www.statementanalysis.com/jackson/). It’s what made him give up Neverland. And besides, you think if someone is only accused once, that automatically makes them not guilty? Lots of guilty people are never even accused once. Their victims keep the silence. Does that make them not guilty? (and yes, I realize that being accused doesn’t make a person guilty, but in these cases, I believe Jackson was guilty) [QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] You don’t pay $15 million to someone accusing you of molesting them if you didn’t do it. [/QUOTE] $22 million, according to Wikipedia (which of course, could be wrong, but in any case, that’s a hell of a lot of money to make a false accusation go away). I will say this about him: he told the “Church” of Scientology to fuck off. They married Lisa Marie Presley to him in a bid to get his money and his fans, and when he just flat out refused to buy into the bullshit, she divorced him. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/209 "2009-06-26T02:22:27Z")
> [@Nzinga\_Seated](#): > > I’m not saying he wasn’t a pedo. I have no idea. I don’t peg him for one, but I have no idea. > > But, I do wanna say…is it really fair to use your list to determine what’s really up with him? I mean the average man that sleeps with other people’s kid and is fixated on young boys may be obviously pedos, but he was so weird in so many ways, that it seems not right to use the same measuring stick. Pedos aren’t known for hacking their faces to bits, bleaching their skin to shit, starving themselves to bones, making monkeys their boyfriends, Elizabeth Taylor their imaginary friend, a llama their teddy bear, or whatever. > > He was a weirdo in very deep and strange ways. The fact that he also was weird in ways that pedos are weird doesn’t convince me he is a pedo. > > Like, in that interview where he admitted to sleeping with kids with so much innocence. He didn’t have to admit to that, but he did; because maybe he honestly didn’t find it dirty…maybe he honestly didn’t molest anyone. > > Some cultures think nothing of sleeping in the same bed with children. > > I made my daughter leave my bed because I knew it was expected of me by this society. I honestly had no problem with her, me and her dad in the same bed. I simply knew that it is not accepted in society. > > Maybe his reasoning was weird, or wrong. But I am not convinced he was a pedo. > > I am not saying he wasn’t though. I love him as an artist, even if he was one. Well put! ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/210 "2009-06-26T02:25:09Z")
My favorite Jacko joke, courtesy, I believe, of Norm Macdonald: What’s the difference between a supermarket shopping bag and Michael Jackson? One’s white and made of plastic and the other one is a child molester. Had to get that out of the way. I have to say though, Jackson was pretty much my first musical hero. Now bear with me here … when I was like 6, my father traveled a lot and whenever he’d come back he’d bring presents; mine were always Jackson 5 records. I was a little Motown loving 1st grader. That early _ABC, I’ll Be There, I Want You Back, Never Can Say Goodbye,_ period was top-notch. Then I turned ten and discovered KISS. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/211 "2009-06-26T02:26:58Z")
I remember **Thriller** as the last album from him. My neice and I just watched the video from the title track. A smidge too much John Landis and not as good choreography as **Beat It** or his live gig of **Billy Jean** at the Motown gig but still pretty great. Also very good were \*\*Scream \*\*and \*\*Smooth Criminal \*\*for dancing and production. Great videos, they. He probably had a tough row to hoe and with that I empathise. Good on ya. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/212 "2009-06-26T02:30:46Z")
It is sad. I do think the accusations against him were true, but partly because he did seem to think of himself as a child - he could have been doing things that would have been completely appropriate for, say, two twelve year old boys to do together (there was never any accusation that he actually buggered those boys - it was all inappropriate fondling) - it’s just that they weren’t appropriate, because he was an adult. Course, I never knew the man, so that’s just speculation. He did make some fantastic music. That’s not speculation. He doesn’t seem to have had a happy life at all, poor bastard. The people I feel most sorry for - apart from his family - are the people trying to get into that hospital for medical reasons. It must be bloody difficicult for ambulances to get through, let alone visitors trying to their less famous dying relatives. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/213 "2009-06-26T02:31:06Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > My favorite Jacko joke, courtesy, I believe, of Norm Macdonald: > > What’s the difference between a supermarket shopping bag and Michael Jackson? > > One’s white and made of plastic and the other one is a child molester. What’s the difference between a supermarket shopping bag and Michael Jackson? One is dangerous to leave around children, and the other is for carrying your groceries home from the store. (I know, I’m goin’ to Hell) ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/214 "2009-06-26T02:34:22Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > (I know, I’m goin’ to Hell) Get in line… ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/215 "2009-06-26T02:36:38Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > You don’t pay $15 million to someone accusing you of molesting them if you didn’t do it. His personality profile was that of a textbook pedophile. Forty year old men don’t sleep with other people’s kids unless they’re fucking them. He was sexually fixated on adolescent boys. I see no point in denying the obvious. I just have to say this sums it up perfectly… His behavior (to me at least) can lead to no other conclusion—a truly innocent man would never agree to pay off someone to drop such a vile accusation if there was no truth behind it. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/216 "2009-06-26T02:39:36Z")
The coolest thing he ever did artistically was when he smashed up that car in the “Black or White” video – then he apologized and removed that scene from the video. That was too bad because it really was an extremely original, expressive and inventive piece of choreography. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/217 "2009-06-26T02:40:46Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I just have to say this sums it up perfectly… > > His behavior (to me at least) can lead to no other conclusion—a truly innocent man would never agree to pay off someone to drop such a vile accusation if there was no truth behind it. (Shrug) An innocent man with millions of dollars honestly afraid he might get railroaded by the system might. How can you know? ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/218 "2009-06-26T02:41:12Z")
> [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](#): > > I just have to say this sums it up perfectly… > > His behavior (to me at least) can lead to no other conclusion—a truly innocent man would never agree to pay off someone to drop such a vile accusation if there was no truth behind it. Right, b/c rational behavior was his strong point. :rolleyes: Does Michael Jackson even understand the concept of limited resources? I seriously doubt it. I would guess that he valued his reputation and his privacy more than he did money. He’d had unlimited amounts of that for the vast majority of his life. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/219 "2009-06-26T02:46:11Z")
An odd point is nagging me. For all the time I was aware of him, I’d heard that Michael Jackson was a mere 5 years old when he had his first top 40 hit (along with his brothers) in…1970? But the reports that I’m reading state that Michael was 50, which would have made him \*11 \* years old in '70. So which is it? Course, even being 11 years old and having a major hit record is impressive, but still this seems incongruous to me. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2009, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988/220 "2009-06-26T02:49:14Z")
> [@The New and Improved Superman](#): > > An odd point is nagging me. For all the time I was aware of him, I’d heard that Michael Jackson was a mere 5 years old when he had his first top 40 hit (along with his brothers) in…1970? But the reports that I’m reading state that Michael was 50, which would have made him \*11 \* years old in '70. So which is it? > > Course, even being 11 years old and having a major hit record is impressive, but still this seems incongruous to me. Maybe the name Jackson **5** subconsciously confused you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/michael-jackson-dead/500988.md?page=12)