# The guy who interviewed Jacko is a fucking tool.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [February 17, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615 "2003-02-17T13:23:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 14\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\
**Post date:** [February 19, 2003, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/61 "2003-02-19T23:41:23Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Lizard \*  
> **FWIW, I remember reading an interview in Playboy with Ola Ray, the former Playmate who costarred with Jackson in his “Thriller” video. She flatly said she had tried to get it on with him, and he wasn’t interested. She didn’t say it in an insulting way, or put him down at all; but she all but said she thought he was a virgin. “He’ll do it when he’s ready,” is, I believe how she put it.**

Wasn’t he a Jehovah’s Witness at the time?

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**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/62 "2003-02-20T02:18:42Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Rilchiam \*  
> \*\*Wasn’t he a Jehovah’s Witness at the time? \*\*

Sure. And that explained his actions _at the time._ But put it in context with everything we’ve learned about him since, specifically the long list of circumstantial evidence related by **Diogenes the Cynic** Hell, whenever I signed up for the Big Brothers program, they asked me if I was married or had a steady girlfriend. They told that men above a certain age who had never been married and had no steady girlfriend were almost always homosexual. (They weren’t relating an urban legend; this was something they’d learned through experience with their own program.) Jackson was well above that age when he married Presley. And can anyone name a serious girlfriend he had before then? Brooke Shields, twenty years earlier? And were they serious, or did they just go to a few parties together?

Like I said, FWIW. It’s circumstantial, sure. But keep throwing down pebbles, and sooner or later you have a rock slide.

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**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/63 "2003-02-20T03:07:02Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Lizard \*  
> \*\*It’s circumstantial, sure. But keep throwing down pebbles, and sooner or later you have a rock slide. \*\*

Good quote!

I didn’t bring up the JW thing as a defense of him: I just wanted to be sure I remembered accurately. He might have been susceptible to the JWs because he didn’t know who/what he was; he wouldn’t be the first person to use it as a crutch.

As for Ms. Shields, at the time they were “dating”, she was quite vocal about her fierce preservation of her virginity, so there’s your answer right there. She was also linked with George Michael for a time…hmm…

Whatever Jackson is, I don’t think it’s as simple as being “gay”. **Homosexual != pedophile** (did I use that symbol correctly?).

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**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/64 "2003-02-20T03:12:24Z")

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Yeah that guy may be a fucking tool, but I’ll thank him for showing what a freak jacko really is.

I didn’t see the documentary when it first aired, but I saw some of the repeat on Monday. What disturbed me most was the relationship he created with the boy with cancer. Appalling. Fame and fortune are not enough to lure these children into a relationship with this completely disturbed 44 year old. He also is able to hang the “I saved your life thing” over the kid.

No one (at least now, anyway) will know if there is anything sexual between them, but for that kid to be duped into a bizarre friendship with a grown man is dispicable. Thank you for helping save the boys life, Mike. Now do him a favor, and let him move on with his life before you fuck his head up anymore.

I was used to think Gloria Alred was a celebrity chasing bitch. No more. Someone has to try to stop Jackson’s manipulation of these children. NOW!

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**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:** [February 20, 2003, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/65 "2003-02-20T03:36:00Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> _Rilchiam_  
> Whatever Jackson is, I don’t think it’s as simple as being “gay”. Homosexual != pedophile (did I use that symbol correctly?).

Actually, if Jackson had ever had a same sex relationship with a man his own age, i would consider that a point in his favor. It would show that he was capable of a normal adult relationship and it would be very unlikely to a concocted PR realstionship such as the LMP marriage. Rilchiam is right that there is no correlationship between homosexuality and pedophilia. Homosexuality is a normal orientation, pedophlia is a pathology.  
Gay men are no more often attracted to boys than straight men are to little girls.

It occurs to me, though, that were Jackson to engage in the same activities with little girls that he admits to with boys (i.e. bathing/sleeping together, snuggling, holding hands) he’d have been hung from a tree already.

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/66 "2003-02-20T03:41:23Z")

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Gloria Allred is still a bitch. But in this case, I support her 100 percent.

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**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:** [February 20, 2003, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/67 "2003-02-20T04:05:10Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> there is no correlationship between homosexuality and pedophilia.

…or correlation, even…

Cripes…

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/68 "2003-02-20T05:35:54Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> _Originally posted by Lizard \*  
> \*\* They told that men above a certain age who had never been married and had no steady girlfriend were almost always homosexual. (They weren’t relating an urban legend; this was something they’d learned through experience with their own program.)_\*

Exactly what age is that? Because I’d hate to find out after all these years of thinking that I was straight, that I was really gay! :eek:

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**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/69 "2003-02-20T16:18:07Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Tuckerfan \*  
> \*\*Exactly what age is that? Because I’d hate to find out after all these years of thinking that I was straight, that I was really gay! :eek: \*\*

Forty years old. They really asked a LOT of probing questions about my personal/sex life. They were deliberately trying to screen out certain types of people though, specifically child molesters, so maybe I shouldn’t have just said “homosexual.” But it was the Big _Brothers_ program after all. What the caseworker told me later is they had a list of things to watch for. Being 40 or older, no children, never married, without a serious girlfriend who would act as a reference all together virtually _guaranteed_ you would be rejected. The requirements might have been different elsewhere in the country though.

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**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:** [February 20, 2003, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/70 "2003-02-20T16:22:09Z")

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Does BB/BS automatically reject anyone who identifies him/herself as homosexual? Thats eems kind of ignorant and discriminatory to me.

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/71 "2003-02-20T17:01:15Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Lizard \*  
> **Forty years old.**

**Whew!** Five years left!

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**Author:** ![Lizard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@Lizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lizard)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/72 "2003-02-20T17:19:22Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \*  
> \*\*Does BB/BS automatically reject anyone who identifies him/herself as homosexual? Thats eems kind of ignorant and discriminatory to me. \*\*

I don’t know. But I know they put a lot of effort into placing kids with people who are as “normal” in every way as possible. Ideally, every kid would be placed with a married, heterosexual, nonsmoking, non-drinking, gainfully employed adult who owns their own dairy farm and already has children of their own the same age. Just being _single_ makes you a less viable candidate. I didn’t make the cut, myself.

I think the main reason for this is to avoid any kind of controversy or potential liability. They figure it’s better to err on the side of caution. Plus, IIRC each individual office has some leeway on their standards. I applied in central Ohio, which I’m sure sees things differently than the office in, say, San Francisco.

**Tuckerfan** , keep in mind they had to make a judgement call about people without the benefit of being around them much or really getting to know them. They came to my apartment, looked at it, and interviewed me, but that has its limits when it comes to determining character. I think they just decided that these were the most broad and definitive stereotypes they could work with, so they went that route.

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/73 "2003-02-20T17:44:47Z")

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**Lizard** , ya been “whooshed!” I was making a joke about the fact that it appeared that any man over the age of 40 who wasn’t married, didn’t have a girlfriend, and had no kids was automatically considered gay.

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**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2003, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-guy-who-interviewed-jacko-is-a-fucking-tool/155615/74 "2003-02-20T21:29:15Z")

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Considering that a lot of pedophiles are married with kids of their own…

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