# Waco Jacko interview **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 4, 2003, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675 "2003-02-04T10:54:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/21 "2003-02-04T15:50:55Z")
Singularly, for mine, after the Britney Spears “Artist of the Millenium” faux pax early in 2002, well… the most outstanding reaction I personally have is this… “Gee Michael! None of us realised all these years just what a dumb fuck you are! We all thought you were just weird and eccentric, but when push comes to shove, you’re just a plain run-of-the-mill dumb fuck aren’t ya?” Case in point… how else could you blow the Beatles Publishing Rights fortune? Can anyone say “Rub your hands Sony - it’s only a matter of time till all those Lennon McCartney tunes are ALL YOURS!”? ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/22 "2003-02-04T16:05:10Z")
Btw I didn’t know he could cure cancer. He should write in a medical journal. ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/23 "2003-02-04T16:36:58Z")
he never said he cured cancer. He said he wanted to help cure him by showing him attention and love. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/24 "2003-02-04T18:38:43Z")
I thought the programme itself was poorly conceived, set up and edited. If Bashir had just sat down and interviewed Jackson for a long time, a la Diana, I think we would have been able to learn more. Also, if he had done his research and been well-briefed, he could have done a lot more to excavate the truth when Jackson was coming out with nonsense such as the vitiligo story (it doesn’t make you go procelain white all over), or only having had two nose operations (yeah, right). While there is a place for ‘filler’ images of Jackson climbing trees or shopping, these are just staged PR pieces that tell us nothing we haven’t heard a zillion times from the Jackson PR machine. I wanted Bashir to get tougher, and ask more searching questions, but he only even began to do this on the ‘sleeping with boys’ issue. Even then, his ‘confrontation’ was fairly weak, since it effectively amounted to pulling an incredulous expression and asking ‘Isn’t that a bit weird?’. Sequences such as ‘Jackson teaches Bashir to moon walk’ were just absurd, and a gross waste of the airtime available. By all means do that stuff, if it’s part of bulding rapport with the interviewee, but there’s no need to include it in the final edit. Jackson told two incompatible stories about the mother of his third child, so we know his veracity is, um, shaky at best. I can’t believe Bashir had this golden opportunity to nail down the truth about Jackson’s weirder than weird appearance and behaviour, and blew it. Jackson said his fans wanted to see the baby so he showed them the baby. “Yes, Mr Jackson, but it’s possible to do this without holding the baby over the edge of the balcony.” Jackson said nobody makes a fuss when white people gain a tan and look brown. “Yes Mr Jackson, but that’s part of a natural process that everyone understands, and it’s non-permanent. Whereas your own transformation suggests intentional skin-bleaching, which some commentators think shows you aren’t proud of your race. Can we get to the bottom of this?”. Jackson claimed it’s just vitiligo. “No, Mr Jackson, that may be part of the answer, but it can’t be all of it, because vitiligo doesn’t produce a change either as comprehensive or as pure as your own apparent change”. Jackson said he had never had any plastic surgery except for two nose jobs. “Not so, Mr Jackson, because here are some clear 10x8 photos showing there have been manifest changes to your eyelids, cheeks, chin and lips over the past 20 years which experts in the field of plastic surgery tell us are strongly indicative of surgical alteration and cannot credibly be attributed to the ageing process”. Bashir didn’t pursue any of these lines of enquiry, and took the lazy reporter’s role of “I’ll let the interviewee stand or fall through his own words”. The tabloids this morning here in the UK have been their usual nasty, spiteful selves, wilfully mis-representing and mis-construing the whole ‘sleeps with boys’ issue and proving once again that a nation gets the press it deserves. They only print it because people buy it. More fools we for accepting such garbage as if it’s got any place in a “news” paper. It will be interesting to read about the reactions once this gets shown in the States. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/25 "2003-02-04T19:40:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Yong Lee Fampee \* > \*\*I am going to defend Michael Jackson on one point concerning his looks. > > Michael has a skin disorder called vitiligo. Vitiligo is a skin disorder, in which the skin does not produce melenin (sic?) that produces skin color. This is why his face looks white. \*\* **YLF** , meet [Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/photos/jackson.asp): > [@](#): > > (bolding mine)Dermatologists also suggested that Jackson has probably undergone Botox injections in his forehead, has had plastic surgery on his eyes, had had his chin squared off, **has lightened his skin using a hydroquinone compound (not legal in the U.S.)**, and has tattooed eyebrows and eyeliner. Do you really think vitiligo alone would explain [this](http://www.btinternet.com/~Ptwebsites/mj/gallery/bambiawards2002/bambiawards11.jpg) or [this](http://www.btinternet.com/~Ptwebsites/mj/lastpic.gif) or [this](http://www.btinternet.com/~Ptwebsites/mj/gallery/berlin2002/berlin7.jpg)? And it’s not just his face that’s getting whiter, check his hands. ---
**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 4, 2003, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/26 "2003-02-04T19:58:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sir Doris \* > \*\* > He obviously loves his kids. The baby incident was blown out of proportion. Stupid yes, but not abuse and those demanding that he should have his kids taken away from him should conentrate on those children who are beaten or neglected, not on a guy who did a stupid thing, that had no adverse consequences. How many dads have thrown their kids up in the air for example? that’s potentially dangerour, but for the most part nothing goes wrong. > > \*\* There is a HUGE difference between tossing a kid up in the air a few inches, and dangling a small child over a two story balcony with only ONE ARM! Especially while covering the kid’s face with a towel! He seemed to care more about hiding the kid’s face than he did about accidentally dropping him. Letting your kids out only if they’re covered with scarves OVER THEIR FACES??? Isolating them from people their own age? Look, I don’t think he’s abusive, or a pedophile. However, I do think he’s mentally ill, delusional, and I don’t think that it is a HEALTHY environment for a child to grow up in. I do think it was probably innocent, the kids sleeping in his room. However, it was damn irresponsible, because he should KNOW that people will misunderstand. If he wants to live in a dream world, that’s his business. But to subject others to that, through no choice of their own is frightening. Actually still trying to deny any plastic surgery beyond TWO nose jobs? How does he explain his eyes? His chin? What the hell? ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/27 "2003-02-04T20:08:42Z")
poor man. i feel so much pity for him. i think that if he wasn’t so rich and famous he would have probably got more of the help that he needs, as it is no-one can make him do anything he doesn’t want to do. ianzin, didn’t bashir say that the last part of the final interview was, for him, very revealing, but couldn’t be shown because MJ forbade it as a breach of the confidentiality agreement? ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/28 "2003-02-04T20:33:58Z")
Would anyone be surprised if in 10 years it comes out that the man had his testicles removed circa 1983? And that he keeps them in a box on his mantle? ---
**Author:** ![Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@Bad\_News\_Baboon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bad_News_Baboon)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/29 "2003-02-04T20:35:30Z")
Here’s what I don’t understand: Let’s just assume that he has vitiligo. I can understand wanting to have an even skin tone… but why can’t that skin tone have been brown? I know that make up can be used sucessfully: A client of my husbands was to appear in an ad and the make up artist ‘fixed’ the vitiligo…so much so that the woman cried because she finally looked normal (her words). She wasn’t aware of products such as dermablend. Someone with Jackson’s money could surely afford a makeup artist if that was the case, couldn’t he? The time involved would be no less than the time he spends getting his entourage together. I’m not buying his story for a minute. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/30 "2003-02-04T20:42:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\*Actually still trying to deny any plastic surgery beyond TWO nose jobs? How does he explain his eyes? His chin? What the hell? \*\* And the fact that he’s had a new look[nearly every year since 1997](http://anomalies-unlimited.com/Jackson.html). ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/31 "2003-02-04T20:49:49Z")
You guys keep assuming that he’s still mega rich but I’m not so sure. I remember hearing before his last album that he has been living off of credit for a long time, he’s really deep in debt, and if his album flopped he would be totally screwed. Well, it flopped, didn’t it? World Eater said he got paid 5M for the interview and I agree that he probably needed is desperately. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2003, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/32 "2003-02-04T23:23:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cisco \* > **I remember hearing before his last album that he has been living off of credit for a long time, he’s really deep in debt, and if his album flopped he would be totally screwed. Well, it flopped, didn’t it?** Another indicator is that he’s being [sued by Sotheby’s](http://www.billboard.com/billboard/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1808164) for not paying the $1.4 million he bid on two Bourgeroux paintings he bought in October. His official excuse: “…Michael Jackson now believes the property … no longer fits into Michael Jackson’s collection…” Ah-huh… and I believe that Jade Barrymore really sold her daughter Drew’s childhood clothes and toys on e-Bay because she wanted “to share a piece of Drew with her fans”. ---
**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 5, 2003, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/33 "2003-02-05T02:28:45Z")
Someone needs to stage an intervention or SOMETHING. This guy needs to be institutionalized. He’s heading for a major meltdown. ---
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/34 "2003-02-05T03:11:33Z")
I remember David Spade on Saturday Night Live making a comment on MJ’s vitiligo. He said something like “that’s reality, get used to it.” I dated a girl with vitiligo. I fail to see what’s the big fucking deal with it. Sort of like reverse freckles. Some people have birthmarks. Some men go bald. How is vitiligo even remotely seen as something all that horrible. MJ is a nut, but there have been a couple of posters with it who likely notice it way more than anyone else they meet. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/35 "2003-02-05T03:37:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Road Rash \* > \*\*I remember David Spade on Saturday Night Live making a comment on MJ’s vitiligo. He said something like “that’s reality, get used to it.” I dated a girl with vitiligo. I fail to see what’s the big fucking deal with it. Sort of like reverse freckles. Some people have birthmarks. Some men go bald. > > How is vitiligo even remotely seen as something all that horrible. MJ is a nut, but there have been a couple of posters with it who likely notice it way more than anyone else they meet. \*\* The point is not whether vitiligo is something all that horrible (of course it isn’t), it’s that Michael Jackson’s symptoms suggest to many people that he _hasn’t_ got it, which leaves the natural presumption that he has used a cosmetic procedure to lighten his skin deliberately. ---
**Author:** ![Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@Boo\_Boo\_Foo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boo_Boo_Foo)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/36 "2003-02-05T07:35:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Cisco \* > \*\*You guys keep assuming that he’s still mega rich but I’m not so sure. I remember hearing before his last album that he has been living off of credit for a long time, he’s really deep in debt, and if his album flopped he would be totally screwed. Well, it flopped, didn’t it? > > World Eater said he got paid 5M for the interview and I agree that he probably needed is desperately. \*\* Indeed, which is why I was hanging shit on Jackson earlier when I referred to him blowing the Beatles “Northern Songs” fortune. Apparently, he sold half of those rights to Sony for a gazillion in the mid 90’s, but then, he was advanced something like another $200 milliion by Sony with the remaining 50% rights to “Northern Songs” as the security. The good oil is that Sony intends to call in the note any time now and then, “Norther Songs ITV” will be entirely owned by Sony CBS - which of course means you’ll hear Beatle’s tunes showing up simply everywhere - flogging everything from cars to tampons. Again, considering the supposed monster success of Jackson in the early to late 80’s - the question just has to be asked how did he managed to blow that much dough? And further, how did he manage to blow all the dough he was paid by Sony for the 50% sale of the Beatles’ catalogue in the mid 90’s? Let alone, what has he done with “advance” that Sony gave him 3 odd years ago. Regardless of your opinions on his appearance, or his possible weird ways with young lads, as I said earlier… the Britney Spears “Artist of the Millenium” embarassment merely confirmed one inarguable conclusion - the guy is an epic dumb fuck. All these years he was portrayed to us as some sort of “musical genius” - and the reality is that your typical clerk at a drive thru hamburger joint has got more brains. ---
**Author:** ![Yong\_Lee\_Fampee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ba8739/32.png) [@Yong\_Lee\_Fampee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yong_Lee_Fampee)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/37 "2003-02-05T11:55:18Z")
Michael Jackson looks white because of the vitiligo. In extreme cases vitiligo can whiten the whole body, deleting it completely of melanin. Somebody asked about him changing back to his original color, this is not possible. You cannot do an Earl Schieb paint job on the human epidermis, the skin does not like this (rashes, lesions etc.). Michael was actually a handsome young man, pre Thriller. I have read a tabloid several years ago that stated that MJ is addicted to plastic surgery (as opposed to cocaine, fast cars, and sex like normal rock stars). When MJ looks in the mirror, he is not happy at what looks back at him. It is a little bit like anorexia, where the anorexic thinks their fat even whn they are 6 foot tall and weigh 46 pounds. MJ, you look like shit. And I am saying this in a loving way. He might not have the money like he used to, but I doubt we will ever see him working at Wal Mart. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/38 "2003-02-05T13:56:05Z")
> [@](#): > > He might not have the money like he used to, but I doubt we will ever see him working at Wal Mart. MJ working at WalMart, eh? Hmm… _cue dream sequence_ ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/39 "2003-02-05T14:25:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Yong Lee Fampee \* > **Michael Jackson looks white because of the vitiligo. In extreme cases vitiligo can whiten the whole body, deleting it completely of melanin.** If it is vitiligo then he must have the worst case ever recorded. In the pictures I linked to, the guy has the complexion of an albino! ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2003, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675/40 "2003-02-05T14:30:45Z")
I didn’t see the interview (couldn’t even if I’d wanted to, since it hasn’t aired in the US yet), but from what I hear I can believe that Jackson may not actually be a genuine pedophile. But judging from what he’s said about his own behavior around children, plus his apparent loose grip on reality, I can also believe that he may, with innocent intent, have cuddled or fondled children in a way that would not only look bad to outside observers but could have made the children feel frightened or uncomfortable. And if he hasn’t actually done this yet, I don’t think he’s got enough sense or self-awareness to make it a sure thing that he won’t in the future. If he were smart and sane he’d watch himself, not just because of the way things might look but because of the way things might actually feel to the kids. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/waco-jacko-interview/152675.md?page=3)