I don’t care how good he was as a musician… and he was good, there is not doubt.
He was a child molester.
A pedo on a major scale.
He just settled 14 or so lawsuits last year.
I will not grieve for him.
Grieve for his victims.
The mere accusation doesn’t a child molester make. Some family makes the accusation, there is a financial settlement and that family disappears. Anytime a case actually went to trial, he was acquitted. The only thing known to be the truth is that he was never convicted of anything.
Oh crap,
Don’t be so naive.
How many famous wealthy folks get accused of being a pedo on a regular basis?
How many of those folks build a fly trap for children like Neverland Ranch.
What normal man hangs out with little boys and throws huge money behind making it happen?
I’d be just fine if he was just going after adults. I don’t care if he is gay or not.
But little boys were his fixation.
Its fact.
Marc have you ever served on a legal jury?
It’s the ten million dollar settlements that fell out of the trees – for no reason, apparrantly – that add the bite to these ‘mere’ accusations. That’s a lot of money to pay someone to go away.
Exactly that s1m0n.
Let us not miss the facts.
There have been multiple settlements not just one or two.
After all you can’t know if he really was a child molester or if he simply wanted some people, who scented easy money, to go away. Last time when he was at court, he was acquitted afterwards. And if I were a parent, I certainly wouldn’t be satisfied with a few millions if I really knew that he has raped my child. I would want to destroy his life, that’s for sure. No matter who the rapist is or was.
You can’t know.
I think it is hard for people to align the idea of an apparently good-hearted person who cares about children with evidence of pedophilia. I once went to a 3-day workshop on pedophilia given by a long-time FBI agent who investigated child molestation cases for 30 years or so. Whatever the opposite of naive is, he was. He said that for the longest time he asked himself how pedophiles could so often come off convincingly as nice people who care about children until he realized that some pedophiles are nice people who care about children.
I am certain that false accusations of child sexual abuse occur. However, when there are accusations of child molestation from multiple parties, layered on top of a personality and set of public behaviors that are consistent with pedophilia, it strains credibility to dismiss them all as false accusations.
Up to a point, I feel sorry for pedophiles. I don’t think anyone wakes up and decides he wants to be a pedophile. However, the pedophile has 100 percent of the burden of refraining entirely from acting on his impulses. He must do whatever he must do to prevent himself from acting on it. Any pedophile should be able to look at the world and realize that he has impulses that are absolutely unacceptable to decent society and he must understand himself as deranged and he has to do what he must to deal with it.
I think that his career as a pop star warrants a good bit of media coverage, but given Mr. Jackson’s legal history, some of it seems disrespectful of what everybody must surely agree is at least a substantial possibility that he sexually exploited children.
I felt sorry for him from the first time I saw him. Celebrity often warps even the best grounded child. Add Jackson’s dysfunctional family into the mix and frankly I have been surprised he survived this long. It’s a pity he reproduced, I wish his children better success in life.
Jesus. This isn’t the place it used to be, even when the sh*thole is locked up.
Whatever.
He was one of the great dancers of the last century.
Fred Astaire was a big fan.
My favorite Michael Jackson works were “The English Pub,” “The World Guide to Beer,”
and “The World Guide to Whisky” I didn’t care for any of that music and dancing at all.
I think MJ’s personality and unusual habits simply made him a very easy target to allegations made against him. I am more than willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when there is a lack of any evidence. I don’t think now is the time to be speculating whether he was a child molester or not because that’s exactly what you are doing. Of all the accusations made against him, the fact that none stuck would seem to me to be significant. To the day he died, he never admitted to any wrong doing. I am sure people will look on him differently in death than life. Maybe he was guilty but I won’t make that determination based off anything I’ve heard so far. Maybe his death will shed more light on the subject. RIP.
Then you’d better unplug it until September.
The first ten million dollar payoff shut down a criminal prosecution for rape, not a civil lawsuit. I have no idea how he escaped getting charged with obstruction of justice, other than the fact that there was substantial public opinion that the kid had suffered enough and that putting him through another trial after all was not in the public interest.
wiki Michael Jackson.
Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse by a 13-year-old child named Jordan Chandler and his father Evan Chandler.[82] The friendship between Jackson and Evan Chandler broke down. Sometime afterwards, Evan Chandler was tape-recorded saying amongst other things, “If I go through with this, I win big-time. There’s no way I lose. I will get everything I want and they will be destroyed forever…Michael’s career will be over”.[83] A year after they had met, under the influence of a controversial sedative, Jordan Chandler told his father that Jackson had touched his penis.[84] Evan Chandler and Jackson, represented by their legal teams, then engaged in unsuccessful negotiations to resolve the issue in a financial settlement; the negotiations were initiated by Chandler but Jackson did make several counter offers. Jordan Chandler then told a psychiatrist and later police that he and Jackson had engaged in acts of kissing, masturbation and oral sex, as well as giving a detailed description of what he alleged were the singer’s genitals.[85]
An official investigation began, with Jordan Chandler’s mother adamant that there was no wrongdoing on Jackson’s part. Neverland Ranch was searched; multiple children and family members denied that he was a pedophile.[85] Jackson’s image took a further turn for the worse when his older sister La Toya Jackson accused him of being a pedophile, a statement she later retracted.[86] Jackson agreed to a 25-minute strip search, conducted at his ranch. The search was required to see if a description provided by Jordan Chandler was accurate. Doctors concluded that there were some strong similarities, but it was not a definitive match.[86] Jackson made an emotional public statement on the events; he proclaimed his innocence, criticized what he perceived as biased media coverage and told of his strip search.[82]
Jackson began taking painkillers, Valium, Xanax and Ativan to deal with the stress of the allegations made against him. By the fall of 1993, Jackson was addicted to the drugs.[87] His health deteriorated to the extent that he canceled the remainder of the Dangerous World Tour and went into drug rehabilitation for a few months.[88] The stress of the allegations also caused Jackson to stop eating, losing a significant amount of weight.[89] With his health in decline, Jackson’s friends and legal advisers took over his defense and finances; they called on him to settle the allegations out of court, believing that he could not endure a lengthy trial.[88][89]
Tabloid reaction to the allegations put Jackson in an unfavorable light.[90] Complaints about the coverage and media included everything from bias against Jackson, accepting stories of alleged criminal activity for money to accepting confidential leaked material from the police investigation in return for money paid.[91] On January 1, 1994, Jackson settled with the Chandler family and their legal team out of court, in a civil lawsuit for $22 million. After the settlement Jordan Chandler refused to continue with Police criminal proceedings. Jackson was never charged, and the state closed its criminal investigation, citing lack of evidence.[92]
And letting a child molester go free was? If someone had molested one of my kids, nothing between heaven and earth would prevent me from seeking justice. If the court didn’t provide it, you’re damn right I would. So, I pose this question to anyone here: If someone molested your kid, how many millions would it cost the molester for you to turn the other way? I suspect I know the answer to that one.
The out-of-court settlements here don’t make me feel that MJ is more likely to be guilty, but quite the opposite. If this was a different type of case other than child molestation, that’s wouldn’t necessarily be the case. But who accuses a multi-millionaire of molesting their child and settles after a dollar amount is discussed? I don’t think I need to answer that one.
I’ve known one or two people that turned out to be child molesters and you know what? When the evidence was there, I was among the first to want to string them up.
The kid’s father approached Jackson for money. Jackson settled because
he was going down the tubes healthwise. The father then refused to press charges
and the police dropped the case because there was insufficient evidence.
The evidence was doubtful, in fact, and the boy’s mother insisted
there had been no wrongdoing. Wiki above.
A friend of mine was falsely accused of sexually molesting two students (at once!).
I spent a year persuading him not to commit suicide. If he could have settled
he would have, I reckon. The Tabloids tried to crucify him. At the trial
men came forward to testify that these women had threatened to
accuse them of sex crimes unless they were given money.
It would be hard to overestimate what it’s like being targeted in this way.
It’s possible there was hanky-panky but I sure wouldn’t conclude
it from what we know.
guilty until proved innocent?
land of the fee, home of the paved
enough 
A great many rape victims of all ages find the trauma of a trial in which they have to testify too much to face. As a parent, your priority should be your kid, not demonstrating your own manliness for the world to see.