catapult magazine

I hope I wasn’t the only one who watched the Michael Jackson interview on ABC’s 20/20 tonight. The first several moments were very promising until the interviewer turned out to be a real jerk.

Didn’t see it. What did the interviewer do?

I pretty much watched the parts where:

1)He went into some fancy-ass store in the Venetian and pointed to things he had bought…for example, a set of vases totalling 1/2 million smackers. And then proceeded to point to about 20 other things he had just purchased. Dang.

2) He was nervously feeding his youngest child, who was wearing a sheer piece of cloth over his head. The cloth thing, cool. But, again, dang, he was nervous.

3) He brought his kids to the zoo where they got bombarded by a bunch of stupid people who can’t respect a person’s space and practically trampled everyone to death. Okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic. At any rate, it looked scary and someone kept screaming “I’ve got Prince (Michael) I’ve got Prince!”.

4) Oo, oo, and the part that they kept showing to preview the show by asking him about his plastic surgery. Nice.

I didn’t come away watching these scenes respecting either Michael or the interviewer anymore than usual. Obviously I missed quite a bit. Tell us more.

Sweet heaven I watched it.

Totally fascinating, but the interviewer was a fool, I think. It was completely obvious that he was selling Michael out. He earned Michael’s trust, lived with him, talked with him, even took care of his kids sort of, and then turned around and presented a sensationalized version of everything. He was telling the viewers exactly what they wanted to hear and it made Michael out to be as freakish as possible. It just didn’t seem fair.

Yeah, the interviewer (what’s the guy’s name?) was annoying. He kept interrupting Jackson even when Jackson was being very forthcoming, trying to make it seem like he was being a great interviewer and getting all the dirt. The interviewer would go out of his way (lifting his eyebrows, repeating what Jackson said, only slower) to make Jackson’s “revelations” seem extremely dramatic.

I heard that Jackson felt betrayed at the end of the interview. He thought this guy was his friend, and then the guy comes in at the end, doing his “professional duty” as a journalist, and doing exactly what Michael was blaming the media for doing. Even from the beginning, I didn’t trust this guy, but I’m not surprised that Michael took this guy into his confidence. Michael has the same reckless innocence of a child, even if he is in his mid-forties.

Some highlights for me:

1. When Michael climbed up the giving tree like a cat and said “come on!” to the interviewer like a little boy. I wish the whole documentary was just moments like these (the go-cart race, the train ride through neverland etc.). That’s when Jackson’s loveable side was most evident.

2. Michael Jackson with the boy who beat cancer and who stays with Michael, often sleeping in Michael’s bed. The kid was not hardened like some kids his age and he was pretty articulate. You could tell why kids enjoy being with Michael Jackson so much in scenes like this. Michael is a buddy, not a parent.

3. Michael in the limo, taking time for his fans.

4. Michael’s explanation for why he lets kids sleep in his bed. His belief that kids these days don’t get enough attention, physical and otherwise from their parents (and he doesn’t mean sexual) as a reason for wanting to give kids the love they crave.

5. The zoo scene, even though the drama was partly manufactured by the interviewer (what’s that guy’s name!) and the music. “Michael, I’ve got Prince’s hand. I’ve got his hand, Michael!” (meaning: “Michael, you should be more parentlike. The world needs you to be a more attentive parent!”)

For me, an everpresent defender and supporter of the brilliant artistry of Michael Jackson, this interview clearly showed that Michael Jackson is still one of the greatest shows on earth!