Michael Jackson
I have never met Michael Jackson and have seen very little of him on television. I am in no way a fan of his. But under our American justice system he is supposedly innocent until proven guilty. If he is found guilty by a jury of his peers, then he should be given a life sentence (as anyone convicted of this offense should be); if he is found innocent, there is nothing that can remove all of the mud that has been smeared over his name. His so-called friends and ex-employees keep crawling out from under rocks to tell everyone how much Michael has meant to them and how bad he has been. Thank God this kid has Elizabeth Taylor in his corner.
BOB BERRY
Van Nuys
With all the money that Michael Jackson has, why doesn’t he just buy up all those (expletive) tabloid gossip sheets and then burn them to the ground--as a public service.
GARY E. NORDELL
West Los Angeles
The NAACP is correct (“NAACP Questions Media Coverage of Jackson Case,” Dec. 21). Michael Jackson is being persecuted by the media because he is an African American. The evidence of media prejudice is clear.
Why was Woody Allen’s personal life dissected and scrutinized in public, if not because he is a Jew? And why is Madonna constantly being criticized if not that she is Italian? And why is Ted Kennedy dogged so ruthlessly, except that he is Irish and Catholic? Bill Clinton nearly lost the election, and is being hounded again, because of reporters’ bigoted attitudes against poor white Southern boys.
When will this nonsense end?
ROBERT K. WILSON
La Crescenta
The incessant whining of many “black leaders” has grown so shrill that soon only dogs will be able to hear them.
The NAACP called a press conference to deplore what it calls a mass-media conspiracy to crush Michael Jackson and other prominent black Americans. “This is not only about Michael Jackson,” said Shannon Reeves, the NAACP’s West Coast director, “but about how the media uses its power to continue to aid in the oppression and degradation of African Americans in this country.”
While the NAACP correctly denounces the media’s unquenchable thirst for titillation and lust to indict, try and convict people on the flimsiest of evidence, this is no anti-black matter. Thanks to America’s hyperactive press, Woody Allen will be seen for years as some sort of child molester although Connecticut prosecutors never charged him with anything.
The NAACP also overlooked the “media bigots” who helped build Michael Jackson into a supernova in the first place. Who can forget the “racist” press’ outrage when Michael Jordan’s father was murdered? How about the media-led national cry-in when Magic Johnson declared he was HIV-positive?
As a black American I feel the NAACP does us all a disservice when it screams “Racism!” as carelessly as the boy who cried “Wolf!” The next time it justifiably reports that bigotry has reared its ugly head, only the dogs will be listening.
DEROY MURDOCK
Culver City
The four-minute Michael Jackson recorded message has just been televised (Dec. 22). I cannot believe that any individual, famous or infamous, should be subjected to such indignities by having pictures taken of his genitals, buttocks and thighs by the the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department. Could not this have been handled by two physicians (one representing the defense and one the accusers) examining him and describing their findings in detail? L.A. is just recovering from the notoriety of excessive police force, the Denny affair and the riots. To subject Michael Jackson to this humiliation is to let the world know that man’s inhumanity to man is alive and well in Southern California.
EILEEN M. JACOBI
Laguna Hills
Michael Jackson’s maudlin televised bleats were really the ultimate in arrogance and hypocrisy! Out of one side of his mouth, he vilifies the “incredible, terrible mass media,” which he gladly used to hold “the biggest press conference in the world” --the same media which have made him the celebrity he is. From the other side of his mouth, he shrieks about the “horrifying nightmare” of having had his body “inspected and photographed”--as though he were a nun, taken unaware by a peeping Tom, at her ablutions! Jackson lives and breathes to have his body “inspected and photographed”; it is impossible to watch him on TV for more than a minute or two without seeing him groping, etc., the precise areas of his anatomy (for all the world to see) that he apparently feels are too sacred and private for a legitimate, one-time inspection by investigators, which might clear him of suspicion (if he is innocent). Adding insult to injury, he has the nerve to squeak out scriptural quotations.
SUSAN ARMSTRONG
Los Angeles
Article 1 Section 1 of the California Constitution guarantees to “all people an . . . inalienable right to . . . privacy.” The judge who signed the search warrant for Michael Jackson’s private parts should be disciplined.
PETER D. BOGART
Hollywood