Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Feb. 22, 2003: Michael Gets His Say

After a couple weeks of being flayed in the media, Michael Jackson got his say. Thursday night, Fox aired The Interview With Michael Jackson: Footage You Were Never Meant to See.

The special included footage provided by Michael Jackson, from a secondary camera staffed by his personal documentary director, much of it shot during the Bashir interview.

But does this footage alter the impact of what aired in Martin Bashir's documentary, Living with Michael Jackson? Yes, and no.

The great mistake of Bashir's documentary, I believe, was the heavy-handed narration which gave Bashir's opinions about what he had witnessed. Not only was this kind of rhetoric viewed by many as meanspirited, but it also was the first thing attacked by Fox's special .

While Bashir said in his documentary that he was concerned about the disadvantaged children who visit Neverland, where they meet a multimillionaire and where "they sleep in his bed," Bashir was captured by Jackson's camera, gushing about what he'd witnessed at Neverland and how "nobody ever sees that."

At another point in Bashir's documentary, his narration said that he was concerned by how overly protected Jackson's children were and "how they were made to suffer." However, behind-the-scenes, he's captured on Jackson's camera saying that he was moved by seeing Jackson interacting with his children and that, "it almost makes me weep when I see you with them."

Why would Bashir make such a drastic turnaround, saying one thing to Jackson's face and another to millions of viewers? Jack Gordon, Latoya Jackson's ex-husband, has an idea, which he shared with Connie Chung on her Friday edition of Connie Chung Tonight.

Gordon suggests that Bashir probably went into the interview planning to focus on the best about Michael Jackson, but that during the course of the interview, he discovered things so disturbing that he felt obligated to change his focus.

Or, as Chung herself puts it, "Even if Bashir had lied his head off to Jackson, there still would be the concerns raised by what Jackson himself told Bashir."

There's simply no way to gracefully get around Jackson's own confessions of sleep-overs with children at Neverland, and that's perhaps why the subject is all but avoided in the Fox special.

The special does show never before seen footage of Gavin, the cancer patient who caused consternation by openly holding Jackson's hand and cuddling with him in Bashir's documentary. The unseen footage shows Gavin, bald and pudgy from chemotherapy, visiting Neverland with Jackson. It also talks about the hardships he's faced since appearing in the documentary, being plagued by fellow youngsters and paparazzi.

What's more revealing, however, is a scene which takes place later in the Fox special. In it, Jackson is talking to Bashir while winding down from an interview taping. Jackson's makeup artist is leaning against Jackson comfortably, her arm resting on his lap and her head on his shoulder. Is it possible that, strange as it may seem to many, this sort of affectionate behavior is commonplace for Jackson with any of his close friends? It's a possibility.

Jackson's second wife, Debbie Rowe, consents to a rare on-camera interview, in which she takes responsibility for some of the most controversial aspects of the rearing of their children, now in Jackson's sole custody.

Rowe confirms Jackson's statement — quoted in Bashir's documentary — where he says that she is not present in the children's life by her own choice, that she couldn't deal with it. Rowe clarifies what she couldn't deal with: the constant media attention and the loss of her normal life. She also says that the children don't call her "mom" because she doesn't want them to.

And, according to Rowe, the idea to cover up the children with scarves or masks in public was her idea, in order to protect them. In footage not aired in Bashir's documentary, Jackson says he "doesn't want a Lindbergh baby," referring to the infamous kidnapping and murder of the famous aviator Charles Lindbergh's son.

It's certainly not unusual for celebrities to protect the privacy of their children. Although some stars bring their children to awards shows, there are many more whose children are quietly hidden from the world until they're old enough to make their own decisions about whether to become a public figure.

But in the face of continually aggressive paparazzi, for the children to appear in public with their father, the only way to protect their identities would be to hide their faces. Now, one might argue that a better method would be to ensure they always travel separately with a nanny, but Jackson makes it clear in Bashir's documentary that he doesn't like his children out of his sight, because he fears a kidnapping.

The Fox special also clarified what happened during the mad crush of paparazzi at the Berlin zoo which, Bashir feared, endangered Jackson's children. In interview footage not used in Bashir's documentary, Jackson says that he normally visits zoos when they have been closed to the public, and he was told that the zoo had been closed. However, the zoo management left the gates open, and reporters streamed in.

Others have suggested that perhaps Jackson took his children to the zoo — which took place the day after the infamous incident where he briefly dangled his third child off the balcony of a Berlin hotel — to prove to the world that he was a dedicated father, oblivious of how strange a portrait his children would seem, wearing purple veils.

However, if this was Jackson's intent, it's still possible that he thought the zoo would be closed and that while he expected paparazzi to photograph them, he thought they would be forced to do so from a distance, through the gates to the zoo, with long-angle lenses.

About the balcony incident itself, the Fox special uses footage of Elizabeth Taylor on Larry King Live, saying that if you look at the footage, you can see that Jackson had a firm grip on the child. Even Larry King admits this, although it doesn't make the footage look any less dangerous.

Rowe reveals some other interesting information about this "nontraditional family," as she calls it. She says that she and Jackson were friends for 17 or 18 years before getting married. But their relationship changed, she said, when she saw him grieving after his marriage with Lisa Marie Presley ended. That was when, she said, he told her how badly he wanted to be a father. And she offered to help him.

That was, she said, when the romance started. And so, after Rowe became pregnant, they were married.

Now, the Fox special uses the unaired footage of Jackson telling Bashir that the children were conceived naturally, but this is ultimately immaterial. It's not going to matter to those who question a nontraditional relationship. It's entirely possible that Rowe, a longtime friend who had deep feelings for Jackson, decided to give him the snug little family life he wanted. And that she then backed out once the press attention became too much to bear.

Whatever you might think about Rowe and Jackson's relationship, it seems as if Rowe has spoken truthfully about her experiences. She readily admits that many people won't understand but says that she had to come forward. For this, she should be commended. While her description of the relationship is not going to make it any easier for the mainstream to digest, it's the sort of forthrightness that was desperately needed.

Then the Fox special discusses Jackson's plastic surgeries, and here again, chooses to avoid the most controversial statement Jackson made in the Bashir documentary: that he's only had two plastic surgeries, on his nose.

Host Maury Povich says that, whatever you might think about the truthfulness of that statement, the Bashir documentary skipped some important facts about Jackson's changing appearance.

The first was his skin condition, vitilligo. This is a skin condition where patches of skin lose their melanin. It happens in all ethnicities but is most noticeable in darker skinned people. The condition puts people at high risk for skin cancer, and sunscreens or avoiding the sun become essential.

To discuss this condition, the Fox special brings on Michael Jackson's makeup artist, who has worked with him for more than 20 years. She said that initially, she tried to mask the lighter patches by using darker makeup, but that eventually the discoloration became so extensive that it was easier to use lighter makeup to match the majority of his skin.

Given that Jackson carries a large umbrella when in the sunlight, and that he continually wears hats and long-sleeved shirts and pants, it's likely that he really is dealing with vitilligo. While it doesn't explain his preference for general's jackets, it would explain a good percentage of Jackson's seemingly eccentric wardrobe.

Again, the Fox special scores a point.

The other statement about Jackson's changing appearance carries less weight. The Fox special mentions the incident in the 1980s when Jackson's hair caught fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial. While the Fox special alludes to "reconstructive surgery," footage of Jackson being carried into the ambulance immediately after the incident show his face apparently untouched.

The special says that Jackson sustained second and third degree burns and that he required skin grafts. Likely, that's true, but such treatment would not have resulted in any changes to his facial structure and would certainly not account for visible changes in his appearance later in life.

The Fox special implies that Bashir was unfairly trying to blame Jackson's father, Joseph Jackson, for psychologically damaging Michael to the point where he completely reconstructed his face. Though the Fox special doesn't discount the extensive descriptions Michael gave of beatings at the hands of his father, it mentions that a single positive comment about his father was left out, where Jackson calls his dad "a genius."

However, I would argue that Bashir did use a similarly positive comment, when he included footage of Jackson saying that he forgave his father.

Joe Jackson doesn't help his own case by appearing in the Fox special and insisting that he was tough on the kids but didn't beat them. Perhaps it depends on your definition of "beatings." Given that other Jackson children, such as Latoya, have come forward to talk about his beatings, his statement is less than convincing.

It's clear to me, as a journalist, what Bashir was trying to do. He knew that Jackson is sensitive about talking about his plastic surgery, and he was giving him an out. Bashir hoped that, by showing that he was sympathetic about those childhood experiences, he could get Jackson to talk honestly about the cosmetic surgery he's received and his reasons for doing it. If Jackson had done what Bashir wanted, it would have made for a much more sympathetic portrayal. But he denied the surgery, which by association cast his statements on other subjects into doubt.

On the subject of plastic surgery, Jackson needs to be as candid as his ex-wife seems to have been on other subjects.

The Fox special does provide balance in that it provides an opposing view to some of the contentions of the Bashir interview. It is not, however, completely unbiased. In a very subtle way, the special uses production values to paint a sympathetic portrait.

Debbie Rowe's interview is shot in a comfortable looking room with a fire in the fireplace, and her statements are often underscored with soft music. Certainly by no accident, the footage from Jackson's documentary filmmaker is often far more flattering, deliberately shot from a greater distance, in better lighting conditions. And while Bashir chose to use footage of Jackson acting childish at Neverland while interacting with children, the Fox special shows him interacting in a way more appropriate to adults.

But the truth is, an editor always selects how to present material in a documentary. Even when a documentary strives for balance, it's still possible to cut it in such a way as to give the emphasis to one point of view or another, as anyone who has ever worked in mass media would tell you. So this alone doesn't devalue the Fox special.

Overall, it was worthwhile for offering an alternate point of view, even if it can't completely undo the damage.

Moral:
Enough viewpoints, stuck together, add up to truth.

Copyright 2003 by Alyce Wilson

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