After seeing Michael so happy on the set of making the Black and White video we are leaving the territory of happiness and are entering the territory of pain, and the great documentary “Man behind the myth” is what will be taking us there.

The happy scene of Michael hugging the little girl Sage was just on the eve of evil allegations. It was the time when Michael was still unconditionally happy and his wings were still uncut. However from the next year of 1993 it will never be the same again and will remain like that until the last day of his life.

This is why the Man Behind The Myth documentary is a tribute to Michael Jackson of a different kind – it shows what the  media did to Michael and how they used direct or  subliminal lies to plant nasty suggestions about him.

So it is more of a lesson for us and a need to decide what to do with all the hate and lies we have inherited after Michael’s death and still have to deal with – especially these days when so much dirt is thrown at the innocent man again. 

Each of us will find something to think about after watching this superb documentary. It was first released on InnerMichael website  http://www.innermichael.com/2011/09/michael-jackson-who-is-he-really-the-video/ what seems like exactly two years ago, in September 2011.

The film is embedded below, but first comes the transcript. The transcript is far from ideal but this was the best I could do, so if someone helps to correct and make it better you are most welcome to do so.

MAN BEHIND THE MYTH [Walking Moon Studios]

0: 07 Man’s voice:

“Michael Jackson, 50 years old, the King of Pop has died.”

Woman’s voice:

“Michael Jackson has died…”

0:14 Jermaine Jackson:

“My brother Michael Jackson, the legendary King of Pop Michael Jackson passed away on Thursday June 25th 2009, at 2:26 pm”


Who is Michael Jackson, really?

Michael Jackson life is a remarkable journey filled with the brightest of moments and the darkest of hours.

Who is Michael Jackson, really?

Michael was the most recognized man in the world. Friends treasured him, world leaders invited him, colleagues admired him, children naturally gravitated to him, and the public was fascinated with him.

0:58 Some cashed in on that fascination when they discovered that a story with his name got attention. It got readers and ratings. And if there was no story unethical reporters made them up because using the name “Michael Jackson” got attention. Some even launched careers writing his coat tails.

1:18 There are two Michael Jacksons – the caricature brought to you by the tabloids cashing in and the Michael described by those who actually knew him. What is the truth and who is telling it? You decide.

Michael Jackson: “Instead of regular conversations between parents and children about drugs and violence, there is the deafening sound of silence.”

1:34 Michael Jackson at Carnegie Hall, New York, February 14th, 2001:

‘Heal The Kids’ is about doing something, about making a difference and trying to help adults and parents realize that it’s in our power to change the world that our children live in.
Who among us would have believed that the sound of children at their playgrounds would be replaced by the sound of automatic machine-gun fire at our schools? That the sound of little girls skipping rope would be overshadowed by the frantic squeals of children dodging bullets? Yet (beginning to cry)  instead of loving our children more, we install metal detectors in our schools.


“Instead of loving our children more (beginning to cry) we install metal detectors in our schools”

2: 28 Michael Jackson at Oxford University, UK, March 21st, 2001:

“Friends, the foundation of all human knowledge, the beginning of human consciousness, must be that each and every one of us is an object of love. Before you know if you have red hair or brown, before you know if you are black or white, before you know of what religion you are a part, you have to know that you are loved.”

2:51 Sensation gets attention. Words like “bizarre” and “freak” come right out of circus side-shows where they made fun of misfortune. Repeat something enough times and people begin to believe it. Using those tricks and others allowed the media to use Jackson for profit. And while they were focused on the color of his skin, his face and obsessing about the paternity of his children the real story – Michael Jackson, the humanitarian – went untold.

People magazine:“Michael Jackson. He is back. He’s Bad. Is this guy weird, or what?”

3: 25 [Picture of the News of the world – Evil Empire]. A TV correspondent says:

“The paper is accused of paying off police or hacking into the phones of celebrities, members of the royal family and murdered teenager, victims of terrorism and war widows for years. British police say they’ve uncovered nearly four thousand hacking victims – four thousand!

3: 44 Family member of 07-07 bombing victim:

“It is hard to imagine that at the lowest point of your life you couldn’t get any lower and then hearing that someone may have well been listening to the very intimate conversations and you realize that things can get lower”…

3:59 David Cameron, UK Prime Minister:

“How do we improve the ethics and morals of the press in this country and make sure they will improve in the future?”

4:04 Family member of 07-07 bombing victim:

“How can people get up in the morning and think, “That’s a good idea for the sake of the story is beyond me”. [picture of Piers Morgan with News of the World in the background]

4:10 Ambush journalists take advantage too. The game is to gain someone’s confidence with promises to expose the truth, but instead ambush with surprise questioning and clever editing. Martin Bashir filmed Jackson, then released a cut-and-paste hit piece only to make a name for himself. He inserted innuendoes about children in voiceover that led another family using the same attorney to repeat an old idea – accuse Michael and extort money a second time. Instead Michael went to trial and proved his innocence.  NOT GUILTY on fourteen counts. But the damage was already done.

Subliminal messages direct you in thinking. Notice where they placed a king’s crown. That’s planting a suggestion

4:56 Unethical journalism is not above using subliminal messages to direct you in thinking. Notice in this promo where they placed a king’s crown. That’s not an accident – that’s planting a suggestion.

5:07 Correspondent:

“Martin Bashir and his crew were here at Neverland.  They got to witness what was to become an almost weekly experience – busloads of children, some from the inner city, some orphans, some terminally ill, but all of them escaping the reality to spend the day at Michael Jackson’s creation.”

5:27 “About Michael’s ranch Martin Bashir’s on-air comment was:

“One of the most disturbing things is the fact that a lot of disadvantaged children go to Neverland. It’s a dangerous place for a vulnerable child to be.”

But what he said behind the scenes was this:

“I was here yesterday and I saw it, and it’s nothing short of a spiritually kind thing”.

5:52 Thomas Mesereau:

“He made Michael Jackson think this is going to be a positive documentary and Michael trusted him partly because he had worked with Princess Diana”.


This is what Bashir said in the film: “It’s a dangerous place for a vulnerable child to be”

6:01 Correspondent: “This comment about Michael’s method of raising children was included on Bashir’s special:

“They’re restricted… They are overly protected. I was angry at the way his children were made to suffer”.

And this is what Bashir said in private: “I was here yesterday and I saw it, and it’s nothing short of a spiritually kind thing”

But this was not:

“Your relationship with your children is spectacular. And in fact, it, it almost makes me weep when I see you with them”.

6:22 Correspondent:

“Michael didn’t learn till after the documentary was made that Martin Bashir had been officially reprimanded in Britain for unfair journalistic practices”.


This was said on air: “They are restricted.. they are overly protected. I was angry at the way his children were made to suffer”.

6:32 On Late Night Jimmy Fallon February 24, 2011:

Q.“Is there things that you left out, things you are unhappy you did?”
Bashir: “Absolutely not.  It was difficult I guess to some extent because I come from Britain where we don’t do sycophantic interviews, we don’t really suck up to people very much and do that kind of thing”.


And this was not: “Your relations with children are spectacular”

6:49 After Michael Jackson’s death on June 25,2009:

Bashir: “When I made the documentary there was a small part of that which contained a controversy concerning his relationship with other young people, but the truth is that he was never convicted of any crime, I never saw any wrongdoing myself, and last his lifestyle made him a little unorthodox – I don’t believe this is criminal”.


With words like these said in private Bashir was winning Michael’s trust: “And in fact, it almost makes me weep when I see you with them.”

7:08 Some reporters were playing a tabloid relay while Jackson was fighting for his life – and for justice in court.

7:16 Voice of Nancy Grace on “Odds of Molestation conviction of Michael Jackson”:

“Las Vegas, the place is up for grabs tonight odds to the one that Jackson will be convicted in one to five counts”.

7: 30 [CNN Headline News & Court TV]

“Welcome back, everybody. I’m Ms. Grace….. Thank you for being with us tonight” [slowly covering her face with a sequined glove]

7:39 Some reporters stir up people’s emotions for ratings or call themselves experts using innuendo with a line “sources tell me” to plant suggestion and peek interest. They dehumanize before they dismember the celebrity they target. What was all that fuss about the mask, his skin color, umbrella?

[pictures of Gloria Allred, Victor Gutierrez, Diane Dimond, Jane Velez Mitchell, Martin Bashir, Maureen Orth]

8:00 Diane Sawyer:

“We thought they were eccentricities. Could this in fact be a personal style that evolved to disguise a serious disease?”

8:07 Michael had Lupus, a lung disease and Vitiligo. He didn’t bleach his skin. Vitiligo destroyed the pigment.

8:15 The doctor on the ABC News, the “Michael Jackson battle with lupus” program:

“Many patients with Lupus have Vitiligo”

8:18 Actress Cicely Tyson, July 7, 2009:

“It started to develop… the vitiligo.. And it started on his hand. And the glove was to camouflage it. That is how the glove came into being”.

8:23 Diane Sawyer’s program:

Doctor: “Quite a few of my patients have fibromyalgia. He may have suffered from that. Very common to be an insomniac.”
Diane Sawyer: “One thing for a lupus patient – don’t let the sun on your skin”
Doctor: “That’s right. “

8: 33 The mask kept paparazzi stalking Michael from splashing unflattering pictures and headlines in tabloids the next morning. And their obsession about paternity – what was really behind those stories about race and having children? Was it thinly veiled racism?

8:51 Diane Dimond:

“Well, one glimpse at Michael Jackson will show you that he doesn’t really look like an African American man any more.”

Diane Dimond on “Insider”:

I think the Jackson family is all about this [gesture denoting money]. I think that’s why they’ll fight for the children because where the children go that’s where the money goes….

9:05 [voice of Diane Dimond on Howard Stern’s show]:

Diane Dimond: “I keep reporting that”

Who is the real baby daddy of at least the first two kids? These kids are not biologically related to Michael Jackson!”
[Howard Stern: “They are not”]
“And I keep reporting that and the fans keep saying: “No, no, they are. They are his… No, they are not.”
[Howard Stern: “No, they are not”].
“Get a clue”

9:22 Another voice:

“I guess biracial children could look different. They’ll be whiter or darker. And they can be sort of all one or all other…”

[Pictures of other African-Americans:  Lena Horne, Mariah Carey, Jolene Ivey, Jax and Jaid Nilon, Rashida Jones]

Joe and Paris Jackson

Diane Dimond:

“Blue eyes? Not so much”.

9:35 And questioning paternity or skin color only insults families who adopt or use fertility procedures to have children.

9:43 Diane Dimond:

“It is Michael Jackson, and he lives… he lives to be strange”. He is in free fall now, and we all stay glued to the set till we see the splat” [her hands make a slapping sound].
“I think this was Michael Jackson’s destiny to die this way”.

10:08 Here are some of the people Michael counted among his friends – Caroline Kennedy, Ted Kennedy and Shirley McClain, Jacky Kennedy, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, President Bush, President Carter, President Clinton, Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana, Prince Albert of Monaco, Princess Stephany of Monaco, the Dalai Lama, Amon Ndoufou of Sanai (Ghana Ivory Coast), President of Namibie Sam Nujoma…

Michael was a cheer-leader for humanity. He always said he believed in us, said “We are the world”, and that together we could heal many of humanity’s  challenges.

10:37 How do you heal the world according to Michael? His lyrics tell us how. You ask people to stop fighting, lay down their weapons, hear the Earth song and become her stewards, and save the children.

10:58 Michael Jackson was a person who championed children, not harmed them, that’s why he was exonerated by the law. He was found not guilty because he was innocent. Always has been.

Thomas Mesereu: “The reporting hit the bottom of the barrel”

11: 14 Thomas Mesereau:

“I’ve said many times since the verdicts that the reporting hit the bottom of the barrel. Not with everybody. We had very professional journalists who I still call journalists…
But we also had bottom feeders like Court TV. Diane Dimond from Court TV had been sued by Michael Jackson in the mid of his very contentious litigation. Thomas Sneddon the D.A. had risen to her defense – he signed a sworn declaration in the civil case. They stayed in touch for a long time. She really identified herself with a conviction and all her media were.
She was reporting like Lisa Bloom, the daughter of Gloria Allread who constantly reports Michael Jackson and tries to get involved in anything he does even when she has no stake in the matter. And of course Nancy Grace was the third one on that show. They wanted to create daily drama, daily conflict, daily excitement and that’s never going to change. Their priorities are ratings and money, and they will do whatever it takes to obtain those priorities”.


Ron Magill: “I’ve never had a nicer gentleman, a more appreciative person with more well-behaved kids come to the Zoo”

“I’ve never had a nicer gentleman, a more appreciative person with more well-behaved kids come to the Zoo.”
Q. “Not what you expected?”
Ron: “Absolutely not what I expected. And I hosted a lot of celebrities here at the Zoo. And quite frankly, many of them are not pleasant people to be around… He was the absolute opposite.”

12:35 Frank Dileo, Michael’s manager during the Bad era:

“We were in Europe and we were doing the Bad tour. Every city we went to we went to a children’s hospital and bought them a piece of equipment. Not one hospital for the whole tour – every city. There was a boy that was dying and wanted to meet Michael. And Michael would talk to him and the kid perked up and he was like amazing and I went off into the corner and I cried. I really couldn’t take it. Michael came over and put his arm around me and said: “You have to understand, Frank – this is our job. Not on the stage – this is our job. To make somebody feel good. He believed that. He absolutely believed that. “

“I was with Michael in Eastern Europe and we got off of the plane and he said “Do you want to go to the hotel and do you come to an orphanage with me?” Rather than going to a hotel he went to the orphanage. And he walked into this orphanage and I remember him looking and he was walking around and he was very calm. The promoters were there and they were looking around. And the conditions were pretty grim and I saw him whisper to someone and whisper to someone else and he was, you know, moving through and interacting with the children… And later I found out  what he’d whispered was: “This orphanage will be turned around – there will be new beds in here, there will be clean sheets in here,  there will be more people here taking care of these children by tomorrow or I am not going to go on stage”.

“He seemed other worldly but he was also a human being. .. I know what it’s like to walk down the street and feel like the whole world is turned against you. I know what it’s like to feel helpless and unable to defend yourself because the roar of the lynch mob is so loud you feel like your voice can never be heard.
[When I first heard that Michael had died.. all I could think about in this moment was] “I had abandoned him.” That we had abandoned him. That we had allowed this magnificent creature who had once set the world on fire to somehow slip through the cracks. [While he was trying to build a family and rebuild his career, we were all passing judgment. Most of us had turned our backs on him]. …He was so unique, so original, so rare, and there will never be anyone like him again. He was a king.”

Michael about Bella Fracas, a Hungarian child needing a liver transplant: “I am not giving up. I’m not going to have the child die”

“This is Lisa Marie and myself at a hospital in Budapest. I saw this little kid. His name was Farkas. I asked this nurse “What’s wrong with this kid?” She said that he needs the liver. No matter what it takes I’m going to find a liver for him, so I said [about my] organization around the world and I said “I’m not giving up. I’m not going to have the child die.”
I was so happy when I get a phone call. They told me “We found the liver”. And he has his life…

16:12 Maybe it’s time we take another look at Michael Jackson to find out what really happened. We are also busy trying to shelter our children from the bullies of the world wringing our hands in worry and fear. Yet, we missed the biggest case of bullying the world had ever seen.

[Pictures of newspaper covers: “Buy a slice of Wacko Jackso”,  “Jacko gets a wacko”, “Jim Jam Wacko”, “Sicko Jacko”, etc.]

 

“Sadly, sadly, we live in a state of fear. Everyday we hear of war on the news, on the radio and television and the newspapers, always of war. We hear of nations hurting each other, of neighbours hurting each other, of families hurting each other and the children killing each other. We must learn to live and love each other before it’s too late. We have to stop! We have to stop the prejudice, we have to stop the hating, we have to stop living in fear of our own neighbors. I would like all of you now to take the hand of the person to the left and to the right. Go ahead! Right now! I mean it! Don’t be shy! Do it! It starts now! To the person next to you. To the left and the right. I mean it. Right now! Go ahead! Don’t be shy. Do it! Do it! Now, tell the person … tell the person next to you that you care for them. Tell them that you care for them. Tell them that you love them. Tell them that you love them. This is what makes the difference.
Together … (Michael laughs) together we can make a change of the world. Together we can help to stop racism. Together we can help to stop prejudice. We can help the world live without fear. It’s our only hope, without hope we are lost.”


Paris Jackson: “Daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine… I just wanted to say… I love him so much…”

LEARNING FROM HIM

Each of us has a lesson to derive for himself from Michael’s tragic life full of bullying and harassment, and everyone has his own reason why he would want Michael back – to make up for our mistakes, to cry on his shoulder in utter shame for what we did,  to tell him how we love him now…

But one of my own biggest wishes would be to have him around to tell us, explain and teach us what love is. The years of following his troubles and struggling with lies and hate against him have taught me that love is pain, tears and a bleeding heart, but what else is it?

Is it discarding one’s ego and sharing the best you have with others? Oh yes, it is.

Is it accepting each person the way he is? Probably yes, but this I find hard to apply to everyone, especially in the circumstances of this trial and so many lies told there by too many people.

Can love be fighting some of these people in order to clear the air of their lies, arrogance and hypocrisy? I think it can. But is it also hoping that those who are doing so much harm now will one day abandon their ways? Probably it is too….

Does love mean forgiving each other faults, not passing the final judgment and acknowledging that none of us are without guilt? And forgiving those who say that they are really sorry? For sure it does. But what about those who are spreading lies on purpose and derive pleasure from fooling others? How is it possible to love these people? This I don’t know…

And what are we to do with those who are perfectly comfortable with their lies or illusions, are unwilling to seek for the truth or recognize it even when it is glaring in their faces? Because this way it is easier for them or the old habit never to reflect is also standing in the way? Does loving these people mean fighting their ignorance and separating the human beings they are from their weaknesses? Probably it does…

Or is love not overcomplicating matters and simply appealing to the best in each person as Michael did? And hoping that the good in them will get the upper hand over their worst side one day?

Is it never bringing anyone into the corner and always leaving the room for the doubt?

This is what Michael always did as he gave it a try with everyone around him and sometimes it did work, though in most cases it didn’t and only let him down and finally brought about his death.

I really don’t know what love is.

But what I know for sure is that after Michael’s death it is simply impossible to live the way we lived before.

 

And the Man Behind The Myth film explains it best of all. If we don’t learn at least a little bit from what happened it will mean that Michael lived and died in vain. And this is something we absolutely cannot afford.