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| Artwork by Bellafina - one of my favourite MJ fan-artists! |
My fellow panellists were:
Seven Bowie of www.mjj-777.com
David Edwards of www.vindicatemj.wordpress.com
Raven Woods of www.allforloveblog.com
Nikki Alligator of www.gatorgirl277.blogspot.com
I was honoured, but very surprised, to be invited to join these far more experienced bloggers for the show.
I had contacted Rev. Catherine a couple of months ago after stewing on the Bashir issue.
But perhaps, I should go back further…
After Michael passed away, at first I devoured any and all T.V programmes that featured him. It wasn’t too long before it became apparent to me that the media coverage on Michael Jackson was unfair and inaccurate. If I had believed them, then he was a drug addicted, broke, ashamed of his own race, child-molesting has-been!
It was just too much! Their bias was just so evident and overwhelming that it made me start to question them more and more. Whilst I believed in his innocence in relation to the allegations I did think the media had to be right about some things – but I wasn’t sure which things those were.
Feeling the grief of his loss, and no longer able to stomach the vile reporting about him, I resorted to concocting my own stories where Michael would always prevail.
One of these involved the idea of the paparazzi providing an alibi for Michael Jackson (which has become my ‘Judge Judy’ posting). These stories were purely for my own personal amusement but I felt compelled to see how realistic they were or could be.
So I googled “ Gavin Arviso February 2003”
And that is how I discovered Seven’s website. On one hand it is distressing that a fan website is one of the first search results that come up rather than the major news organisations. But then, if you consider that Seven’s articles are, more often than not, better researched and more accurate than the mainstream media when it comes to Michael Jackson, then it’s actually a very good thing that her website came up as the second result!
From one of Seven’s posts on Mr. Bashir there was one that contained excerpts from his testimony at the 2005 trial. I very much enjoyed Mr. Mesereau’s cross-examination of Mr. Bashir in relation to his journalism qualifications, or should I say lack thereof. So I followed the link Seven had provided to the www.deargavinarviso.com website and downloaded Mr. Bashir’s entire testimony.
The document for Mr. Bashir is actually the full day’s transcript. In this instance, that meant the day started with the second half of Mr. Mesereau’s opening statement, then District Attorney called his first witness (Mr. Bashir) to provide the foundation to allow the “Living with Michael Jackson” film to be admitted into evidence as ‘People’s Exhibit 2’. Then Mr. Mesereau was able to cross-examine Mr. Bashir.
“Michael wanted any money he received to go to charity. Bashir assured him it would.”
“I want to emphasize that Mr. Jackson was paid nothing from Bashir.The original negotiations were that money would go to charities inEngland. They were talking about 250,000 pounds, British poundsthey are. That, from Mr. Jackson’s point of view, the incentive
for doing that documentary was that he trusted Mr. Bashir was
going to present him in an appropriate, honorable and honest light.
And that’s not what happened.”
I was struck by this. Again, from Seven’s website I had followed a link to the Silenced Truth website which houses a comprehensive list of all Michael Jackson’s charitable acts and I did not remember seeing this particular donation.
To any of you who are familiar with the list I’m referring to, you wouldn’t expect me to remember a donation in 2002, not when the list starts in 1969 when Michael was only 11. But I had studied it intently, paying particular attention to the period 1984 – 2009. You can’t help but notice that in his last 10 years on this earth, Michael wasn’t able to donate at the same level that he had been previously.
I could easily imagine how that must have hurt him. If you believe that it is your destiny, your purpose in life, to make a real difference in the world, especially for children, and then you are prevented from doing so by events beyond your control – well, that must have been extremely difficult to reconcile.
So this 250,000 GBP promised donation was very interesting to me indeed. I kept reading…
From Mr. Bashir’s testimony – 2 agreements
Q. BY MR. MESEREAU: Mr. Bashir, you had Michael Jackson sign an
agreement without a lawyer present, true?
MR. BOUTROUS: Again, Your Honor, beyond the scope of the direct
and covered by the shield law.
“I should probably introduce myself. I’m Mr. Bashir’s counsel,Theodore J.Boutrous, Jr., and I’m joined here today by HenryHoberman, who is a seniorvice-president and the head of litigationfor ABC News.” (Just want you guys to have this information for later - Karen)
THE COURT: I’d overrule that objection. Will you answer that
question?
THE WITNESS: Mr. Jackson signed two agreementsin which he asked for no conditions whatsoeverand agreed that I was free to make the film withhim. And the first of those agreements was signedin November 2002, and the second agreement wassigned in January 2003, just about two weeks priorto broadcast of the British version of the filmthat you’ve just seen. From Mr. Mesereau’s speech at the Frozen in Time Seminar:
“The first prosecution witness was Mr. Bashir. I thought he was a disaster for the prosecution. He was asserting the Journalist Privilege. He wouldn’t answer just basic questions that couldn’t possibly hurt him in any shape or form if he was willing to answer them, and he just wouldn’t. And basically what I did was I decided, as I think most good cross-examiners do, to tell my story through my questions.”
“Mr. Bashir, you have been accused in England of forging signatures, correct?”
“Mr. Bashir, if you look at the two documents you referred to that you say Mr. Jackson signed, his signature appears to be different from document to document, correct?”
Wow! This blew me away, it really did. Earlier in his opening statement, Mr. Mesereau went to great pains to correct an error he had made the previous day so for him to now basically accuse Mr. Bashir of forgery and fraudulent behaviour was astounding to me!
(The links I've included will take you to more about the forgery accusations)
Following this I contacted various MJ fan-mily members to see if they could shed any light on whether the donation was made. The consensus seemed to be that it is unlikely the donation was made, however (and frustratingly so) I have not yet been able to locate any evidence either way – for payment or non-payment.
From ‘Living with Michael Jackson’ Martin Bashir narration/voiceover
Please keep this in mind as you read what follows: “And the first of those agreements was signed in November 2002”
“But thousands of miles away Jackson’s behaviour as a father was about to come under serious scrutiny. A few weeks later, I went to meet him in Berlin and just as I was arriving this happened.”
“Michael Jackson had just dangled his new baby out of the window of a Berlin hotel (balcony). His fans outside were going crazy. When I got up to his room I was worried – there was a manic quality about him that I had never seen before - and he was loving the attention of the screaming fans outside the hotel.”
After a defensive Michael feeds Blanket the following day Mr. Bashir then says:
(Meanwhile Smooth Criminal is playing in the background)
“Jackson’s behaviour was beginning to alarm me. Later that day he took Prince & Paris to Berlin Zoo. It was supposed to be a family outing, but the press were out in force. Somebody had helpfully tipped them off. Michael was here to see the gorillas but he seemed completely oblivious to the fact that the trip had descended into total chaos.
…Concerned for the safety of the children I was caught with them in the middle of a paparazzi scrum…it was no kind of trip for 2 young children and everyone could see it – but Jackson himself.
It was hard to believe Jackson was the same man I’d met in Neverland. The first opportunity to talk about his bizarre behaviour was later that evening at a charity
auction.”
The following night…
“It was the final night in Berlin and Jackson was the main draw at Germany’s Bambi Awards. He was to be honoured for a lifetime of musical achievement. Yet again, Jackson seemed extremely agitated, and for the first time, he did not want our cameras focused on him. He only wanted us to capture the adulation of his fans.”
“Mr. Bashir, you had Michael Jackson sign an agreement without a lawyer present, true?”
If we take Mr. Bashir’s own words at face value (I know, I know – we do so at our peril) then why, oh why, did he allow MJ to sign it without a lawyer present?
I am, of course, making an assumption here. I am assuming that the agreement Mr. Mesereau refers to, as being signed without an attorney present is the November one.
“And the second agreement was signed in January 2003”
“Early in the New Year, Jackson agreed to what would be our final meeting, this time in Miami, Florida. Confronting him would not be easy but now it had to happen. As we prepared for the interview, the atmosphere was unusually tense…”
Again, it seems logical to me that if one of the two agreements was indeed a forgery, it would be the January 2003 one. In the film, and again in Mr. Bashir’s interview with Chris Wallace following the airing of the program, that last meeting is described as:
“You got quite tough with Jackson in your final interview. Was he unhappy with your report?” Chris Wallace asks.
“He was very distressed, in fact, in the film that we’ve shown, it only has about 20% of the final interview in it. He was both angry and heartbroken and started to cry.”
Remember this: “And the second agreement was signed in January 2003” Does sound like the kind of atmosphere conducive to signing an agreement? Or is this more likely?
“Mr. Bashir, you have been accused in England of forging signatures, correct?”
“Mr. Bashir, if you look at the two documents you referred to that you say Mr. Jackson signed, his signature appears to be different from document to document, correct?”
When asked what he made of Michael Jackson:
“I think Michael Jackson is a broken, childish, under-developed individual.”
“…That he should basically grow up and act and behave like an adult.”
“Mr. Bashir, you had Michael Jackson sign an agreement without a lawyer present, true?”
In summary, either way Mr. Bashir lied. If Michael was all those things he said: exhibiting a manic quality, bizarre behaviour, alarming, disturbing etc then a responsible ethical journalist should not have obtained any signed agreement without the subject’s attorney being present.
Now I know what some of you are thinking – he’s not an ethical journalist, he’s a CHEATER! I agree...
If you accept Mr. Mesereau’s version of events then the two later agreements are invalid. That means the 250,000 GBP donation is the true agreement. And I, for one, want to see it made! It would be wonderful to see The Silenced Truth website (and the like) updated to reflect it. Another victory for Michael Jackson!
One of Rev. Catherine’s callers, Elizabeth Olney, commented that Oprah is more of a threat than Mr. Bashir is. And I would agree with this. Oprah is more of a current threat to Michael Jackson’s legacy due to her ability to reach and influence a worldwide audience.
However, the prosecution in their quest to ‘get’ Michael did not use her 1993 interview with Michael. It did not become a People’s Exhibit in a case brought against him.
And for personal reasons I can’t fully explain other than to say I feel compelled to vigorously pursue the Bashir matter until a more satisfactory outcome is obtained.
So what can we do about it? What should we do? I have some thoughts, which I will share with you in this blog, and also my other one: www.mjpopculture.blogspot.com.
(I have two – this one is a traditional blog – fact or opinion based and the pop culture one for my creative writing efforts)
My next postings relating to Mr. Bashir will be the film “Living with Michael Jackson” itself. I started transcribing parts of it for this posting and realized I should do the whole thing because there are so many items I want to address. From the music selected, to when those songs were played, to how Michael was shot, in what locations etc.
Previously, I had allowed my dislike of Mr. Bashir to prevent me from watching all but a few scenes. In fact, I would have deleted the recording entirely had it not been for the scenes in there where Michael beat boxes, and then dances to “Billie Jean”.
I enjoyed your article Karen! Cate
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