With friends like these, who needs enemies?

Michael was a very forgiving man.....and boy, did he need to be! Here is a list I’ve compiled of some of the things his ‘friends’ and sometimes even members of his family have said that I find disturbing. These quotes are only the opinions of his friends and family, but I honestly believe the quotes have contributed much to the media character assassination of Michael Jackson.

It’s so easy to portray the media as evil monsters who have a vendetta against Michael. And certainly, there are many who fit into this category. However, there may also be a good number of them who have formed their wrong impressions from comments made by Michael’s own family and friends.

Latoya held a press conference in Tel Aviv in 1993 where she seemed to be confirming the allegation levied at Michael by the Chandler family. I'm not going to go into the specifics of it because

1. It was all innuendo - she never actually said exactly what she thought Michael had done. She claimed she had seen payments made to children - the insinuation being that it was some kind of payoff to secure their silence. And of course, the media jumped on that!

Knowing Michael's generousity payments most likely were made. We know that the Arvizo family were helped tremendously financially by Michael and yet when the matter reached court there was no evidence of abuse.

Allegations = Proof                    Nope, don't think so!

What I'm trying to say is what she actually said was true - the way she said it lended itself to be construed the way the media wanted and thus hurt Michael.

2. And as I've told you - I've forgiven her. I do think she is genuinely sorry for what she did. More importantly Michael forgave her - so why shouldn't I?

Doesn't mean I can't poke a little fun, huh?

OMG! The sun really does shine out of LaToya's ass!

I was talking with a fellow MJ fan recently - she is very anti LaToya - and it made me realise something.

Who you're mad at, when it comes to Michael Jackson, is probably who most successfully duped you when it comes to Michael Jackson.

Let me explain. The friend I was talking about read LaToya's first book and was very knowledgeable about everything LaToya had said. All the comments or insinuations LaToya made did have an effect on her and made her doubt Michael's innocence.

For me, LaToya confused me a little I admit but I did not find her very credible and instead relied on the Mary Fischer GQ article.

In this video, the author of this article briefly summarizes her article.

I love her final comment: "To me there are so many similarities with the old case and this current case that it's really important to reserve judgement before anyone comes to a conclusion about guilt or innocence here. 

She said this in 2003 - it's just such a shame that hardly any of her colleagues heeded her advice!

The next person on the list did influence me - albeit indirectly. It was brother Jermaine. He wrote a song called Word to the Badd with some very pointed barbs at Michael. The ones that trouble me the most concern his lightening skin. Even though Michael cleared it up on Oprah about the vitiligo:

The question remained in many people's minds - mine included I'm very sorry to say. And mainly because it did not appear to be believed by people. At that time I thought what the media reported had to have an element of truth in it. Yeah, yeah I'm a gullible fool - or at least I was!

Molly Meldrum - and thank you to all the overseas MJ fans who have expressed well wishes for him by the way - repeatedly talked about how he heard that Michael saw all these programs on TV as a youngster where everyone was white and that is why he lightened his skin.

In addition to the multiple times he has interviewed Michael, Molly has done likewise with both Jermaine and Janet. Any stories of Michael as a boy would have come from the older sibling and not the younger.

I was going by memory - although this is the kind of stuff that gets imprinted in my brain - and I thought I'd better just re-check. Here is an excerpt from an article discussing Molly's reaction to Michael's death:

Over the years Meldrum became acquainted with Michael's brother Jermaine, who explained Michael had had no real childhood because their father, Joe, made him work so hard.
"He would just watch television. None of the shows, like The Partridge Family, Leave It To Beaver or My Three Sons had Afro-American actors so he got into his head the only way he could become a world-famous artist was somehow to be white
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/meldrum-watched-giggling-youth-turn-into-thriller-star-20090626-czse.html#ixzz1kY7WYQYh

So that is why I struggle with Jermaine! This is the best photo to me of him:

We then come to Lisa Marie Presley. I'm a little scared to considering how posting fairly innocous photos of her lead to a rather heated debate on my Facebook page!

 When asked by Diane Sawyer about Michael’s appearance Lisa Marie said this:  “And he is constantly re-modifying something, or changing it, or reconstructing it or, you know, working on some imperfection he thinks needs to be worked on. If he sees something he doesn't like he changes it. Period. He re-sculpted himself. He's an artist.”

 Michael, had started to say that his changing appearance was due to nature…referring to his vitiligo.

Dr Patrick Treacy - who I think is wonderful and seemed to care so beautifully for whilst Michael was in Ireland - on a Blog Talk Radio show hosted by Rev Catherine Gross said that Michael wanted a Caucasian nose. I'd definitely agree Michael wanted a smaller nose - but Caucasian?

Brooke Shields - when she appeared on The View - said there was definitely some 'arrested development' issues when it came to Michael.

Whoopi Goldberg - another of Michael's friends and a woman I practically worship - did not contradict Brooke on this score.

Raven from Allforlove Blog did an excellent piece recently - which is one of the things that made me want to do this posting - discussing the subject of "stuck in childhood" myth.

And lastly - gasp! - even the magnificent Mr. Mesereau: “He was the scion of a prominent black family with two white and one Latino child.”

I ask you, with friends like these, what chance did Michael stand?