Michael always said children were little geniuses.

   

This posting has taken me ages to complete. I’ve done bits and pieces of it over the last 5 months. Sometimes when I was angry with Oprah I had to stop writing because I really don’t want to be too negative. Instead, I want to poke a little bit of fun at her without being nasty about it. I was watching her ‘Oprah in Australia’ specials when I saw this cute little Aussie kid do what appears to be the ‘Loser’ hand gesture. Now he may well be pointing to his little friend and not Oprah but it cracked me up so I had to include it in my blog.     

Hee Hee!

It’s not designed to humiliate Oprah; I think she looks beautiful and happy in this photo. With my blogs, I deliberately try to fill them with as many gorgeous photos as I can. When it comes to Michael that is easy – the hard part is not being able to include them all! I try to do the same for his family & friends also. With his foes, unless he is in the photo with them I am loathe to include them, unless they are the clever ones created by MJ fans.

Please enjoy this first part – I’ve come to realize I’m not going to get this topic completed to my satisfaction in just the one session, so I’ll do it in stages.

This woman has caused me a lot of conflicted emotions. I used to adore Oprah, I really did! I thought she was a wonderful humanitarian and if not for a tendency to sometimes appear overly self aware (I cringe whenever she has a singing guest perform on her show and the director cuts to Oprah to catch her reaction. It seems like as soon as she realizes the camera is on her she’ll start lip synching and its just so embarrassing to watch!)

But since Michael died, I’ve been forced by the fan community’s intense dislike & distrust of her to re-evaluate my own opinion of her. I first became aware of this mistrust just before the Lisa Marie Presley interview. I was taken aback by it actually because the most recent thing at that time that I’d seen that Oprah had done concerning Michael was the episode devoted to the ‘This Is It’ premiere. She had both Jackie & Tito Jackson on her show and she seemed very respectful, I thought, towards Michael – even gushing at times with regards to his artistry and genius.

But when I read the feedback from the fan community though, they were able to list a litany of insults from Oprah. Let me tackle these one by one. First there was special she did revisiting the 1993 interview she did with him. The blurb about this special as it appeared on Australian TV was this:

“Oprah Remembers Michael Jackson. The world mourned and is still coping with the death of Michael Jackson. For the first time since he passed away Oprah speaks about where she was and how she felt when she heard the tragic news.”

Instead of the tribute I was expecting, I was annoyed by how Oprah kept bringing the subject back to her. For instance, I felt she spent too much time describing her own reactions to the interview, her nervousness in the beginning, whether she thought this answer or that answer was candid etc – it was like this special was designed for journalism students or wannabe TV presenters to analyze her interview techniques rather than a public keen to remember a fallen icon.

It irked me when she went on about how her career could have been ruined had the live interview gone badly due to her lack of prepared in advance questions. This special first aired in September 2009, only a matter of weeks after Michael was buried. I distinctly remember wanting to see more of Michael, new unseen footage perhaps, but the ratio of Oprah versus Michael was too heavily stocked – in the wrong favor.

The fan community’s hostile reaction to Oprah really surprised me at first. One of the things they cited, that I must admit I had not picked up, was how Oprah ‘harped’ on the abuse allegations. I’m playing the interview on my TV as I write this. We are 14 minutes in (this was taped from the TV so it includes commercials) and Oprah has already mentioned the allegations 3 times. Wow! That certainly lends credence to the fan community’s assertions that Oprah is hell-bent on portraying him in a negative light.

On the other hand, Oprah mentions that Michael had made some comments to her about his father off camera and that she would honor that and would not repeat them. This is the thing about her that has caused me to oscillate. Is she malicious when it comes to Michael or simply misguided?

 

From my own perspective, what angered me most was probably the section where she said:

“But…anybody who knows Michael Jackson will tell you that when you are up close to him, he had absolutely no pigmentation in his skin, so you can see all the way through to…you are looking at his veins when you look at his hand.”

So here finally Oprah confirms what Michael told her back in 1993 about his vitiligo. Only 16 years late, Oprah! I’ve said this in this blog before, and maybe it’s unfair of me to expect her to champion Michael, but if the media are accusing the most famous black man of not wanting to be black, and you know that this is not the case, surely you must defend him on this score?

Instead though, in 1993 Oprah went on after Michael said the word ‘vitiligo’ about bleaching creams and whatnot, making me think she didn’t believe him about the disease. Now, fast forward to 2009 and we hear her saying it was obvious to anyone that met him that he did have a skin disorder. Why, oh why didn’t she say so in 1993? Oprah is an influential figure and a show of support in regards to his vitiligo could have made Michael’s last 16 years that much easier. 

Not Jon Stewart but the equally funny Stephen Colbert…

You not going to believe this, but I taped today’s episode of Oprah (which is actually an older episode from September 2010 I think). Every Sunday, I check the episode description for Oprah’s shows for the upcoming week and decide which ones (if any) I want to watch.

On the show today was the hilarious Jon Stewart & the legendary Liza Minnelli. I wasn’t expecting any references to Michael Jackson because if there had been I would have thought I would have heard about it from the MJ fan-mily. Actually I tuned in mainly to see Jon Stewart, whose segment of the show took up the first 45 minutes.

Speaking of Jon Stewart, I just have to include this quote from him, which I love:

"However you felt about the man, whatever your opinions are, I believe we, as a people, should make a rule that once you die, unless you are a convicted felon or an oppressive dictator, whatever derisive nickname that we used for you - it dies with you. So, can we all stop calling him Jacko now?"

When we are 3 minutes into Oprah’s interview with Liza, the topic turns to Liza’s most recent marriage. Liza says that she is attracted to really talented people but when it comes to her choice of husbands she is hopelessly bad at picking the right man.

“Michael Jackson – I understand - was a very close friend if yours?”

“Yes.”

“Even best man at your wedding to David Gest.”

“Yes.”

“What do you miss most about Michael?”

“His sense of humor about himself, you know?

“Hmm.” (Oprah says distractedly as she turns to the large screen behind them where the above photo is displayed) “There’s Michael…and Liz…and you…and…your husband…”

“Whatever his name is!” Liza cackles with laughter. “But no…I mean…Michael was adorable…and he was funny!  You know, we talked every week on the phone, no matter where we both were and…he had the best sense of humor…especially about himself.”

“Really did he?” Oprah appears very surprised to hear this.

“Really good! And I don’t think that’s a side people know.” Liza says regretfully.

This exchange seems to confirm the MJ fan-mily’s assertion that Oprah is pre-occupied with Michael Jackson. She only has about a five minute window to interview Ms. Minnelli and one of her first questions is about Michael.

But the question she asks is not negative – she is asking what one friend misses most about another not anything about the false allegations or suspected drug use. So, at the very least, on this occasion Oprah does a lot to improve people’s perception of Michael Jackson – letting them know he was a loyal friend with a fantastic sense of humor.

I will end Part One of this Oprah series with another child genius, young Blanket Jackson!

Hee Hee! See you next time!