michael_jackson56It’s been nearly a week since the death of Michael Jackson. The initial shock has faded, replaced by grandstanding, speculation, innuendo, and some very tasteless (and very funny) jokes.

Seemingly lost in the pandemonium are the simple truths about the man and the people around him. Truths like these:

1. Michael Jackson was NOT the King Of Pop.

It’s apparently true that a phrase, repeated ad nauseum, will take root no matter how insubstantial or blatantly false. However, that title, created by Jackson himself, does not belong to him … it rightly belongs to Elvis Presley, who amassed 17 number one singles (to Jackson’s 13) during his lifetime. Unless he drank a lot of soda, the man should never be referred to with such a moniker.

2. Michael Jackson did not deserve much of his acclaim.

While the world currently mourns Jackson, many people continue to claim that Jackson was one of the greatest entertainers of all time. Possibly. But we need to remember that we are talking about a man who released very little substantial music in his career. His childhood years, though amazing, only showed off his singing talents. Then he released possibly his greatest record, OFF THE WALL. He followed that up with THRILLER, a record that is vastly overrated beyond the magnificent singles BILLIE JEAN and BEAT IT. Beyond that, his musical output has been almost anemic, with the perfect THE WAY YOU MAKE ME FEEL being the sole exception.

Albums like BAD or DANGEROUS were media concoctions rather than musical statements, created to sell Jackson’s products and image. Songs like THRILLER or BLACK OR WHITE are terrible, and were sold to the public via The Simpsons and other “events.” If you look at Jackson’s musical legacy with a clear head and unbiased eye, it’s startling how meager his musical output was throughout his long entertainment life.

We can also see the problem when we look at  Jackson’s supposedly “live” performances throughout his career. When was the last time Michael Jackson actually sang an entire song LIVE? Even his seminal performance of BILLIE JEAN in 1983 was entirely lip-synched. For cryin’ out loud, Jackson even lip-synched on the GRAMMYS in 1988!! I don’t know about anyone else, but if I paid $100 to see Jackson in concert, I would want to hear the guy actually sing, not dance around to the tracks I have at my house. Yet Jackson made an entire career out of a practice that effectively killed Ashlee Simpson’s career when she did it on SNL a few years ago. Pretty lame for someone considered in such high regard as an entertainer.

3. Michael Jackson was a child molester.

Seems pretty obvious to say, but it has been largely ignored out of respect. However, it is also damaging to the children to gloss over the crimes that this man committed and escaped due to his vast wealth.

The media desperately wants to paint Michael as some sort of innocent Peter Pan who made mistakes, but the facts show otherwise. Innocent people do not pay millions of dollars to silence their accusers. Innocent people do not fire people and silence people who rebuke or question their behavior. The facts show that Jackson was a savvy and keen manipulator of people, either in his professional or private life. Neverland was an enormous amusement park version of a venus fly trap, ensnaring kids who would, under these special conditions, be perfect victims. I don’t think Jackson molested many kids, mainly due to his mangled psychology and his fame. But I think he did molest at least one, and would have molested many more had he not been so famous.

4. Michael Jackson was a liar.

I would really like some of Jackson’s fans to admit this one. Jackson’s lies are so intricate and thickly spun that it will take decades to extract the truth. Remember that mesmerizing Living With Michael Jackson interview with Martin Bashir in 2003? Almost everything Jackson said there about his kids has already proven to be completely false. In the interview, he admitted to having sex with Debbie Rowe to conceive his first two children, and then using a surrogate for the third child using his own sperm cells. Now, after his death, it has come to light that Jackson’s sperm never came within a zip code of touching any woman’s eggs, and the entire family was artificially created without Jackson’s involvement at all.

In fact, it’s fair to call both of Jackson’s marriages what they are: shams. His marriages to Lisa Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe – as well as the children – are merely media manipulations on Jackson’s part. The 1993 child molestation charges upset him deeply, not to mention they were a public relations nightmare. So Jackson’s response was to hastily get married and have children, giving his fans the appearance of normalcy and innocence.

In essence, Jackson lied to everyone, including his adopted children, in order to sell albums and concert tickets.

5. The members of the Jackson Family are shameless fame whores.

Few stomachs remained unturned after seeing Joe and Janet Jackson appear at the BET awards two days after Michael’s death. Joe Jackson’s thoughtless shilling of his record company is one of the most despicably selfish acts ever unveiled in public … and then he did it again the following day! Meanwhile, sister Janet was paraded onstage to give a message to the fans … and keep the other successful Jackson kid in work. We need to remember that Janet’s career has been on the skids for a decade as well, and this perfect PR moment was milked for everything it had in order to create a sympathetic swell for Janet and her career.

What’s next? An exclusive interview with LaToya’s snake? A tearful remembrance by Rebbie?

Much of the blame falls on Joe’s oddly-shaped head. He beat these kids and molded them into a gaggle of record-making freaks, all the while collecting huge sums of money. The entire family is a mess, including Tito. The family no longer has real emotion; everything is calculated, manipulated, and buffed to a shine for the cameras. And with the death of the oddest and most famous among them, we can be assured that the Jackson’s will spend years sucking on his corpse for money and fame.

It’s high time for media and fans to honestly assess Michael Jackson for what he actually was, rather than what nostalgia suggests. He was once a terrific young singer and dancer who then descended into utter madness, criminal behavior, and self-delusion. He is not the greatest singer, songwriter, dancer, or entertainer that ever lived. He could have been, but his potential was wasted. In the end, Jackson will be remembered as an artist with a couple of brilliant songs who spectacularly disintegrated in public. He was essentially eaten alive before our eyes by those around him, as well as the demons that haunted him. We can feel sorry for him, but we should not make him out to be something more than what the truth tells us.