Well, I'm not especially an MJ fan, so I'm not terribly biased about it one way or another... but I have had journalistic experience and Bashir's interview was one of the worst I've ever seen... The value in the interview IMO was seeing Mikey's house.. his kids... and Mikey's eccentricities... but I gotta say... I definately think Bashir (sp?) really blew it this time. If I were his boss, I'd fire him.
The guy made his career on Princess Di (she walked all over him) and it looks like the King of Pop has cooked his goose.. I mean really... The guy doesn't do royalty, of any kind, well at all... Absolutely no integrity, no credibility at all...He's not a journalist... he's a tabloid sweetheart... trying too hard to be the consumate celebrity himself... Frankly he sucks, (and apparently that's his gameplan during interviews too .) he doesn't know the difference between being a pundit and a journalist....
Bashir's interview looked as if he held himself out as some sort of arrogant authority figure playing Papa Bashir to poor screwed up Baby Mikey...... Bi g mistake.. a journalist, appearing to be personally involved... even holding the kidlets' hands in public...and cooing Mikey up... the hero worship that was going on during those interviews was nauseating..... he might as well have crawled up Mikey's backside....it was a disgusting display... and no, journalists don't have to do that to get interviews... Look at Barbara Walters... Dianne Sawyer... Dan Rather... any of them.. can you imagine them doing that? No way... how could anyone trust anything Bashir says after seeing him in action? You'd be a fool to.
It was good that Mikey was taping the interviews as well. It should have been a hint to Bashir not to play the game like that.. but no... Bashir apparently thinks he can weather being exposed as a total moron!... Can you say edipus?.... I mean really, is there anyone who didn't know Mikey was eccentric? Really eccentric? But now everyone knows Bashir is a complete idiot too!
To someone that's had even relatively little experience in journalism, what was going on there should have been obvious... and Mikey's tapes show what really happened. It was that in 8 months of interviewing Mikey... No-talent Bashir had nothing special.. he had the "typical" Jackson interview... rare, but typical, he should have left it at that but no... he had to have something meatier than what he had... so he did a little creative editing...it's called "the old pitch and ditch"... intimate a sex/child abuse scandal to make it sell... and if you think about it... really, what in that interview did anyone see that was "News"? nuthin... We all know mikey thinks he's a kid (Peter Pan to be more specific)... we've known that for years... why else would the guy have an amusement park named Neverland for a backyard? Yes he's had plastic surgery and he's embarassed about it... big deal, wouldn't you be if that's how you ended up lookin? ...He got mobbed at a zoo thus endangering his children.... now that was interesting... considering Mikey was there for 3 wholde minutes before he got mobbed.... I wonder who tipped the press?...someone clearly did... is it too much of a far cry to think that Bashir might have done it?...now that's a thought eh... things that make ya say hmmmm.... And then there's the kid sleeping in Mikey's bedroom thing.... well didn't Bashir play turnabout on that... first it's very spiritual... almost miraculous.... then it's Mikey the perv....You know.. on balance, I do think Mikey has problems... not the least of which is having effective people around him that should advise and protect him from being exploited like that... Hey Mikey.... fire the lot of them! and hire people that you will actually listen to once in a while eh!... I don't know if MJ is a pedophile or not... and no, I don't think it's appropriate for MJ to have minor children of other people sleeping in his bedroom, especially when he's in there, and he should know better by now... he got nailed for millions before...basically about the same thing... But I'd really like to know where the parents of these children are? (Now that's a good question, why didn't Bashir ask that one?.... Gee, how good can the guy be? ) If my kids were going to "Uncle Mikey's" house... there is no way they would be sleeping over without me... and there's no way they would be sleeping in Mikey's room... Now, that's just asking for trouble, don't ya think? huhhhh... answered my own question.. apparently there isn't much thinking going on there....
Inq of the "I'm just not that gullible" class