Possumblog

Well, yes, if you don't understand sarcasm.

I've tried not to comment much about this garbage, but this one caught my eye--Journalist on Tape Lauds Jackson As Parent

Uhmm-yeah. Here's the quote:

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The jury in the Michael Jackson trial watched a video Thursday in which the journalist who made a damaging documentary about the pop star actually praised him as a parent.

"Your relationship to your children is spectacular," Martin Bashir said to Jackson during the making of the documentary. "It almost makes me weep." [...]

Well, I don't see that as any sort of praise (although Mr. Neverland probably thinks everything said about him is some sort of praise). This unpraiseworthiness is especially notable if you take the definition of "spectacular" as being, "Of or pertaining to a show; of the nature of a show," or "Adapted to excite wonder and admiration by a display of pomp or of scenic effects; as, a spectacular celebration of some event; a spectacular play."

I saw the documentary when it aired, and I knew exactly what Bashir meant, and I knew he was saying something ambiguous enough that someone with a poor sense of irony and a highly inflated ego would take it as a compliment, even though it obviously wasn't meant as such. Unfair to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed manchild? Probably. It almost makes me weep.

What I don't quite get is why the reporter for the article would want to try so hard to read into the quote the meaning Jackson wanted it to have. Why not say, "Jackson's legal team saw the statement as praise," or some other such phrase--something with a bit less obvious cheerleading to it. Or is that what I hear called "advocacy journalism"?

Anyway, another nice quote from the article, this time from Jackson--

"I'm not a nut," Jackson said. "I'm very smart. You can't come this far and be a nut."

Smart, successful, and crazy aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. But you know, at least Howard Hughes had the good sense to not mess around with kids.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at May 12, 2005 03:32 PM