Why I’m done with Michael Jackson
Can we keep pretending Michael Jackson was just an eccentric Peter Pan when a new documentary suggests he’s a sickening paedophile, asks Cameron Adams.
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For decades most of the world has simply believed that Michael Jackson had innocent sleepovers with seven year old boys when he was in his thirties.
That he was just a big kid himself. That he was merely searching for the childhood he himself was deprived of. That he was just eccentric.
The new documentary Leaving Neverland is about to shatter that fantasy narrative by portraying Michael Jackson as a sinister paedophile who groomed his victims, paraded them in plain sight and molested them behind closed doors — sometimes with their parents in the next room.
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Jackson’s estate (which has made over $1 billion since his death in 2009) has already slammed the documentary as “disgraceful”, “sensationalist” and “one-sided”, calling its contents “absolutely false.”
It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, receiving a standing ovation, and will air on US and UK TV this weekend and in Australia on Channel 10 next Friday and Saturday, March 8 and 9.
Diehard Jackson fans, who plan to boycott the program, have gone into pre-damage control online and started a campaign called ‘Facts don’t lie, people do’. Director Dan Reed and the documentary’s two subjects — Australian Wade Robson and American Jimmy Safechuck — have been subjected to death threats as well as fierce online abuse.
However for casual viewers, not Jackson apologists, Leaving Neverland fills in many of the blanks we’d maybe deliberately blocked out of our minds while we played Billie Jean, Rock With You, Wanna Be Startin’ Something and Thriller on repeat, mourned his loss and praised his musical genius over the last decade.
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Robson and Safechuck met Jackson aged 7 and 9 respectively. They point out that while the sleepovers started with popcorn and movies, Jackson strategically won over the trust of the boys’ parents (often wooing them with five star hotels and flying them out on his world tours) to gain one-on-one access to the children, including in his bedroom.
If you felt Jackson was almost asexual, despite his several marriages and multiple love songs, Leaving Neverland comprehensively busts that myth.
The things Robson and Safechuck claim Jackson did to them (separately), and that they claim he made them do, are so graphic and disgusting that the film is physically sickening in parts. It’s also why it can’t air before 9pm.
They allege Jackson played them pornographic movies, taught them how to masturbate and had specific sexual desires he made them perform until he tired of them, usually when reached puberty around the age of 14. Then he’d replace them with a younger boy.
Jackson’s more intense fans claim Robson is a liar and point out he, and Safechuck, in 1993 both told police the singer had never done anything indecent with them.
Both men say they were in love with the singer, who had told them — as young boys — if they told anyone about the abuse they’d go to jail, he’d go to jail and their parents would be in trouble.
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By the time of Jackson’s court trial in 2005 Safechuck refused to testify (he claims Jackson threatened him on the phone over his decision) and a reluctant Robson only did so because his mother said Jackson would die if he went jail.
It wasn’t until both Robson and Safechuck had children of their own, and could imagine how they would react if someone molested their kids, that they were able to finally speak their truths.
It opens up that whole deeply personal issue of when people feel ready to discuss deeply-buried abuse, which often doesn’t fit the timeline of people wanting to protect the legacy of a pop icon.
These are all topics that play out over Leaving Neverland’s extended running time, as well as how the men told their families, and how their mothers dealt with the guilt of leaving their children alone with allegedly the world’s most famous paedophile.
Michael Jackson Inc is a huge operation and it’s a confusing one with one constant thread — money. Jermaine Jackson is still saying his brother was murdered. LaToya Jackson originally went against her brother during the child abuse trial, but now defends him.
You can choose your own narrative to suit who you want to believe, Leaving Neverland is no different.
Robson and Safechuck are making no money from Leaving Neverland, but they are suing the estate — as is their right.
Obviously Jackson is dead and a jury found him innocent when he was alive.
But will a TV audience in the #metoo era, listening to two of his victims lift the curtain, still be content to let him rest in peace?
It will be interesting to see what happens next. There are still people who run websites that support jailed paedophile Gary Glitter and want to be able to enjoy his music and remove it from his crimes.
There were girls on Twitter who said they’d allow Chris Brown to hit them in his first TV performance after beating ex girlfriend Rihanna.
Just this week a Chicago woman who works in childcare paid singer R Kelly’s $100,000 bail after he was arrested on charges of sexual abuse of underage women.
Surviving R Kelly, the documentary which aired this year and caused major backlash, finally saw R Kelly lose his record deal with Sony — also Jackson’s record label.
Some will be able to freeze-frame their own personal view of Michael Jackson and ignore any of Robson and Safechuck’s inconvenient truths.
But for those with a more open mind, watching Leaving Neverland will change the way you hear Smooth Criminal forever.
Cameron Adams is a News Corp national music writer.