Weekly BlogScan: Michael Jackson Trial, Blog's-Eye View

You've got to admire a man who makes a decision and sticks to it. Prometheus 6 asked himself months ago, "Should I say something about the Michael Jackson trial?" His answer: Nope. But elsewhere in the blogosphere, others have not been so restrained.

The popular Ken Frost über-blog has a single-topic focus on the trial. Ken Frost's commentary is fairly even-handed, but it seems obvious that he's digesting the nuances from other writers' Jacko-postings. Paige McDermott of The Michael Jackson Case Blog, on the other hand, posts her own emotional reactions to the news of the day:

So all that I have gathered from all this "adult material" evidence is that Michael Jackson likes smut. OK, but that’s not what he’s on trial for. Let’s get back to what the trial is SUPPOSED to be about: child molestation. I’m still waiting for the prosecution to "blow (me) away" with some overwhelming evidence of Jackson’s guilt.

At News Hounds, where they " watch FOX so you don't have to," they decry the fact that Fox's Big Story spent five minutes on the Jackson trial and none on Tom Delay. Fair enough, since of 29 comments to the post, only four mention Jackson—mostly to quote approvingly the opinion, "Many of us stopped caring about Michael Jackson when the 80's ended, so his value as a distraction is low..." That's not the case at Julie's Place, where we learn that her friend Morgan dragooned her grandmother to take her to the courthouse so she could get some pictures for her blog. Michael drove in too far away, so she didn't get the snapshots she wanted—but she did meet four fans, three of whom "flew in from Europe!"

  Hussein to testify. Photo: Llanelli Scar.

Under the posted hazard sign "Danger: Caustic" at Llanelli Scar's blog, I found the scoop of the month: a surprise witness who had known Jackson for years, and visited him regularly at Neverland during the 80s. "I even knew him when he was black and had a nose." This witness' testimony is expected to be a setback for the prosecution, since he is on record saying, "At no time did I see my great friend, Michael, sexually assault any boy that visited him. I did see some boys being fed to the guard dogs because they had been naughty, but that is normal behaviour, where I come from"

The Mail & Guardian Online. "Africa's first online newspaper", weighed in with fashion and makeup commentary a few weeks ago, noting Jackson's English regimental medals, rainbow of armbands, and other oddities of dress,

...culminating in the wardrobe malfunction to beat all others: "Pyjama Thursday"... Jackson had left home without fixing his face. His skin, lacking the usual white pancake, had an orange hue. Unexpectedly, it made him look more normal than usual.

A really unique look at Jackson himself comes From the Desk of Dion C. Detterer: Michael is a "Fi" type in the personality-test range of "Fe Fi Fo Fum."

Putting aside current allegations and controversies, Michael Jackson is an obvious Fi type. He doesn't want to accommodate the community's attitudes—no, his vision is a lot bigger than that: he wants to "Heal the World" itself!
 ...
Pushed to the limit, Fi denies the reality and/or positive utility of any concept that distinguishes people based on innate traits. We aren't men and women, but only humans... This is in direct contrast to extreme Fe and its tendency towards drawing up the map into "us" and "them." To Fi types, there is no "them" -- just artificial constructs that need to be removed. [Emphasis mine.]

The Breaking News blog's Michael Jackson Trial Watch reminds us that Ms. Rowe is not the only witness to have stymied the prosecution's expectations. Flight attendant Cynthia Bell and Jesus Salas, the pop star’s former house manager, were both due to testify that they had seen boys given wine; each then testified under oath that they had not seen any such thing.

My "Amen, Brothers!" final word goes to Gordon Smith of American Samizdat, whose OJPTSD* reaction to trial coverage rang an instant accord in me. Smith gives a link to the media contact list, and urges us to write. His own brief note is a fitting comment on the circus in Santa Maria.

While our fighting men and women risk their lives daily, while great injustices are perpetrated by governments and economic entities, while ordinary citizens are doing extraordinary things every day - your news organization is devoting and preparing to devote an absurd amount of time and energy in covering the trial of a former pop star.

I urge you to offer news that will help us to grow as a nation. Act as if you were offering a public service. We'll watch. If you wallow in sleaze, you'll be ridiculed and less relevant in the serious debate about America's future.

OJPTSD: OJ [Simpson] Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, right, Gordon?
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