{"id":9209,"date":"2009-06-25T16:59:22","date_gmt":"2009-06-26T00:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=9209"},"modified":"2009-06-25T16:59:22","modified_gmt":"2009-06-26T00:59:22","slug":"michael-jackson-is-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=9209","title":{"rendered":"Michael Jackson Is Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.lukeford.net\/profiles\/profiles\/aphrodite_jones.htm\">In 2007,I interviewed true crime author Aphrodite Jones about Michael Jackson<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p>Luke: &quot;Why is it important to present this other side to Michael          Jackson?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Aphrodite: &quot;There is another side to him and the press is like a          consortium that no one knows about. Once they make a decision, that&#8217;s          it. In his case, they&#8217;ve made their decision. It&#8217;s like they&#8217;ve made a          business of making fun of him and they don&#8217;t want to do anything else          but that.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I went to a bookstore looking for books on Michael Jackson and          I only found two.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Luke: &quot;Could you give me an insight into the other Michael Jackson?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Aphrodite: &quot;The other Michael Jackson doesn&#8217;t even know what is          going on with his own finances. The other Michael Jackson is really a          twelve year old living in a 43-year old&#8217;s body. That&#8217;s why he&#8217;s hanging          around with twelve year olds.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I have studied this guy. I have tapes that nobody has seen. I can&#8217;t          release them because they belong to him.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He&#8217;s sitting on a pillow. From the waist up, it&#8217;s a nice shirt.          From the waist down, it&#8217;s pajama pants. He&#8217;s sitting with his make-up          artist who&#8217;s doing his hair and he&#8217;s talking for hours on end. He lives          in his own little dreamworld. He&#8217;s still this tormented soul. It&#8217;s like          he lived and died at the age of twelve and he&#8217;s still alive.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Luke: &quot;Is he a threat to children?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Aphrodite: &quot;No. He spent so many years trying to do good for children          and to make it OK for him to spend time with children.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He&#8217;s a case of arrested development. He&#8217;s like an elf.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Luke: &quot;What&#8217;s with his sleepovers with boys? Are they sleeping in          the same bed as him?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Aphrodite: &quot;Yes. That&#8217;s weird.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Luke: &quot;Is that entirely non-sexual?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Aphrodite: &quot;So he claims.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Luke: &quot;What&#8217;s your sense?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Aphrodite: &quot;In the <a href=\"http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/1\/hi\/entertainment\/music\/4584531.stm\">Santa          Maria case brought by Gavin Arvizo<\/a>, the prosecution brought up every          piece of dirty laundry they had, the end result was that this did not          happen. He was set up to be taken down.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He was helping that kid. He let the kid stay in his room from day          one but the kid had cancer. He wasn&#8217;t sexually interested in that kid.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The media is not going to want my Michael Jackson book because          they get exposed. They didn&#8217;t tell the whole story when they reported          the Jordy Chandler trial. None of us did. I was part of it. We only told          the prosecution&#8217;s story. So that&#8217;s all the public knows.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I don&#8217;t know what happened with Jordy Chandler.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Luke: &quot;Why do you think the media so often acts as a pack? I think          they are afraid to go out on their own and look ridiculous to their peers.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Aphrodite: &quot;Let me give you an example. I was covering the BTK killer&#8217;s          sentencing for Fox News. This man tormented people in Wichita for 30 years.          I had an interview scheduled with the prosecutor. That morning one of          the news trucks was leaving. I asked where they were going and I was told          that a girl was eaten by a tiger. She was posing for a picture with a          tiger and the tiger ate her.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Next thing you know, the next news truck leaves. And so on. The          next thing I know, I get the call from Fox New York that our truck is          leaving. You don&#8217;t need to stay for the interview.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Luke: &quot;Do you think true crime books feed an unhealthy appetite?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Aphrodite: &quot;I hope not but I know that some of them do.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Luke: &quot;I know people who say that they love to read books on serial          killers.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Aphrodite: &quot;I hope not. I don&#8217;t write about serial killers. I had          that opportunity when I covered BTK and I chose not to because it was          too disturbing to me. I find it dark and detrimental to the human spirit.          But when it&#8217;s a case of a crime of passion or of domestic violence, when          there&#8217;s a societal issue behind it that we can learn from, a hate crime,          things that I&#8217;ve delved into, a societal issue that is more important          than the crime. Always. That&#8217;s where I&#8217;m coming from and that&#8217;s what I          hope to reveal to the reader. What they take from it is out of my control.          I hope that I&#8217;m not fueling anything demonic out there.&quot;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In 2007,I interviewed true crime author Aphrodite Jones about Michael Jackson: Luke: &quot;Why is it important to present this other side to Michael Jackson?&quot; Aphrodite: &quot;There is another side to him and the press is like a consortium that no &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=9209\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[29928,18097,18099,18098,18096,836],"class_list":["post-9209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","tag-aphrodite-jones","tag-pajama-pants","tag-sleepovers","tag-tormented-soul","tag-true-crime-author","tag-waist-down"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}