Wayne wrote:
Michael Jackson, not guilty by reason of celebrity. Nothing else needs be said.
Not quite true: the
actual evidence was paper thin and suggested rather than proved. The members of the jury were quite aware of the difference; no mean feat in a country which in a remote location on Cuba seeks to do
exactly the opposite! I am quite sure that Jackson did things which were revolting as well as highly illegal, but unfortunately for all the children who didn't press charges, the witnesses who did were not exactly stellar. That is vastly unfair and morally inexcusable, but laws and trials were never about fairness or justice. They are about, well, laws.
In any case, the participants in this muppet show have emerged badly scarred. Jackson will never be able to hold another party for children at his home, unless he is separated from them with barbed wire and kept under continuous camera surveillance. His image, already tarnished, has sunk pretty much to rock bottom after this mediashark feeding frenzy. And perhaps it makes parents in general wonder just a little bit more about taking sensible precautions before handing over your child to someone you don't really know. Even if it is a celebrity.
