The Cruelty of Martin Bashir: How He Deceived Michael Jackson
While Martin Bashir’s deceptive tactics are now getting mainstream attention in regards to Princess Diana, Bashir’s questionable behavior has been known for years by people paying attention. Bashir’s “Living With Michael Jackson” documentary, though proposed as a way to humanize the singer, ultimately and deliberately further contributed to the star’s dehumanizing treatment and ultimately the 2005 trial.
Martin Bashir is an English journalist who gained prominence after a 1995 interview with Princess Diana. In 2002, he proposed to Michael Jackson a documentary that would “show the real man”. Jackson, having struggled with nightmarish tabloid treatment and an admirer of Princess Diana, considered how Bashir’s interview had helped Diana’s reputation before ultimately agreeing. Bashir interviewed Jackson for about 8 months, and though Jackson felt good about the interview initially, the final product was far different than what was proposed to him. By the time “Living With Michael Jackson” aired, Jackson was left with a deceitful narrative carefully edited and constructed by Bashir instead of the impartial view into his life that was originally promised.
Early on, Bashir’s tone in the documentary is suspicious, judgemental, and unsympathetic. Some of his first lines summarize his observations with Jackson as “the disturbing reality of his [Jackson’s] life today”.
The opening statement leaves the audience to expectations of a highly negative depiction of Jackson’s life behind the scenes. Even at such an early point, one could see that Bashir has an agenda of his own that doesn’t fit his original promise to Michael Jackson; an unfiltered, unedited look into the singer’s life.
Bringing him into several uncomfortable situations, Bashir not only cut important parts from the interview, but also added voiceovers that reflected completely different thoughts from his statements directly to Jackson. Bashir frequently backs Jackson into corners, asking him questions or to do things the singer was not comfortable with.
For example, early in the documentary Bashir asks Jackson to dance for him and quickly dismisses Jackson’s feelings of being shy and not ready. In the same sitting, Bashir proceeds to push Jackson into detail about the trauma from his childhood. Jackson is clearly shaken by this, but Bashir offers little sympathy in his voiceovers, portraying Jackson’s trauma as a stepping stone into this “disturbing reality” instead.
The footage being analyzed in this article was presented by Maury Povich and aired on American television, which showed Martin Bashir contradicting himself by lavishing praise rather than critique on Jackson’s parenting skills and his famous Neverland ranch.
While Neverland is being described as a “dangerous place for a vulnerable child to be“ in Bashir’s official documentary — via voiceover — the journalist’s description differs in the footage captioned by Jackson’s cameraman: “it’s nothing short of a spiritually kind thing […] what we saw yesterday was incredible.” After repeatedly questioning Jackson’s relationship with children, Bashir sees for himself and openly confirms the reality around Jackson with children is nothing like it is and was portrayed in the media. Asking the singer: “Do you think it would be true to say. that you’ve found friendship and inspiration in children that you haven’t been able to find in adults?” Jackson answers in the affirmative replying “I haven’t been betrayed or deceived by children, adults have let me down, adults have let this world down”. In the journalist’s voiceovers, however, he still attempts to paint Michael Jackson and this relationship as disturbed and misconceived.
Behind the scenes of the documentary, Jackson, his make-up artist and Bashir had several talks about the media making up stories about the singer and printing negative headlines, to which the journalist replies: “That’s disgusting, well we aren’t doing that here”. Ironically Bashir would end up doing exactly that: Changing the narrative with the use of voiceovers and cutting out important footage that would show his real feelings towards Michael Jackson and his life behind the scenes. Even removing Bashir’s personal feelings, positive or negative, would be closer to what was originally promised and allow viewers to make their own conclusions.
Involving Jackson’s own children, descriptions that would not make it into the cut, would be those describing the singer as an excellent father, whose relationship with his children is “spectacular” and almost makes him “weep” because of their interactions that are “so natural, so loving, so caring”. Instead, Bashir released a statement saying how “they are restricted [and] are overly protected.” He was “angry” at the way his children “were made to suffer.” Bearing in mind, the statement that did not make it into the cut was made after the exaggerated incident at the Berlin hotel balcony, where Jackson showed his newborn baby to a crowd of fans that were excited to see him and cheered for the singer to show his beloved son. The footage that was shown in Bashir’s official documentary was cut and slowed down to make it seem like Jackson dangled his baby over the balcony for absolutely no reason and putting it in danger. In reality it was a situation of two seconds where he got caught up in the moment wanting to show his son to his fans that were cheering to see him. Having a very tight grip on the baby, the media still took the footage, cut the crowd out and spread it like wildfire painting Jackson as an irresponsible father who has lost his mind.
Not only did Bashir edit the footage of the balcony incident, but he also failed to include the explanation as to why Jackson does not want to show his children, covering up their faces. It was Debbie Rowe, the children’s mother, who did not want to put the kids into the public eye, because the danger of them being recognized and hurt or even killed would be too high. The only purpose was protection. Another scene that would paint Jackson as an irresponsible father in Bashir’s “Living with Michael Jackson” was the planned trip to the zoo with the singer and his children. The zoo was not closed down beforehand and Jackson’s presence caused a frenzy. Bashir’s commentary and splicing leaves the audience feeling as though Jackson was simply negligent and unknowingly put his children in danger. What he does not show in his documentary, however, is that Jackson had no idea the zoo would not be shut down as was promised beforehand. It was this oversight that caused a the chaotic scene, which Bashir blatantly omits. Instead, later when he speaks to Jackson about the incident, he paints Jackson as having been completely clueless about the scene. He even suggests Jackson’s son, Prince, was poked in the eye during the incident and that Jackson was simply too caught up to notice, though this was not the case.
A stepping stone into the ‘05 allegations
It was Martin Bashir who wanted to include an interview with a family, especially a young boy, visiting Jackon’s Neverland ranch in his documentary. Shortly after his documentary aired on television, that same family would end up creating allegations against the singer, even though they previously defended Jackson. But how did it come to that?
Martin Bashir’s documentary was a stepping stone into the 2005 allegations against Michael Jackson. There were many things planned behind the scenes of Bashir’s documentary that Jackson was unaware of and was then later painted in a negative light. The inclusion of the interview with the Arvizo family led to a huge negative tabloid printing that misquoted Jackson and painted him as a criminal. What was not shown, was the intentional set up by the journalist happening behind the scenes. The “controversial” scene of Jackson holding Gavin Arvizo’s hand with his head laying on Jackson’s shoulder would even decades later still be used against the singer. This was actually planned by Bashir.
Prior to the filming, the journalist had suggested for Gavin to lay his head on MJ‘s shoulder who (Jackson) then responded he “hardly knew this kid since he hadn‘t seen him in years”. Aphrodite Jones, an american author, reporter and television producer, was interviewed by a radio show and confirmed this information. Jackson himself wanted to bring a man who he befriended as a child, Dave Dave, as an example. After Dave Dave was brutally injured in a fire set by his own father, Jackson took care of all of Dave Dave’s medical expenses and continued to do so until he (Jackson) passed away. Jackson was comfortable with Dave Dave as this was a person he had known for almost twenty years by 2002. So not only did Bashir insist on a certain child, (one that was relatively new to Jackson), he also intentionally staged a scene to make Jackson seem generally inappropriate around children. This became the spark that would launch the 2005 trial against Michael Jackson. After Jackson’s death, Bashir would go on to publicly state he never witnessed anything inappropriate during his 8 months with Michael Jackson.
However, at the time, Bashir seemed to want the world to believe that he had seen the worst things imaginable. The Arvizos initially were outraged by Bashir’s documentary, and even taped a rebuttal video of their own. Janet Arvizo mocked Bashir’s deceitful camera work and proclaimed Jackson’s relationship with them was family. She further went on to declare she felt Jackson was a father figure to her sons and daughters.
Unfortunately, nothing could quell the initial fallout. Tabloids continuously approached the Arvizos for stories and Jackson continued to be vilified in the media in spite of the Arvizo’s rebuttal. Eventually the possibility for money (as well as Jackson no longer inviting them to Neverland), became too strong to ignore. Riding the momentum of the fallout, the Arvizos came forward with allegations that Gavin had been molested. The fallout was so strong that few, if any, recognized that the Arvizos were only claiming Gavin was molested AFTER the airing of Living With Michael Jackson. That’s just how devastating the documentary was; it allowed utterly nonsensical allegations to send Jackson into a trial that never should have happened and that people overwhelmingly felt he was guilty.
The allegations only continued to grow in inconceivability. Not only did the whole Arvizo family switch up after the airing of “Living With Michael Jackson”, they also used dates that Jackson provably wasn’t present at Neverland.
In truth, the Arvizos were caught by housekeepers using Jackson’s room and bed without permission, against Jackson’s wishes, and even rummaging through his belongings when he wasn’t present. Switching up dates to match the times the singer actually was present, Gavin actually only slept in the same two-story bedroom as Jackson, with other adults present. Having learned from the original 1993, Jackson began to feel Gavin was being pushed on him, but did not want to upset the family. As a compromise, the singer offered Gavin his bed while sleeping on the floor with Frank Cascio and other staff members to have witnesses present.
However, the Arvizos changed their dates again to match times where Michael was present and proceeded with the trial. Though their allegations crumbled in court, sometimes causing the jury to laugh, the damage was done; Michael Jackson’s reputation was never the same.
But it all began with Martin Bashir’s false promises and manipulative journalistic tactics.
