[LEE]

There is only one person who I have changed my opinion of after last night’s program, and that is Martin Bashir.

I used to think he was a good interviewer, a respected broadcaster and someone who would do a fair interview without prejudging his subject. I used to think that he would not be the type of person who would be more concerned with furthering his own reputation and career by creating a piece of biased sensationalist journalism that completely betrayed the person he was interviewing.

I was wrong.

I was angry at the end of last night’s program at the totally biased way in which Michael Jackson was portrayed, how Bashir constantly led the viewer into following his own opinion. His constant voiceovers commenting on Jackson’s behaviour, his almost tabloid-like headline comments before each ad break leading the viewer to expect something sensational, slightly ‘ridiculous’ or disturbing in the next segment of the show.

He seemed to spend much of the first part of the show silently mocking Michael and almost wanting him to say something that would make him look strange so that he could make an off-stage comment to the audience about how weird he was. He seemed to spend most of the second half insinuating that he was a paedophile.

I’m not saying that Michael Jackson isn’t a very screwed up human being. He is obviously a very emotionally troubled person spending much of his time in a fantasy world trying to relive the childhood he never had. But I do believe that he would never intentionally harm anyone, be it child or adult, and that everything he does for the children is done out of love.

He isn’t emotionally developed and is in many ways still a child and so enjoys the company of children. I really do think that he genuinely doesn’t understand why anyone would have a problem with his relationships with children and that a sexual motive wouldn’t even enter his head.

He was robbed of his real childhood partly by his demanding and abusive father and partly by his almost immediate success as a performing artist giving instant wealth and the adoration of a screaming public. He grew up too quickly in an un-natural environment and has been paying for it ever since.