Probe Bashir after results of Diana controversy

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Hoping and praying they now have an enquiry into how Bashir persuaded Michael to do an in depth interview after being found out for lying and cheating to get Princess Diana interview. Ultimately it ended up in the death of both.



https://www.showbiz411.com/2021/05/20/a ... -interview

BBC Finds Martin Bashir “Deceived” Princess Diana’s Brother to Get Famous Interview

Journalist Martin Bashir made his name on two big celebrity interviews. One was for the BBC with Princess Diana. The other was with ABC concerning Michael Jackson.

Now Bashir has been ousted from the BBC. An investigation published just now has found Bashir “deceived” Princess Diana by showing her brother phony documents to get the 1995 interview. The interview was an international sensation that basically exposed her marriage as a fraud and ended it.

Diana would die two years later in an infamous, suspicious car wreck in Paris.

In 2003, Bashir interviewed Michael Jackson at his Neverland Ranch when the Arvizo family was visiting. The ABC special made Jackson seem like a pedophile. It prompted a new investigation from then Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon, who was looking for a reason to arrest the singer.

What followed was an avalanche of bad publicity, Sneddon contacting the Arvizos to create a case that didn’t exist, an arrest, humiliation for the singer, and a 2005 trial in which Jackson was acquitted.

Jackson, humiliated, left town and died four years later after a series of moves, trips, and poor choices led to a Dr. Conrad Murray killing him during a neglectful treatment.

The whole time Bashir filmed Jackson, Jackson’s videographer was documenting the episode. In court, we were able to see that “outtake” film as part of Jackson’s defense. The results were shocking, and certainly affected the jury’s decision to acquit Jackson. Bashir clearly used Jackson, and led him to say certain things and appear as Bashir wanted him to, in order to create false impressions.

Maybe now that the BBC has re-evaluated Bashir’s manipulations in the Princess Diana case, ABC will turn its attention to the Michael Jackson story.
https://youtu.be/UjoIDfsckYY

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Taj Jackson
@tajjackson3

Bashir’s manipulated footage and unethically journalism is one of the main reasons my uncle Michael is not here today. That 2005 trial broke him. Shame on those who provided cover for Bashir. Shame on those who rewarded him.
My family deserves an investigation & apology too.

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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 Arvizo’s 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 Arvizo’s 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.

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https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/uk-wo ... ir-4688741

Michael Jackson believed Martin Bashir made false promises amid fresh Princess Diana BBC interview deceit claims
Martin Bashir is facing an inquiry into claims he landed a Princess Diana interview through 'sheer dishonesty'



Michael Jackson was seething.

After watching Martin Bashir’s portrayal of his life for the first time, he wept.

TV journalist Bashir interviewed Jackson over a span of eight months, from May 2002 to January 2003, about different aspects of his life.

The outcome was a 110-minute film, Living with Michael Jackson , which aired on ITV in the UK and ABC across the Atlantic in February 2003.

Bashir first made contact with Jackson’s assistant in the spring of 2002, promising, according to Jackson, that his documentary would change his public image.

Jackson, who was notoriously private, rarely did interviews of any kind. He simply didn’t trust the media.

But Bashir seemingly knew which buttons to press. Jackson was fond of the late Princess Diana, who Bashir had famously interviewed for BBC Panorama back in 1995.

Jackson claimed that Bashir had played on his affection for Diana. “[He] told me that he was 'the man that turned Diana's life around'," Jackson said.

During Jackson’s 2005 trial for alleged child molestation, Bashir faced questioning over his conduct in landing his big scoop.

The court heard that Bashir allegedly promised Jackson a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, and a subsequent trip with Jackson and Annan to Africa to help children with AIDS.

Jackson was convinced Bashir’s film would be far gentler than it turned out to be; he felt that the journalist deeply understood him and his desire to help sick children. Bashir was said to have told Jackson that his relationship with children made him weep (in a positive way), and that he supported Jackson’s vision for an international children’s holiday.

Jackson felt betrayed by the final product, claiming it was a "gross distortion of the truth" which painted a misleading picture of his behaviour and conduct as a father.

"I trusted Martin Bashir to come into my life and that of my family because I wanted the truth to be told,” an enraged and emotional Jackson said in the days after the film was aired. “Martin Bashir persuaded me to trust him, that this would be an honest and fair portrayal of my life.

"I feel more betrayed than perhaps ever before; that someone who had got to know my children, my staff and me, whom I let into my heart and told the truth, could then sacrifice the trust I placed in him and produce this terrible and unfair programme.”

In court, Bashir refused to answer most questions from Jackson's lawyer over the methods he used to obtain Jackson’s trust. Bashir cited California's 'shield law', which protects journalists who refuse to answer questions about their sources or news gathering.

But in one of the few answers he did give, he denied luring in Jackson under false pretences.


“He asked for no conditions whatsoever and agreed that I was free to make the film with him,” Bashir told the court.

Now, 25 years after the historic Princess Diana interview, Bashir faces a BBC inquiry into allegations that he landed the exclusive through what Diana's brother Earl Spencer described as "sheer dishonesty".

It is claimed Bashir produced fake bank statements and used other deceitful tactics to win the trust of Diana’s family and convince her to do the interview.

The BBC has apologised for the faked statements, adding that Bashir - currently employed as the broadcaster's Religious Affairs correspondent - is currently signed off work, and too ill to comment on the allegations.

The BBC has confirmed an investigation into the claims will take place.

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Damned hypocrite

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Mourad Mesellaty is feeling sad.

#StoryOfTheDay ...Martin Bashir never apologized, forgave,
or admitted to lying in the documentary Living with Michael Jackson, he just got in the car in 2009 because it was convenient at the time, like so many others who have been falsely compulsive about his death.
"Today I feel more betrayed than perhaps ever before; that someone who had got to know my children, my staff and me, whom I let into my heart and told the truth, could then sacrifice the trust I placed in him and produce this terrible and unfair programme." - #MichaelJackson on #MartinBashir
Journalist Martin Bashir made his name on two big celebrity interviews. One was for the BBC with Princess Diana.
The other was with ABC concerning Michael Jackson.
Now Bashir has been ousted from the BBC. An investigation published just now has found Bashir “deceived” Princess Diana by showing her brother phony documents to get the 1995 interview.
The interview was an international sensation that basically exposed her marriage as a fraud and ended it. Princess Diana would die two years later in an infamous, suspicious car wreck in Paris, France.
In 2003, Bashir interviewed Michael Jackson at his Neverland Ranch when the Arvizo family was visiting. The ABC special made Jackson seem like a pedophile. It prompted a new investigation from then Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon, who was looking for a reason to arrest the singer.
What followed was an avalanche of bad publicity, Sneddon contacting the Arvizos to create a case that didn’t exist, an arrest, humiliation for the singer, and a 2005 trial in which Michael Jackson was acquitted.
Michael Jackson, humiliated, left town and died four years later after a series of moves, trips, and poor choices led to a Dr. Conrad Murray killing him during a neglectful treatment.
The whole time Bashir filmed Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson’s videographer was documenting the episode. In court, we were able to see that “outtake” film as part of Michael Jackson’s defense. The results were shocking, and certainly affected the jury’s decision to acquit Michael Jackson.
MartinBashir clearly used Michael Jackson, and led him to say certain things and appear as Martin Bashir wanted him to, in order to create false impressions.
Maybe now that the BBC has re-evaluated Martin Bashir’s manipulations in the Princess Diana case, ABC will turn its attention to the Michael Jackson story.

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"Publicly humiliating someone for your own gain will only come back to haunt you. I can assure you, all these people will be sorry. God's going to have his revenge." -Madonna talking about the Bashir interview with Michael Jackson

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.."I was betrayed by Martin Bashir",
rages #MichaelJackson
Michael Jackson yesterday made an official complaint to TV watchdogs over the controversial documentary on his life, and angrily accused interviewer Martin Bashir of "utterly betraying" him.
The singer's lawyers complained to the independent television commission and the broadcasting standards commission, claiming he had been "unfairly treated".
His legal team also claimed that Living With Michael Jackson, broadcast on ITV1 on Monday night, infringed his privacy - though the usually reclusive star granted unprecedented access to the journalist. The film was seen by more than 15 million Britons on ITV1.
The self-styled King of Pop had hoped to win the kind of public sympathy earned by Martin Bashir's most famous subject, Diana, Princess of Wales, in her Panorama interview. But after watching the film and coming under fire from critics, the singer tried to preempt its first American screening on ABC last night by calling it a "gross distortion" of his life.
The response of the US media to previews of the programme was in contrast to the reception it got from the British press, with many reviewers attacking Martin Bashir and expressing sympathy for Michael Jackson. The New York Times referred to the reporter's "callous selfinterest masked as sympathy", and USA Today described his interviewing style as "unduly intrusive".
Jackson accused Bashir of broadcasting "sensationalised innuendo" that could lead viewers to conclude that he abused children.
The charities Barnardo's and the NSPCC yesterday criticised him after he admitted to Bashir he still let children sleep at his home, sometimes in his bed, despite his 1993 costly out-of-court settlement over abuse allegations - which he denied.
Yesterday's complaint to the ITC claimed that voiceovers, editing, and questions asked gave credence to the 1993 allegation, and sought "to infer sexual impropriety". The BSC complaint also said that Jackson was told he would see the film before broadcast.
The 44-year-old star said in a videotaped statement yesterday: "Martin Bashir persuaded me to trust him that his would be an honest and fair portrayal of my life, and told me he was 'the man that turned Diana's life around'.
"Today I feel more betrayed than perhaps ever before - that someone, who had got to know my children, my staff and me, whom I let into my heart and told the truth, could then sacrifice the trust I placed in him and produce this terrible and unfair programme.
"Everyone who knows me will know the truth, which is that my children come first in my life and that I would never harm any child."
Michael Jackson also alleged that he thought Bashir and the network Granada had promised not to show his three children in the show. Granada denies the claim, and points out that Prince Michael I, Paris, and Prince Michael II, were shown with their faces obscured.
"Michael is devastated and feels utterly betrayed by [the film], which he regards as a gross distortion of the truth and a tawdry attempt to misrepresent his life and his abilities as a father," his spokesman said. "Michael Jackson has never, and would never, treat a child inappropriately or expose them to any harm."
He condemned the programme as a "salacious ratings chaser, designed to celebrate Martin Bashir, which was indifferent to the effect on Michael personally, his family, and his close friends". Many viewers were disturbed by the way Jackson handled his children and the fact that the youngsters apparently do not see the women who bore them.
Yesterday Debbie Rowe, Jackson's ex-wife and the mother of his two eldest children, told GMTV that no one could be a better father. "It breaks my heart that anyone could truly believe Michael would do anything to harm our children, they are the most important thing in his life."
Michael Jackson also won support from a British mother, Gaynor Morgan, who said that all the good work the American singer had done for children's charities over many years had been "forgotten" because of one "manipulated" interview.
To show her faith in the star she planned to send her own son Alex, 10, to stay at Michael Jackson's Neverland Valley mansion. Ms Morgan said: "I was very, very impressed with Michael Jackson and thought he came across as a very loving, kind person."
Michael Jackson's outburst is unlikely to disturb Granada, which has made millions from selling broadcast rights to overseas television channels; the affair has whipped up extra publicity for the show. A spokesman for Granada said the programme was "a truthful, open and intimate portrayal of many aspects of Michael Jackson's extraordinary life".
Michael Jackson has profited from the controversy. Sales of Thriller shot up by 500% on Tuesday compared with the previous week, and his greatest hits package HIStory rocketed by 1,000% at HMV stores.
Michael Jackson hoped the Bashir interview would win him sympathetic headlines. Instead it got :
"Jacko kids at risk, social services probe mad star" - The Sun
"Why I sleep with little boys, by Michael Jackson" - The Mail
"Jacko: I still sleep with boys" - Daily Mirror
"Shame of Jacko" - Daily Express
Source : The Guardian, February 7th, 2003

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Uri Geller calls on ITV to investigate ‘slick’ Martin Bashir over Michael Jackson interview
Uri Geller has said he will regret helping Martin Bashir to secure his world exclusive interview with Michael Jackson until the day he dies.
The psychic has now called on ITV to investigate the presenter over the ‘slick’ methods he used to land his controversial scoop with the king of pop.
Bashir apparently used a note from Princess Diana which praised him for the now infamous BBC Panorama interview to win Geller’s confidence as he sought access to the global superstar.
In the wake of Lord Dyson’s damning report about Bashir’s use of ‘deceit’ before the Diana interview in 1995, Geller drew similarities in the way he clinched the subsequent Jackson chat.
The Tonight special, entitled Living with Michael Jackson, had shattering consequences for Geller and Jackson after it aired in 2003.
Speaking to Metro.co.uk from his home in Israel, the 74-year-old mystifier said he will ‘feel guilty until the day I die’ for helping Bashir gain access to another of the world’s best-known figures.
The journalist visited Geller’s then home in Sonning-on-Thames, Berkshire, a year before the broadcast after learning that Jackson was prepared to give an interview but had yet choose a host.
‘I vividly remember him pulling out from his wallet a crumpled-up letter folded a few times which he said was written by Princess Diana,’ Geller said.
‘The letter had Diana’s logo, I cannot remember if it was the Kensington Palace logo or her own logo but I scanned through it and it was a thank you letter to Martin, saying how much she enjoyed the interview.
‘When I saw the letter I thought “wow”. In my opinion there was something about him that made me feel uneasy, but I knew that Michael loved Princess Diana to bits and I thought if Martin is the right person to interview Princess Diana then maybe he is the right person to interview Michael, which obviously today I see as a devastating mistake from my side.
‘I will carry the guilty feeling with me until the day I die.’
Jackson went on to make disturbing comments in the interview, such as his habit of sleeping alongside teenage boys, and the footage led to his trial for child molestation two years later.
Bashir refused to answer questions in court where it was alleged that he had promised the star a meeting with the then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and a tour of Africa to help children with AIDS.
Although Jackson was acquitted, Geller views the film as part of a downward spiral that would ultimately lead to the singer’s death in 2009, aged 50.
Geller recalled: ‘After reading that letter I took him to Michael Jackson’s hotel in London, I took him up to Michael’s room, and left them alone to talk. The rest is history.
‘What shocked me when I saw the documentary, I could not believe that Michael didn’t call his agent or his lawyer or his image or his PR people before he signed a release, either to Bashir or ITV.
‘Hearing now what’s happening around Bashir, I cannot tell you that the letter Bashir showed me that day in my house was a fabricated letter or a real letter, but he sure was a slick operator, in my opinion.’
Geller’s long-running friendship with Jackson, who had been his best man when he renewed his wedding vows to wife Hanna in 2001, was tarnished.
The spoon-bending psychic, who now lives near Tel Aviv, doesn’t lay Jackson’s death from a drugs overdose at Bashir’s door but says the interview was a turning point for the worst.
‘Every big star goes through turmoil,’ Geller said.
‘I can name you many who have died from drug overdoses.
‘Michael was already on sleeping pills and I told him straight to his face with my Israeli chutzpah that, “Michael, if you continue this, it will kill you”. ‘
All I can say for certain is that after the documentary it seems that his life started spiralling downwards.’
Bashir faked bank statements showing Princess Diana was under surveillance and also produced a letter from the royal on official Kensington Palace stationery as he clinched the intimate interview.
Although the whereabouts and provenance of the letter shown to Geller is not known, he believes Bashir’s methods in the years beyond the Diana tell-all warrant further investigation.
While sympathy for Jackson has waned after two men made allegations of sexual abuse in another documentary, Leaving Neverland: Michael Jackson and Me, Geller’s loyalty to his friend remains steadfast. ‘
The ITV interview was a massive documentary which was sold to probably sixty countries around the world, maybe more, and I think, absolutely, the situation should be investigated,’ Geller said.
‘Michael Jackson is still considered by millions of people to be an icon, a legend, a superstar, there’s no doubt that he’s sitting up there with the likes of John Lennon, Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.
‘He’s still huge worldwide, so now this thing is unfolding with Bashir I think very soon the truth will come out of what exactly happened there.’
Bashir has said he ‘deeply regrets’ faking the bank statements and they did not influence Princess Diana’s ‘personal choice’ to take part in the interview, which is confirmed in her own handwriting and other ‘compelling evidence’.
Source : Metro.co.uk

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Patrick Treacy

What planet were the BBC on giving the now-disgraced former journalist Martin Bashir their religious affairs correspondent position in 2016. Not only were his credentials suspect back then as serious concerns about him first surfaced long before then.
Truth is, both Princess Diana and Michael Jackson might have been with us today., if they never met this charlatan.
I knew Michael Jackson as his doctor and believe it or not, also Princess Diana's medical situation when I worked in London in 1994. Both are now dead, possibly related to his level of deceit. The BBC should have conducted a thorough and determined investigation into Bashir. Instead, they were so dismissive of any wrongdoing that they re-recruited this immoral person to a moral position. Finally, there is some justice, though too little, too late for those he harmed.

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Taj Jackson
@tajjackson3

Tom Mesereau mentioned this Princess Diana letter in his opening statement of the 2005 trial. Here is that section in the trial transcript for those interested.
This is privileged info from court papers.

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Leaving Neverland Lie
@LeavingLie
Just some of the interesting questioning of Bashir by Mesereau in 2005
No question was answered by Bashir. Hiding under his Journalistic Shield law







Justice for The Falsely Accused
@JuliaBerkowitz1
They still can't stop lying.
"Mr Jackson talking on camera – very willingly – about sleeping in bed with a child"
MJ did not talk about sleeping in bed with Gavin. He said Gavin slept on the bed and he slept on the floor.

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Tito Jackson about Martin Bashir:"
Bashir created a fake narrative about my brother, which becomes crystal clear when you view the out takes Bashir kept secret.
He used Michaels trust to get the Interview, manipulated Michael, then deceptively edited the footage".

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MJNEWS & King of Shop
@MJKingofshop

Martin Bashir to be removed from Wall of Fame at King’s College, London https://mjvibe.com/martin-bashir-to-be- ... ge-london/ via @KingsCollegeLon

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Now is the time to make sure Bashir is held accountable for his dirty tricks against Michael, so similar to that of Princess Diana.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/feb/07/uknews

I was betrayed by Bashir, rages Jackson
Star complains to TV watchdogs over interview

Michael Jackson yesterday made an official complaint to TV watchdogs over the controversial documentary on his life, and angrily accused interviewer Martin Bashir of "utterly betraying" him.

The singer's lawyers complained to the independent television commission and the broadcasting standards commission, claiming he had been "unfairly treated".

His legal team also claimed that Living With Michael Jackson, broadcast on ITV1 on Monday night, infringed his privacy - though the usually reclusive star granted unprecedented access to the journalist. The film was seen by more than 15 million Britons on ITV1.

The self-styled King of Pop had hoped to win the kind of public sympathy earned by Bashir's most famous subject, Diana, Princess of Wales, in her Panorama interview. But after watching the film and coming under fire from critics, the singer tried to preempt its first American screening on ABC last night by calling it a "gross distortion" of his life.

The response of the US media to previews of the programme was in contrast to the reception it got from the British press, with many reviewers attacking Bashir and expressing sympathy for Jackson. The New York Times referred to the reporter's "callous selfinterest masked as sympathy", and USA Today described his interviewing style as "unduly intrusive".

Jackson accused Bashir of broadcasting "sensationalised innuendo" that could lead viewers to conclude that he abused children.

The charities Barnardo's and the NSPCC yesterday criticised him after he admitted to Bashir he still let children sleep at his home, sometimes in his bed, despite his 1993 costly out-of-court settlement over abuse allegations - which he denied.

Yesterday's complaint to the ITC claimed that voiceovers, editing, and questions asked gave credence to the 1993 allegation, and sought "to infer sexual impropriety". The BSC complaint also said that Jackson was told he would see the film before broadcast.

The 44-year-old star said in a videotaped statement yesterday: "Martin Bashir persuaded me to trust him that his would be an honest and fair portrayal of my life, and told me he was 'the man that turned Diana's life around'.

"Today I feel more betrayed than perhaps ever before - that someone, who had got to know my children, my staff and me, whom I let into my heart and told the truth, could then sacrifice the trust I placed in him and produce this terrible and unfair programme.

"Everyone who knows me will know the truth, which is that my children come first in my life and that I would never harm any child."

Jackson also alleged that he thought Bashir and the network Granada had promised not to show his three children in the show. Granada denies the claim, and points out that Prince Michael I, Paris, and Prince Michael II, were shown with their faces obscured.

"Michael is devastated and feels utterly betrayed by [the film], which he regards as a gross distortion of the truth and a tawdry attempt to misrepresent his life and his abilities as a father," his spokesman said. "Michael Jackson has never, and would never, treat a child inappropriately or expose them to any harm."

He condemned the programme as a "salacious ratings chaser, designed to celebrate Martin Bashir, which was indifferent to the effect on Michael personally, his family, and his close friends". Many viewers were disturbed by the way Jackson handled his children and the fact that the youngsters apparently do not see the women who bore them.

Yesterday Debbie Rowe, Jackson's ex-wife and the mother of his two eldest children, told GMTV that no one could be a better father. "It breaks my heart that anyone could truly believe Michael would do anything to harm our children, they are the most important thing in his life."

Jackson also won support from a British mother, Gaynor Morgan, who said that all the good work the American singer had done for children's charities over many years had been "forgotten" because of one "manipulated" interview.

To show her faith in the star she planned to send her own son Alex, 10, to stay at Jackson's Neverland Valley mansion. Ms Morgan said: "I was very, very impressed with Michael Jackson and thought he came across as a very loving, kind person."

Jackson's outburst is unlikely to disturb Granada, which has made millions from selling broadcast rights to overseas television channels; the affair has whipped up extra publicity for the show. A spokesman for Granada said the programme was "a truthful, open and intimate portrayal of many aspects of Michael Jackson's extraordinary life".

Jackson has profited from the controversy. Sales of Thriller shot up by 500% on Tuesday compared with the previous week, and his greatest hits package HIStory rocketed by 1,000% at HMV stores.

Michael Jackson hoped the Bashir interview would win him sympathetic headlines. Instead it got:

Jacko kids at risk, social services probe mad star
The Sun
Why I sleep with little boys, by Michael Jackson
The Mail
Jacko: I still sleep with boys
Daily Mirror
Shame of Jacko
Daily Express

[soulmum]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/arti ... rstar.html

Bashir deceived Diana... and my uncle Michael too: Michael Jackson's nephew tells how the disgraced journalist duped the superstar on that controversial 2003 documentary
By GABRIELLE DONNELLY FOR WEEKEND MAGAZINE

PUBLISHED: 22:30 BST, 30 July 2021

Taj Jackson is talking about Martin Bashir, the TV journalist who cast damaging aspersions about his uncle Michael Jackson's private life in a controversial documentary in 2003. He's choosing his words very carefully, but nevertheless his opinion of the man is incontrovertible.

'I don't want to be misquoted here,' he warns politely, 'because Martin Bashir is probably the type who will sue me. But I've always said that he's like the dirty cop of journalism, where he's this cop who goes around planting evidence and changing stories and who has put people 'in jail' – quote unquote.

'He might not have been the one who actually killed my uncle, but he did put him into an emotional 'jail' that eventually ended up killing him.'

When Bashir's documentary, Living With Michael Jackson, was first seen the reaction was explosive.

The result of eight months of interviews, it painted a picture of a deeply disturbed man and, most damagingly, implied strongly that the eccentric singer was in the habit of sharing his bed with his many underage guests. 'Kids want to be loved, they want to be touched, they want to be held,' it quoted him as saying.

Just months after the broadcast, Michael was charged with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of intoxicating a minor with alcoholic drinks.

Further charges were brought in 2004, and his 2005 trial lasted for four months. He was found not guilty on all counts, but his health, never robust, was permanently affected.

He withdrew from the world. Neverland – his beloved home to the north of Los Angeles – fell into rack and ruin and he died of cardiac arrest in 2009, aged just 50.

For years, Michael's family have claimed the documentary twisted the star's words to present a false and hurtful narrative.

And now that an inquiry has found that Martin Bashir was 'deceitful' in the way he obtained his interview with Princess Diana in 1995, Taj – the eldest son of Michael's brother Tito, who along with his brothers Taryll and TJ comprise the pop group 3T, who were second only to the Spice Girls as the biggest-selling group in Europe in 1996 – believes it's time to speak up on behalf of his uncle too.

'Martin Bashir hasn't only done this to Princess Diana and Michael Jackson, he's done this to many families,' he says. (Bashir also conducted interviews with Michael Barrymore, Jeffrey Archer and George Best among others.)

'Our family and Michael's fans have always known about Martin Bashir and his dirty work, and I'm happy that the world is starting to learn as well. The Princess Diana interview has been heavily investigated, but what about us?'



It was Michael's friendship with Diana that made him do the documentary in the first place. Although the two only met in person once – on 16 July, 1988 at Wembley Stadium for a concert Michael gave as part of his Bad tour – they forged a firm friendship by telephone until the end of her life.

He once described her as 'one of the sweetest people I've ever known'.

Taj has said that Michael – famously publicity-wary – was convinced into doing the documentary after being shown a letter the late princess wrote to Bashir consenting to her 1995 interview, and he admits that when he heard his uncle was doing it he initially felt nothing but anticipation.

'I was super-excited because I thought the world was finally going to see who Michael Jackson really is, the wonderful stuff he does. When 3T's first song Anything hit the top of the charts in the UK [it reached No 2 in January 1996] we got a phone call from him.

We thought he was going to congratulate us, but he called to scold us because we hadn't visited any children's hospitals. He said, 'Every city I go to I go to a children's hospital, and it's your responsibility to do that too.'

Although the documentary did highlight Michael's charitable endeavours, it also suggested a dark undercurrent. 'He did capture a lot of the good stuff,' Taj admits of Bashir.

'But then he would use a voiceover to twist it around. Michael had another video camera filming parts of the interview, and there's footage of Bashir on Michael's camera, talking about all the kids coming to the ranch and how wonderful it was.

'He says, 'I was here yesterday and it's nothing short of a spiritual thing.' But then in the show the voiceover says, 'One of the most disturbing things is the fact that a lot of disadvantaged children go to Neverland. It's a dangerous place for a vulnerable child to be.' I don't know why he did that.


'I don't know if he was always planning to be untruthful or if he thought, 'I can make more money doing it this way.' But he was shaping a narrative of this dangerous place, when in reality it was nothing like that.

The family filed a complaint to the Independent Television Commission and the Broadcasting Standards Commission, but it was ignored. Now we're seeing many years later that justice is finally happening,' he says of the Diana inquiry.

Just 15 years younger than his uncle, Taj, who turns 48 this week, says he and Michael were particularly close.

'He was like a big brother to me. He was a big kid! You could hear his laughter across the room. He was always making someone laugh, or laughing at himself. He was silly.

'I don't want to get in trouble here, but he and I would go down the boulevard in the car throwing stink bombs and water balloons at people. No one would have suspected that they got stink bombed by Michael Jackson, but that's who he was.'
Life has not been all fun for Taj. He has said that as a child he was sexually abused by a relative, and when he was 21 his mother Dee Dee, then divorced from Tito, drowned in a swimming pool.

'Michael swooped in to help us,' he says. 'He and my mother had an incredible relationship.

'Because my brothers and I were in the middle of our first album and our mom was our manager, he said, 'You have to finish the album, this is what she would have wanted. Do it and make her proud.' So we did.'

Taj is currently putting together a TV documentary series about his uncle's life. 'It's not going to skate over anything,' he says.

'It's going to be truthful, and I'm hoping that at the end of it people will really know who Michael Jackson was, the magic behind him. There's been a lot wrong in the narrative of Michael Jackson in the last 30 years, and it's about time that changed.'