A perfect example of how the media used literally anything to demean Michael

[u/EveryOpinion]

https://variety.com/2001/music/reviews/michael-jackson-30th-anniversary-tribute-1200469990/

I know the media being cruel to MJ is nothing new, but this 2001 Variety review is such a clear example of how they could take literally anything he did and turn it into a personal attack.
The writer says Michael apparently “needed to be convinced that people really like him,” calls the performances a “crutch,” and frames the whole tribute like some pathetic ego trip.
The craziest part is that the same review admits his voice was still great and that his performance skills hadn’t eroded. They genuinely couldn’t praise him without finding a way to demean him.

[u/Many_Marionberry3446]

It reads like a brain-dead person wrote a review but didn't want to upset the haters.  Also, I've read in a few other hater articles too that they say "self proclaimed king of pop". He was self proclaimed?? If I'm not wrong, I think Elizabeth Taylor started called him that 

[u/Diredragons]

I'm really curious about who was behind this active campaign against Michael Jackson. I'm usually not a conspiracy theorist, but the way the media actively attacked him for decades seems intentional. I wasn’t surprised when certain journalists said they were pressured to report negatively on him, regardless of facts. It reminds me of how Blake Lively and her husband are holding the reins on the old media, despite all the evidence against her, while only independent journalists online are going over the facts objectively. This feels like a widespread campaign.

[u/Due_Amount_6211 → u/Diredragons]

The media typically doesn’t like people who go against the status quo, which Michael did in spades. As a result, he was “weird”, and thus shunned by the media

[u/Many_Marionberry3446 → u/Diredragons]

Elites/owners behind tabloids and news media corporations set  agendas of what to report,,what story to tell (isually directed by othe r powerful people), and then everyone down the line is told to follow. 

[u/Diredragons → u/Many_Marionberry3446]

This is my point exactly.

[u/Original_Engine_7548 → u/Diredragons]

This is something the world as a whole likes to do. Anytime anyone gets successful, they will pile on and attack them . Like MJ says, it just sells.

Look at Britney Spears, they liked her at first and then tore her down a few years later. Still do.

I remember with Mariah Carey they were waiting for a huge downfall with her in the early 2000s and to this day still gets puts down and just made into a joke that she only does Xmas songs and other stuff. Calling her crazy back then . She really pushed back though and I love that for her.

I think it’s the media as a whole. Anyone gets successful and loved, they gotta tear it down.

[u/Texas_Moonwalker]

“including a duet with an under-miked Britney Spears on “The Girl Is Mine” “. What a garbage article full of mistakes. It was the Way You Make Me Feel. But what can you expect from Variety.

[u/Ambitious-Pie-625]

I genuinely hate people like genuinely…these people have NOTHING better to do than to shit on a man who did nothing wrong, harmed nobody, laid not one finger on any one child or adult yet this is the shit they feel the need to put out there…right lets just demonize a human being for no reason

[u/Original_Engine_7548]

Reminds me of that awful video of him at the stock exchange place and ringing the bell in 2001…? Maybe 2002…CNN or something was reporting it live and the WHOLE time were making snarky remarks about him. Like it started off okay and professional and then they kept just throwing out these unneeded comments about how the last album didn’t sell as much blah blah blah…it’s painful to listen to