Keeping it real

Hi bloggers, I hope all is well with you!

On Tuesday, I had the honor and pleasure to sit in the studio with the Reverend Al Sharpton and talk with him for an hour about Michael Jackson, the media witch hunt, and the new book I've written. The call boards were so full from people wanting to comment, that Rev Sharpton has asked me to come back next week to talk about the book again (we didn't have enough time to cover all the main points because of so many callers!)

Anyway, I will tell you a few highlights from my experience about being on KEEPING IT REAL, Rev. Sharpton's nationally syndicated radio show.

1) First of all, he is a humble spirit in person -- very down to earth and cool. I met his daughter, Dominique, and she is a testament to his great spirit, as were the rest of Rev. Sharpton's staff at his show. I was happy to be there and was made to feel at home.

2) Some of the callers thought I was black (African-American) and I loved that! I loved being called "Sister Jones" and the REV was cool with it too! (A lot of people who don't meet me in person think I'm African American because of my name -- it's a kind of cool little secret I've lived with all of my life.)

3) The whole business of Michael making a comeback is something that Rev. Sharpton wants to see. He told me that, at the funeral of James Brown, he, Rev. Sharpton, reminded Michael that James Brown was attacked by media and imprisoned for no reason and still went on with his career! The Reverend counseled Michael to do the same thing -- to forget all the media bias and just get out there and do his "thing." No one doubts that Michael is a musical genius. He can come back stronger than ever, and Rev. Sharpton wants to help make that happen, as do I, as do many, many of his fans who called in to express that same sentiment.

4) The idea of "taking down" African American celebs came up -- and we talked about that trend that started 100 years ago. I talked about the fact that DA Sneddon has had it "in" for MJ for years -- and said that I think Sneddon is a racist and brought up the fact that MJ was the only person of color living in the "rich folk" section of Santa Barbara County when Sneddon started with him in 1993 -- and I think that had something to do with Sneddon's alleged vendetta against MJ. In my opinion, he didn't just want to take down a superstar, he wanted to take down the world's greatest black superstar -- so there -- I said it! Of course, now Oprah lives in that "tony" county as well -- and Rev. Sharpton said: "Oprah better watch out!" -- but he was just kidding.(or maybe not!)

5) I pointed out that during the trial, the last witness called was actor/movie star Chris Tucker. When Mr. Tucker was shown a photo of himself with his family at Neverland, Tucker looked at the photo and confirmed that it was his likeness and asked Sneddon, kind of joking, if he could get a copy of the picture. DA Tom Sneddon replied: "If you're a good boy." WELL – Rev. Sharpton and I talked about that and I told him that MEZ later talked to the jury about "the comment to Chris Tucker" and jurors said they were not pleased with that comment. I also recalled that Sneddon's comment to Tucker infuriated the jury, and made the courtroom go dead silent -- though I think I forgot to mention this incident in my book -- YIKES!

6) I told the audience listening in that the jury had NOT ONE African American on the panel and that Sneddon and his team struck out 2 African American women who could have been jurors. MEZ objected on constitutional grounds, but in a U.S. court of law, each side has the right to strike 10 people for "no particular reason." Sharpton was not surprised.

7) But Rev. Al Sharpton was surprised that the jury panel was seated without any African American person at all. Sharpton didn't realize that Michael Jackson was found not guilty by a jury that had NOT ONE African American on the panel. He also thought it was odd, and unfair, that the media still went running after Michael all the way to the other side of the world -- to continue their accusations -- even after the man was found not guilty!!! We both agreed that this was clearly somewhat "racist" and biased, and we talked about other African American superstars who have been media targets. At the top are the BIG THREE : Michael Jackson, Michael Tyson, and Michael Jordan. Of course, these days, all superstars seem to have become targets (Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Paris Hilton, etc) but that doesn't change the fact, in my opinion, there was a racist overtone in the prosecution of Michael Jackson.

More to follow...

For now, I'm sending positive vibes to everyone who cares about the issues being raised in this blog. May God Bless you and keep you in prayer and in harmony.

With love, peace, and appreciation to those who have reached out to help us spread this word,

Aphrodite

Playing slipshod with the 'truth'

The recent statements broadcast on CNN involving the improprieties of the Catholic Church and comparisons to Michael Jackson are indicative of the media bias against Michael Jackson and people of color, in general. There was never any evidence to show that Jackson hurt any child. It borders on racism for CNN to fail to present the other side of the coin and to leave statements about Jackson’s alleged guilt to remain unchallenged. The truth is that Michael Jackson is innocent and was found not guilty. The King of Pop should not be compared to O.J. Simpson or to anyone else for that matter. What everyone should be asking themselves is why does the media focus on tearing down people of color, without referring to the likes of Robert Blake, who was found guilty by a civil jury? Beyond that, people like Mark Fuhrman and Dr. Henry Lee seem to be rewarded for their alleged wrong doings by being given a platform in the media. What's wrong with that picture?"

For more information, please visit the page on CNN's website.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0707/16/cnr.04.html

'People only heard sound bites'

To all you bloggers out there:

This is my first blog – ever. And I must admit, it’s a bit scary for me, because I primarily write for book readers and, sometimes, for magazine and newspaper readers. Writing this, my first blog entry, feels like I’m writing into thin air. I have no idea who will read this, or who will respond, or what blogging is really about. This concept is new to me. All I know is that I have a new book that has people buzzing – it exposes the media bias surrounding Michael Jackson. In it, I use trial evidence to show people how slanted news coverage can be.

Speaking of that, I was on FOX News with Geraldo Sunday night and had a few seconds to talk about this new book, Michael Jackson Conspiracy, and just as I was getting into a discussion about the media bias against Michael Jackson, the camera went to Mark Fuhrman, who trashed Jackson all the way. What stunned me was that Fuhrman seemed to have no clue about what he was saying. For one thing, Furman wasn’t ever at the Jackson trial, nor had he bothered to do “catch up” homework about my book. Furthermore, he seemed to admit that he had a slanted view about the trumped up charges against Michael, and felt Michael was guilty, regardless of the jury verdicts. I was shocked to realize that here I was, trying to set the record straight about the Michael Jackson trial. And meanwhile, Fuhrman decided that, for his part, he was going to give the public more disinformation about Michael Jackson.

One thing that I found curious: Furman said that “most mothers lie” on the stand. Hmmmm. Well, in the 2005 case against Jackson, the mother of the accuser lied so often, about everything under the sun, and it was proven that she defrauded the California taxpayers by taking welfare while having received a $152,000 settlement from the J.C. Penney Corp. As some people know, that $152,000 was granted to her after she filed a suit that alleged she was sexually molested and assaulted by a group of J.C. Penney guards in a J.C. Penney parking lot. Her two sons – both of the Jackson accusers – backed this “mother” up, swearing they witnessed a sexual and physical attack on Janet Arvizo in the J.C. Penney parking lot. Janet Arvizo later admitted to defense attorney Tom Mesereau, from the witness stand, that she claimed that a J.C. Penney guard twisted one of her nipples “10 to 25 times.”

One of her sons, Star Arvizo, said that he witnessed his mother putting her breast back into her bra after the supposed “parking lot attack.” The other son, Gavin Arvizo, claimed he saw his mother being assaulted by J.C. Penney guards, but Janet Arvizo had no visible marks on her body on the day of the incident. According to Mesereau’s research, Janet Arvizo’s “bruises” appeared some time later – conveniently when she went to a civil attorney to squeeze money out of J.C. Penney.

From my perspective, Michael Jackson was a target for this family of grifters, and Tom Mesereau proved that in court time and time again. But the media would never report it. I was guilty of that kind of slanted reportage – because back then I had “guilty” in my head before I listened to the evidence. Looking back, I reported the same things that other media people seemed to focus on. In my view, everyone followed a pack – like a herd of sheep. Even after the “NOT GUILTY” verdicts, no one bothered to say they were wrong. No one wanted to show the defense side of the story – not at all.

I decided to write this book, Michael Jackson Conspiracy, about a year after the trial was over. I had been given access to the evidence in Santa Maria, and as I sat in the courthouse basement looking at everything – it dawned on me that this accuser, Gavin Arvizo, was not being truthful in his initial police interview. I re-wound the tape a few times and kept looking at one thing. The police asked Gavin if he knew what an ejaculation was. Gavin was 13 at the time, and he looked at the police and Gavin paused, then said he didn’t know what it was. So I turned to the court clerk, who was monitoring me, and I asked her, “What do you think of this?”

The clerk said a 13-year-old boy knows what ejaculation is, and she laughed in a nervous way. Then I rewound the video tape again. I looked at how this accuser answered other questions. For instance, the police asked Gavin if he knew right from wrong. Gavin said, “Yes.” Then the police asked Gavin to give an example of doing something that was wrong. And suddenly – Gavin stopped dead. The kid had no examples to give. The police had to give him ideas, like, “Is killing someone wrong?” And the kid said, “Yeah.” It was like the police were spoon-feeding him information, calling Gavin “buddy,” and figuring out ways to get Gavin to give them answers they were fishing for.

But what really struck me as odd was the careful way that Gavin was responding. It was like he had been schooled or trained in this kind of thing.

In my career, I have written really gut-wrenching books about tragic murders. Some of my books have been true stories about how teenagers have killed people. I have always approached the impact of crime on children in a serious way. I would not make light of it or be dismissive of it, if I thought a crime had been committed against a child. Yet, as I was reviewing the evidence during my research for Michael Jackson Conspiracy, I noted that things were not adding up.

I wonder if Michael would have ever tried to help this family if he’d been told about their background. I highly doubt it. I still feel it’s sickening that these people had managed to manipulate so many stars, getting them into their corner – George Lopez and Chris Tucker among them. The Arvizo clan even reached out to Jay Leno, who later testified that Gavin sounded “scripted” over the phone. That was the exact word Leno used: “scripted.” In fact, Leno was so put-off by Gavin’s calls, he made a request to have the calls stop. The woman who set up the original phone calls, an LA comic, told Leno that Gavin “writes things down before he says them” – trying to make excuses for the boy, telling Leno she thought Gavin was reading from a paper because the kid was practicing for a career in comedy and acting.

Of course, there are so many details like this that were never reported in the mainstream news. People only heard sound bites, and most of the coverage was hype-oriented, not content-oriented. After my appearance on Geraldo last night, I realized that the interview with Fuhrman still sounded like baseless hype. The whole purpose of my book is to create a lesson out of the damage perpetuated by baseless hype in the news. Yet, two years after the media was exposed for its unfounded hype and for forecasting a false outcome in Michael Jackson’s trial, Mark Fuhrman, as a representative of FOX News, was acting as if there had been no lesson to learn.

Okay, well – I can go on forever, but I’m going to stop here for now before I get even more heated up about this. Some fan sites have asked me to answer questions and I will be happy to do that. Please contact me at aphrodite.jones@yahoo.com.

Keep the faith! And tell people that the MEZ and I will be doing only one public book signing together. We will be at the Brookins AME Church, 4831 S Gramercy Place, Los Angeles, California, 90062. Hope to see people in LA next Monday night, June 11, from 7pm - 9pm.

Peace and Love!
Aphrodite