Rep. Pete King (R-NY): "Let's Knock Out The Psychobabble," Michael Jackson Was A Pedophile
Rep. Pete King (R-NY), a potential Senate candidate in 2010 against either incumbent Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand or Rep. Carolyn Maloney -- it depends on who wins that primary -- has taken to YouTube to send a strong message about media coverage of Michael Jackson, as opposed to coverage of real heroes like our servicemen and women, teachers in rough neighborhoods, policemen, firefighters, doctors and nurses, etc.:
"Let's knock out the psychobabble, this guy was a pervert, he was a child molester, he was a pedophile, and to be giving this much coverage to him day in and day out, what does it say about us and our country?" said King. "I just think it's too - we're too politically correct. No one wants to stand up and say, 'We don't need Michael Jackson.' You know, he died, he had some talent. Fine. But people are dying everyday. There's men and women are dying in Afghanistan. Let's give them the credit they deserve."
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
Is he wrong?
July 6, 2009 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Nope.
July 6, 2009 11:11 AM | Reply | Permalink
Only if you believe in the principle of innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Most Americans don't seem to believe this any more.
July 6, 2009 11:17 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sometimes it doesn't get to a court of law: Jackson managed to forestall judgment by buying off some of his accusers. I wonder what those boys think about the notion of innocence after their experience in our legal system.
July 6, 2009 11:35 AM | Reply | Permalink
He did stand trial, and was found "Not Guilty."
July 6, 2009 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
The first accuser - the one who could apparently describe Michael Jackson's penis in detail including some distinguishing marks - was paid off.
Regardless, Michael Jackson himself admitted to sharing his bed with children. I don't care if he saw himself as Peter Pan or not. It's wrong. Period. Any other 40 yr old man who admitted as much would have been long gone.
In addition, the parents of any of those children who allowed these "sleepovers" to occur are no better than the scum from Duke University who recently offered up his 5 yr old son for sex on the internet.
July 6, 2009 1:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I completely agree with you. He was found not guilty, and I frankly don't know, but any parent who would leave their child in the care of ANY single man over night is guilty of child neglect. The fact that they then sued is proof that they planned it, and are guilty of child abuse, in my book.
My only point was that he was not convicted. But then, neither was OJ
July 6, 2009 10:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Jackson was found not guilty of lewd conduct with a child, not of being a pedophile. The whole 'innocent until proven guilty' argument does not apply.
July 6, 2009 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
oh so he was found guilty of being a pedophile then??
must've missed that.
July 6, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I really love Micheal Jackson, but I actually switched to fox news this morning-- for a new personal record of eight minutes-- because I'm so tired of CNN's obsessive M.J. coverage.
Pete King is [gasp] making sense for once...
] no longer get msnbc with my cable subscription, but I'd bet that they are just as bad.
July 6, 2009 1:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
What it says about the US is that we are far too interested in celebrities and the death of celebrities.
For his (and his party's) fortunes, though, King would be better advised to urge more distractions, not fewer, on the American people. It got his party into power for some time, and it was only when things got as bad as they became that Americans began paying attention again.
July 6, 2009 11:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh yeah! That's a real vote winning statement there.
July 6, 2009 11:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Michael Jackson, however odd he may have been was never convicted of child molestation. Rep. King is basing his accusation on what evidence? As much evidence as Rep. King and the Republicans needed to accuse Saddam Hussein of being a WMD hoarder.
So much for the rule of law where the burden of proof is on the accuser.
July 6, 2009 11:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
What they should be covering is the far more important question of whether Michael will become a figure within the Elvisite orthodoxy, the central figure in a heretical offshoot of Elvisism, or whether a totally separate religion will start? If not for that marriage to Lisa Marie, my money would be on totally separate religion.
If I weren't afraid of getting myself fatwahed, I'd point out that that there are certain parallels here to the sources of the main division in one of the world's other major religions.
July 6, 2009 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
To paraphrase Living Colour: like Michael Jackson,
Elvis is dead
Elvis is dead
Elvis is dead
Elvis is dead
Elvis is dead
Elvis is dead
Elvis is dead
Elvis is dead
OTOH, Agent K, "Elvis isn't dead; he just went home."
Either way, MJ has left the building and I haven't missed him yet. King has a point about misplaced priorities.
July 6, 2009 11:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Elvis is the first thing that came to mind when I heard that MJ died. The first thing that I recall thinking when Elvis died was something along the lines of "oh my God I'll be hearing about that fat bloated Nixon-loving drug addict 24/7"
'We don't need Michael Jackson.'
July 6, 2009 11:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
That's kinda funny in that when Elvis died, I mentioned it to an African American coworker who replied, "Why should I care about Elvis? What did he ever do for black people?" I had very much the same reaction about Michael Jackson when he died.
July 6, 2009 11:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
GOD!! I thought you meant *our* MJ for a moment! Jumpin' jimmini!
July 6, 2009 12:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's just mad because he got the following e-mail from info@staplescenter:
July 6, 2009 11:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
But he made Thriller.
If I had to count Michael Jackson's net contribution to society, with or without pedophilia, I'd still have to rank it a hell of a lot higher than Pete King's contribution to society.
July 6, 2009 12:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Honestly, I have to say this was the first thing that came to my mind when I saw the media tsunami take shape. I was still pretty unaware during the 80's to get MJ's influence on popular culture. A lot more of my exposure to him was during the 90's when the allegations and lawsuits came about.
I'm sure he's important for his music and affected how many people experience popular culture back in the day, but to honestly defend him or absolve him of wrongdoing is like committing to search for Ron and Nicole's real killers with OJ.
July 6, 2009 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think the reason I'm so much more cavilier about this than others is that I have almost completely eliminated teevee and cable news from my life since about January 21, 2009. I'll watch a bit of it for breaking or live events, but, other than that, I'm off it until the midterms.
Trust me. It's like quitting smoking without the withdrawal. It measurably improves your quality of life. And if you feel a need to find out what the empty-headed MSM CW is on a given day, you can get it in one quick, nasty-tasting dose by visiting Halperin's thing at Time.com.
July 6, 2009 12:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Since signing up for satellite tv earlier this year, Fox News is one of the 200 channels I never bothered to watch -- ever. I would occasionally tune in CNN or MSNBC; although dismayed by the shallowness of their news coverage, some of their talk shows were interesting.
No more. Since the Michael Jackson 24/7 orgy of non-news saturation, I have put MSNBC and CNN into the same category as Fox.
July 6, 2009 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
It is disingenuous at best for these republicans to whine about not talking about the troops dying. After all, it was their boy who started the war, and prevented any coverage of their funerals, or even pictures of their caskets!
On Sunday, we got a break from the Michael Jackson wall-to-wall coverage. They spent an hour interviewing anchors on whether they thought they were over-doing the Michael Jackson coverage. So I watched a trashy movie instead -- it was a relief!
July 6, 2009 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
GOPers prefer their perverts texting pages, wearing diapers, and tap dancing (with wide stance) in airport bathroom stalls.
And the best thing is, when they get caught, they suffer the indignation of the GOP version of an "unperson" ceremony - being ID'd as a (D) on a Faux Nooz scrawl.
July 6, 2009 1:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
You can say Pete King's comments are outrageous, disgusting, etc. (though interestingly I notice most of you haven't said that).
And I tellya what: the words are gonna resonate with a lot of New Yorkers, like socially conservative Catholics and that there's quite a lot of people, plus Westchester, some on the Island (and Staten Island), upstate out the ying-yang...
I haven't done the math but this might not be a totally stupid remark.
July 6, 2009 1:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if he ever referred to Mark Foley as a pedophile?
July 6, 2009 1:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is the most tactically brilliant GOP move since they decided to publicly attack "empathy".
July 6, 2009 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Apparently none of the above commentators have taken time to research Pete King's past history. If they had, they will find that King is also a pedophile.
In fact, bout the time Michael Jackson was not found guilt of molesting a child, King was also not found guilty.
Further proof: Pete King has NEVER been found guilty of being a child molester or a pedophile... proof positive according to King himself, that he MUST be a pedophile...
July 6, 2009 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ummm...Pete? If we should be ignoring him, why are you spending YOUR time talking about Michael Jackson instead of, you know, all that important stuff?
July 6, 2009 2:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Actually, I agree with the guy.
And OJ was 'acquitted', dear.
There's a difference between 'legal' guilt and reality - as we all know full well.
July 6, 2009 3:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
except if you recall, while OJ was found to be 'not guilty' of the murder of nicole brown-simpson and ron goldman, he was later found by a jury to be 'responsible' for their deaths.
so saying that michael jackson was a pedophile is not the same thing as saying OJ killed two people. one was never proven in court, while the other actually has been.
July 6, 2009 4:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
And I have little doubt that Jackson would have been found 'liable' (not 'guilty, note) had he been sued in civil court - where the standard of conviction is 'preponderance of the evidence', not 'guilt beyond a reasonable doubt'.
Just like OJ.
Fortunately for his freedom, he was able to buy the silence of several of the boys - and the parent's past transgressions undercut the only one who went to trial.
I have little doubt that Jackson had sexual contact with multiple young boys. Just as I have little doubt that OJ (with possible help) killed GOldman and his ex-wife
July 6, 2009 5:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Most people here, including myself, would agree with King about the over-saturated MJ coverage. It's a "no shit, Sherlock" kind of statement. But something strikes me as racist in his remarks and I think that's what he's going for here. Whatever you may think of Jackson, for better or for worse he is a symbol to a large part of the African American community. What King is doing here is merely showboating to his voters, in essence saying, "Check me out. I'm trashing their symbol."
Does anyone really think King cares about "teachers in rough neighborhoods"? Is there really a backlog of news stories about firefighters and nurses that is being pushed aside because of the blanket coverage of Blanket Jackson? Would the media really be focusing on ANY of the things King mentioned had MJ not died? Probably not. But it certainly would have denied King a convenient whipping boy.
July 6, 2009 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink