A week ago, when I first watched HBO’s highly controversial film Leaving Neverland, I purposely did so without refreshing my recollection on the facts regarding the allegations of child sex abuse against Michael Jackson from many years ago. I wanted to see the movie in much the same way that the average viewer did.
Like most people who viewed it, I was emotionally impacted by the horrific nature of the alleged abuse, but was eventually turned off by the obvious unfairness of allowing two unverified accusers being allowed four hours, with the support of tremendously manipulative production elements, to make un-scrutinized claims against an un-convicted dead man (who, it should also be noted, paid $20 million to a 13-year-old accuser in the 1990s as part of a settlement out of court). As someone who had long suspected Michael Jackson was likely guilty of child abuse, but whose own coverage of his 2005 trial as a Los Angeles talk show host made me actually start to doubt that presumption, the whole thing was conflicting.