Aug 31 2009
Michael Jackson still isn’t dead: ‘Irrefutable’ video evidence emerges
There’s one particular post on this website that has elicited more comment and controversy than any other, and that’s my tongue-in-cheek refusal to believe King Jacko is in fact dead.
Whilst creating that post, I began to actually believe the hype that I, myself was building up, but little did I know I was contributing to a monster.
Just to recap, in that post I posited the suggestion that Jackson faked his death in order to recoup some of his massive debts. A recent report in the Guardian claimed that he had in fact clawed back up to a third of that cash since his ‘death’, further fuelling the conspiracists.
It seems this kook theory circling the gutter press and opinion blogs has gained some momentum of late, especially since a video reportedly showing Jackson walking away from the death scene with the coroner emerged over the past week.
On Friday, The Guardian rehashed one of its old articles in the light of these ‘developments’, leading the mainstream media’s renewed interest in this intriguing, if most likely rubbish, ’story’.
The conspiracy theories are most likely a steaming pile of codswallop, but people believe in sillier stuff - after all, did you see Michael Jackson die? Expect to see these theories debunked once and for all in the coming weeks. — Michael Jackson isn’t really dead, Retro Yakking, 26th June 2009
In the two months that have passed since the above statement, many revelations regarding the King of Pop have come to light, the most important being that his death was ruled as homicide by his Los Angeles coroner. The news has done nothing to stop the conspiracy theorists, however, with interest over the alleged faked death story seemingly more popular than ever, despite the raft of evidence to the contrary.
Did MJ authorise the release of this video to rekindle interest in his music, just hours after his death was confirmed as homicide? Or was it ruthless marketing execs looking to make a pretty penny from the massive public interest in Jackson?
The truth is that as long as fans want him to be alive, these stories will continue to circulate. In a weird way, they are keeping him alive, at least in his music: he’s still number one in the UK album charts, and has been there for over two months.
