You may remember the explosive phone hacking scandal in Britain that began in 2011 and captured the world’s interest and condemnation. The tabloids owned by Rupert Murdoch and particularly his now defunct News Of The World,– by far the most salacious of the collection of tabloids, were accused of hacking into the phones of celebrities, the royal family and even the cell phone of a dead teenager intercepting her voice mail messages, and obstructing the police investigation into her disappearance, leading her family to believe that she was still alive, giving them false hope. In a move to assuage his complicity and appease the public and their outcry of “foul!” closed the doors of News of the World. It was a cynical move to divest one newspaper in order to save his empire.

Hacking is a well known and understood practice in the industry– as is hunting, hounding, stalking and exploiting public figures for profit.

Right now the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) in the U. S. is considering supporting a number of proposals:
1. A bid to divined up Internet to large corporations who will then divide the Internet up and sell its parts. The Internet should continue to be a free public utility.
2. They are actually entertaining the idea of Murdoch’s bid to purchase Time Warner and merge News Corp and Time Warner.

Can you imagine what kind of news and information you will be spoon fed from someone who came up in the tabloid industry, made his billions from the tabloid industry exploiting other people (including peddling Michael Jackson as Wacko Jacko”) without their consent, invading their privacy, harassing them and their children and providing no compensation for using people to sell newsprint and further his dark agenda– and it’s not to make the world a better place.

Say “no” and make your voice heard:

To protest this really, really bad and unimaginably destructive idea go and make your voice heard here:

http://www.freepress.net/rupert-murdoch-scandal

Why is this important to Jackson supporters?

Because News of The World was one of the first tabloids to use “Wacko Jacko” in the headlines.  (Some testify that it actually invented and coined the name) As was Murdoch’s The Sun. Once published, the name stuck and tabloids and mainstream media picked it up and used the moniker which Jackson hated.

Several books by those in the tabloid industry have confirmed that Murdoch, who moved his empire from where he began in Australia to Fleet Street in the U.K. to gobble up the media real estate in Britain– specifically ordered his tabloid reporters to go after stories about Madonna and Michael Jackson because they were so popular and the public was fascinated and sometimes obsessed, with them. Murdoch realized that his demographics were middle aged readers and was missing the youth demographic. In order to recruit and gain the young audience in addition to the ‘average Joe’  reader stopping off for a brew in the pub after work, he deliberately targeted the two most well known celebrities on the planet and the British royal family.

Citing “free speech” as his ‘sword of justice’, he deliberately capitalized on ‘Schadenfreude”  which is defined as being gleeful and amused by someone else’s misfortune. When taken over by Rebekah Brooks, the News of the World immediately began using “”naming and shaming” to create public interest, targeting those with mental illness and accused or suspected sex offenders. The tabloid deliberately inflamed public opinion that escalated into a frenzy, resulting in angry mobs going after people who were not convicted and in many cases, harmed people through mistaken identity including a “pediatrician” which to the readers and their mentality was synonymous with “paedophile.” She was called out for her irresponsible journalism but the hunt for the salacious continued targeting celebrities, politicians and royals and included phone hacking very early in her tenure. Many entities accurately making accusations of phone hacking were paid in exchange for their silence– which delayed for years the exposure of this “bastard child” of journalism.

They also paid for tips from police and for story leads, which created the climate for and fostered the practice of “checkbook journalism.”

The media, watching the readership and circulation increase along with the profits, began to produce journalism and “must-see TV” which used cash to pay for stories and which bred journalist with “flexible” scruples. There was money to be made off denigrating and mocking real flesh and blood people because it was profitable. Some cultures would call feeding off the flesh of a human cannibalism. But that scheme combined with America’s racist agenda let to a feeding frenzy on Madonna and Jackson both with Jackson taking most of the blunt force. Decades of the abuse reduced the artist to a caricature and objectified him making him an easy target. Those steps of dehumanizing are purposeful. Making someone into an object instead of a human gives license to bully for a public unawares of the systematic and sequential nature of a tabloid takedown.

Murdoch’s competitors, not to be outdone, also seized on Jackson’s popularity, the wide audience he commanded and the public’s fascination with Jackson, and the race was on. They reported that he slept in an oxygen chamber to keep from aging (actually Jackson purchased chamber for a children’s hospital and laid in it to see how it would work); that he “bleached” his skin to appear white and deny his African American heritage (Jackson actually had 2 diseases which affect the skin and connective tissue including cartilage– Lupus and Vitiligo); that he dangerously ‘dangled’ his child unsafely from a balcony (the “balcony” jutted out underneath Jackson who held a tight grip on his child excited to show his firstborn to fans who beneath the hotel chanted “show us the baby” and he complied, probably not the best public relations move on his part given his incessant stalking by tabloids. The media played the clip over and over from an angle that made it look dangerous and “wacko” behavior of an ‘eccentric star’; that he married Lisa Marie Presley to distract and dispute the media that labeled him “homosexual” or “asexual” and eventually picked up on the story of molestation brought in a case where evidence of extortion was caught on tape. The resulting payout to make the annoyance go away was, to a salivating media, an admission of guilt. The payout was to avoid a grueling and damaging trial with an accusation made by a man with an unstable mental illness. His innocence was always understood as the legal documents included a statement specifically stating there was no acknowledgment of guilt and leaving the door open to a legal prosecution by the accusing family. They took the payout and never filed charges.

Tabloids are of the opinion that scandal and sex sells, thereby increasing readership and circulation of a publication. “If it leads, it bleeds” is the motto of the daily news. That is why the majority of the news is negative. The tabloids use standard tools and practices to further their agenda and profits– using rhyme and alliteration, large headlines and purchasing photos by paparazzi who deliberately bait the celebrity or public figure to get the “best” negative photo– again degrading the targeted individual to a beneath human status that makes it more OK to bully.

When you are hunting for the dark side of anything, rest assured you will find it. It’s the same phenomenon that when you buy a red car, suddenly red cars appear everywhere. This persecution of the “guilty” in order to assuage one’s own guilt and complicity in the inhumane treatment of another is an old trick in human nature that is supposed to provide relief. But the relief is at the expense of the soul.

PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder applies to those who experience the trauma, those who participate in causing the trauma and those who witness the trauma. To stand by and witness the guerilla decontextualization (twisting content to strip a human being of dignity and further a dark and purposeful agenda) is a soulless activity with hidden consequences.

Think of it this way: The media is a giant and is the most powerful means to shape and manipulate public opinion. Used in an unethical, un-soulful and dark way, it is a weapon of mass destruction. the media has evolved into a bully with the biggest bully pulpit and the misuse of power. That weapon is wielded irresponsibly all too often and hypnotizes and indoctrinates us to “come to the dark side.” It is a bully pulpit that is big and powerful and when it bullies, is capable of unimaginable and irreversible damage.

We are all downwind.

Some news about the scandal and its litigation reported by an Inner Michael reader following the story:

“At last I have something to tell you. Andy Coulson, former editor of the now closed News of the World tabloid newspaper, is starting an 18 month prison sentence tonight at Belmarsh Prison, in London!

After an 8 month trial at the Old Bailey, he was found guilty of conspiracy to hack the telephones and intercepting voice mails of thousands of people – royalty, celebrities, including pop stars, politicians and ordinary people – between 2000 and 2006.

Rebekah Brookes was found not guilty last week due to lack of evidence (?) The police are to question Rupert Murdoch again.
Former news editor, Greg Miskiw was sentenced to six months. Two other former senior reporters, Glen Mulcaire and James Wetherup, got four to six months suspended, and 200 hours of community service within 12 months.

About the Tabloid Newspapers: They still wield a lot of power in this country but it’s a waning power. Recent figures by the National Readership Survey reveal that the Sun is still read by just under six million people a day but those figures are falling rapidly. It has lost around a million readers over the last 12 months.

This figure assumes that one newspaper is then read by several different people. Sales of the newspaper have fallen by more than 250,000 over the last year to just over two million a day. Only the Independent showed a bigger percentage drop. Secondly, the creation of an online paywall has seen its online readership drop from more than 750,000 a day to under 100,000. Compare that with the Daily Mail’s two million online readers in the UK. The Sun is no longer Britain’s most read newspaper brand.
Source: National Readership Survey

Resources:
The News of the World Hacking Scandal:

New York Times:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/news_of_the_world/index.html?inline=nyt-org

If you’re interested in the Timeline of the Scandal:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8634176/Phone-hacking-timeline-of-a-scandal.html

What does Murdoch own?

Billionaire Rupert Murdoch’s Empire:

 News Corp. holdings including three national newspapers in the U.K.; almost 150 publications in Australia; the New York Post and Community Newspaper Group in the United States; The Wall Street Journal and related publications in the U.S., Europe and Asia; Dow Jones information services;

HarperCollins book publishers Including:

Daily Telegraph; Dow Jones; Harper Collins Publishers; Herald Sun; Inside Out; New York Post; News International; NT News; Post-Courier; Sunday Herald Sun; Sunday Mail; Sunday Times; The Advertiser; The Australian; The Courier-Mail; The Daily; The Mercury; The Sunday Mail; The Sunday Telegraph; The Sun; The Sunday Times; The Times; Times Literary Supplement; The Wall Street Journal; The Wall Street Journal Digital Network; Weekly Times; Zondervan.

Broadcasting

Businesses include the FOX Broadcasting Company; the 27 stations in the Fox Television Stations group and various television operations throughout the world. Cable properties produce and license programming for cable and satellite platforms in the U.S and Asia, including the FOX News Channel and FOX Business Network, FX and STAR. News Corporation wholly owns Italy’s most popular pay-TV company, SKY Italia. The company also has significant holdings in British Sky Broadcasting, Germany’s Sky Deutschland; Asia’s TATA SKY and FOXTEL in Australia and New Zealand.

FOX Broadcasting Company; FOX Sports; FOX Sports Australia; FOX Television Stations; MyNetworkTV; Big Ten Network; FOX Business Network; FOX Movie Channel; FOX News Channel; FOX College Sports; FOX Sports Enterprises; FOX Deportes; FOX Sports Net; FOX Soccer Channel; Fuel TV; FX; Nat Geo Wild; National Geographic Channel United States; National Geographic Channel Worldwide; Speed; STAR; Stats, Inc.; BSkyB; FOXTEL; Sky Deutschland; SKY Italia.

Movie and television production and distribution

Move production and distribution through Fox Filmed Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox Film. Television production includes 20th Century Fox Television and other TV studios including 20th Century Fox; 20th Century Fox Espanol; 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment; 20th Century Fox International; 20th Century Fox Television; Fox Searchlight Pictures; Fox Studios Australia; Fox Studios LA; Fox Television Studios; Blue Sky Studios; Shine Group.

Other assets

“Next generation” media properties including Hulu, an online video joint venture with NBC Universal and Disney; and News Outdoor, an outdoor advertising company.

The list includes:

American Idol.com; AskMen; careerone.com.au; CARSguide.com.au; Fox.com; FoxSports.com; FoxSports.com.au; hulu.com; IGN Entertainment; Milkround; National Rugby League; NDS; News.com.au; News Digital Media; News Outdoor; Scout; Spring Widgets; truelocal.com.au; WhatIfSport.
 
 

~To Inner Michael~

“Hate is always tragic. It is as injurious to the hater as it is to the hated. It distorts the personality and scars the soul.” ––Martin Luther King, Jr.

Bullying is bullying. No matter what form it comes in or what the imagined “reason.” Meanness is meanness. Inhumane treatment toward another human being is a social injustice no matter what the excuse. “Guerilla decontextualization,” coined by poet and author Aberjhani is the practice of with malice and intent, deconstructing a human being for the purposes of maligning or worse, nullifying– to take away their impact. power, pulpit or legitimacy and later, legacy. It is a way to neutralize those who are innovative, clever, who stand outside the culturally determined boundaries and dare to challenge it from there. The ones who through their voice, art and activities, dare us to be better humans… you know– the dangerous ones?

Bullying is: attacking another person so as to gain power over them, deliberately manipulating public perception of them, to take what they said out of context (repeat or print the re-arranged or redacted version) to de-legitimize their voice, to discredit them, humiliate them, ruin their reputation, nullify them, dissuade people from dealing with them, to interfere with the natural respect their character has earned, to harass them, to turn people against them, to mock them or their work, to marshall a hate campaign against them.

And once again, this practice was witnessed recently in the fan community while organizing an activity “in honor” of Michael. Who mocks, starts a hate campaign and deliberately harms another in order “to honor” Michael Jackson? What? The man who stood for love? Who gave love over and over until and beyond where it hurt or was healthy? The man who when assaulted by those who harmed him with their jealousy, envy or anger– dropped to his knees to pray for forgiveness for his own instinctive and uncensored harsh thoughts? And then immediately prayed for forgiveness and the enlightenment of the offender?

A bully thinks that they are damaging the other person. In reality, the bully says more about themselves than their targets. He or she who bullies is revealing his or her heart in public. Some hearts are not very pretty, are they? hearts translate into action and some of those actions aren’t pretty either. Someone who is mean-spirited or abusive to another person reveals how little self respect and self confidence they have, how little they believe in themselves or humanity or that their own reputation will speak volumes for their character. Oh, it speaks volumes alright. It screams…

Fail! Foul!

Actually committing an act that attempts to degrade another’s character is, in reality, a way to reveal your own true character and true self. It reveals your heart. It broadcasts the truth about a heart that is hard and cold and incapable of love or a heart that open, dedicated to grace, to unity and to compassion and love.

Good people don’t bully. Period. Good people respect themselves to much to indulge in vile or juvenile attacks on another human being. Beware and be very careful of the person in your acquaintance who would attack and recruit you to attack another. Be mindful of your own weakness when you allow yourself to be easily led by another, into an activity that will harm your soul. If they would harm someone else, they would certainly harm you. They would not hesitate to turn on you if it suits their purpose. No one who is honorable or has love in their heart will recruit you to do something that harms your soul. You know what is soul destroying; you intuitively know it, feel it. Your insides know. Your bones know. You cannot trust someone who has recruited you to a hate campaign. And when that hate campaign has something to do with Michael Jackson it is completely counterfeit and there is no honor in it. Michael Jackson was all about love, not hate.

There are so many worthy initiatives that have begun as tributes and in honor of Mr. Jackson. A Million Trees… Everland… Cadeflaw… Michael’s Dream Foundation… Voices Education Project’s Words and Violence…  The Frankie Woods McCullough Academy for Girls Project in Gary, Indiana… There is no need and no room for hate campaigns.

Hate campaigns have brought us suicides, assassinations, religious wars, racism, terrorism and other abominations of human nature. And being a “little hateful” or a “little bulling” is like being “a little bit pregnant.” Can one be “a little bit evil?” If you embody evil, it lives in you. You either are or you aren’t. As the great Guru Yoda says: “Do or not do; there is no try.”

No cause justifies gaining through the means of bullying. No cause that pretends to embody love encourages people to be hateful. And this particularly from people who claim to represent activities “honoring Michael Jackson?” Seriously? That is completely hypocritical. Michael Jackson would condemn anyone who bullied in his honor. And he would walk away. Period. Never to return.

Michael Jackson was bullied by the people around him, by the media and by those who are supposed to uphold the law and those who were supposed to nobly represent him… and this through his whole life! He was often surrounded by hypocrites and people who would use his name yet smear his work and legacy. He was aware of how evil contaminates. He left Neverland because it was contaminated by evil. People always have to answer for their evil deeds– one way or another. Sometimes you can see it coming; sometimes it sneaks up on you. But it is on its way back to you, guaranteed. That is the way the Universe works. You attract what you are. So stop it. If you are engaging in something hateful or in hate campaigns, you are no better than those who drained the life from him. No better than the tabloid hacks who took information, twisted it and brought evil to him, to themselves and to anyone who witnessed the violence of decontextualizing a human being and dismembering him on front pages. The violence went on for decades until it became “normal.”

Deliberate harm is not “normal” nor is it admirable or noble. It is, in fact, what is wrong with the world. And since we all contribute our individual energy and piece, we create the world and “we are the world.” As contributors, we are stewards of the culture and the world. Stewards have responsibilities.

There is something very frightening about deliberately calculated, planned and executed evil. It does not live in the human realm but arises from somewhere non-human. Caution! When you engage with it, you condemn yourself.

Jackson was harassed, hounded, vilified, mocked, humiliated, and was the target of orchestrated hate campaigns in the tabloid media. Over time, they chipped away at his humanity until they completely dehumanized him. That was deliberate. It’s a formula well known and used by tabloids and their journalists that is well tested and effective when employed over time. The purpose of chipping away at an individual’s humanity a little at a time is to make them less than human so that bullying them is more generally accepted by the public. If someone is considered “wacko” because his behavior is interpreted out of context or is a “freak” because of elective cosmetic surgery, he is easier to bully. If a woman is “fat” or less than “gorgeous,” it is easier to mock her body and face. And who does that? Mock someone’s face- their only window and trademark to the world? Or their body because it doesn’t fit some artificial and superficial cultural blink-of-time standard?

Mean people and bullies do that.

If the public sees an individual as vulnerable and human, tabloids have a harder time attacking them because it causes a backlash against the bullying tabloid and that might cut into the sales and profits. So instead, they plan and execute a chronic devaluation of a human being so as to mock, humiliate and recruit others to do the same.

What is the difference between the tabloids doing this to Jackson and Jackson’s fans doing this to other fans? Especially when the bullying is touted as necessary and “and in honor of preserving Michael Jackson’s legacy.” Do you think the man himself would sanction this? Do you think he would be proud? What does this display of human shadow behavior have to do with a man whose only mission was to leave a legacy of love?

No, there is no honor there. There is no love. He would not be proud. In fact, this practice of bullying shames his name.

What in the world would prompt such displays of naked hatred? Do you dare to think you should be the only game in town? Do you claim sole ownership of his legacy? How arrogant! There is much work to be done on this planet. There is room for everybody. The work of compassion and love is urgent in these times of turmoil and transition. And if you wish to do it in his name, then at least respect his values and claim them and practice them in your own life and affairs and particularly in how you treat others. Public hate campaigns tarnish his legacy. They harm his family for it reflects on them. It only adds to the meme the media loves to perpetuate of “the crazy fans.” It’s not helpful and you’re not helping. That is NOT what the man stood for.

You know who you are. You know what you did. Now go and do something to reclaim your soul. Go and make it right. For you. For others. For the planet. For Michael.

Nine months in the making, “Words and Violence” project, that was started immediately after his death that was published on the first birthday after his death. It took almost a year to design and was begun by fans coming together to contribute to a scholarly academic publication that has now grown to more than 600 pages. The project is ongoing with a third edition published last year.

http://voiceseducation.org/content/words-and-violence

Words and Violence was the first work to honor Jackson’s legacy. The program is about bullying in all its incarnations from the playground to the tabloids to the mortuary and it features the antidotes for bulling. Jackson was the poster boy for bullying on a global scale. The project was and is dedicated to Michael Jackson and Lady Diana Spencer– two humanitarians who were gifts to this world. To two people who cared for children and were mocked for their tenderness and their championing the causes of children. Two people who were humanity’s cheerleaders encouraging and demonstrating how to “do better.” They both said we (humanity) are better than this, and then were targeted, mocked and attacked and exploited by tabloids for their own corporate profits and selfish gain.

“Words and Violence” is about to be released in its 4th edition which will feature how we humans have bullied the planet to the point of irreversible harm and if not curtailed will lead to our extinction. As I said, bullying is bullying. It’s all the same thing no matter which end of the scale or continuum of bullying you’re on. It is human shadow at work. It leads to soul loss. For self. For others. For the planet.

Michael Jackson understood human nature and the bullying of human beings. He took on bullying in many incarnations in his lyrics and in his art– gangs, murder, misogyny, poverty, militancy, war, and even the bullying of the planet in Earth Song. He knew it was all part of the ego’s inner shadow instead of the ego’s bright shadow within which he encouraged in everyone he touched, that touch reaching around the world and yes, to the planet itself. He knew it was urgent. A more humane narrative (story) on this planet is desperately needed.

The work had and has nothing to do with a gesture of adoration demonstrated once a year. It has to do with looking at the one in the mirror and making that permanent change within self that we wish to see in the world. We all contribute to this psychic ecosystem and soup we live in. It doesn’t help to stir in hatred because now everybody is forced to taste your bitterness. When Michael Jackson asked: “make that change” he didn’t have bullying in mind. He was asking that we embody values and live our lives from that place of integrity. To embody and demonstrate values like nobility, understanding, compassion, inclusion, unity, love… He asked us to  embrace the bright humane nature within ourselves and to live our lives from that place. “So, Will you be there?”

Next: “Where hate campaigns lead to” and “Trends in the Tabloids”