Michael Jackson's Family Blasts Media Over Reports of His Alleged Child-Porn Collection
Michael Jackson’s family is criticizing the media over new reports that detail his alleged child-porn collection.
Michael Jackson was once under investigation for alleged sexual abuse of minors and now new reports allegedly from a search of his home are restarting the controversy all over again. Footage obtained by the Daily Mail allegedly shows the Santa Barbara Sheriff office searching Jackson's famous Neverland home back in 2003 and finding a stockpile of books and images featuring pornographic material.
In a statement to Complex, a rep for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department clarified where the footage came from. "The Sheriff’s Office has not released any video footage from the Michael Jackson case to anyone other than the prosecution and the defense via the discovery process. We can confirm the video footage posted on-line was taken by Sheriff’s personnel during our service of a search warrant at Neverland Ranch in 2003."
Jackson's daughter Paris quickly came to his defense and blamed the media's obsession with negativity for the new reports. "I urge you all to ignore the trash & the parasites who make a career trying to slander my father," she tweeted. "The most pure people are always torn down.. It will continue to be proven that my beloved dad has always been and forever will be innocent." She then summarized how she was feeling with an old picture of her dad with his middle finger up.
Taj Jackson, Tito Jackson's son and Michael Jackson's nephew, immediately shut down the new controversy with his own tweets where he was adamant that "there absolutely no truth" to Jackson's alleged pornography collection. "Fake news travels fast. The world picked up this trashy story. There's such a race to be first, only a few checked to see if it's even true."
Jermaine has also come down hard on the media in defense of his brother. "What's more shameful in this age of 'clickbait' is how other media rushed to echo the recycled lie. Research & integrity be damned," he tweeted. Jermaine then unleashed a series of tweets with information that dispute the truth of the footage contents, including that Judge Melville "signed off a press statement before trial which said prosecutors had confirmed no child porn was found." He also tweeted an excerpt from an unknown report stating the FBI "supports the star's innocence entirely."
In a response directed at Judd Apatow, who questioned the lack of evidence being used in the trial, Jermaine said, "All available evidence, reports & exhibits [were] shown to jurors in 2005" and that they unanimously found him not guilty.
However, Jackson's sister, La Toya Jackson, seems to be ignoring the controversy altogether and instead simply tweeted her daily motivational message to her followers.
So far, Michael Jackson's son Prince has stayed silent on the topic. Jackson's other famous family members including his sister Janet Jackson, and his father, Joe Jackson, have all stayed silent on the topic. However, Joe Jackson did retweet his grandson, Taj, who encouraged others to remember Michael on June 25, the anniversary of his death, by sharing the hashtag #MJforever. Michael Jackson's estate released an official statement on the matter, according to Billboard. "Everything in these reports...is false, no doubt timed to the anniversary of Michael's passing." You can read the full statement, along with all of the Jacksons' responses, below.