In her post, Carrie gave the excuse that a lot of MJ superfans give, which is that "he was a child himself" so he couldn't have done anything to those kids. That's wrong on several levels, not least of which is that Jackson was a 50 year old man - and no matter how many toys and video games an adult surrounds himself with, that does not make him innocent and does not make him a child.
I also thought Carrie wanted it a bit both ways - a person can't be an adult enough to be competent parent, disciplined and unspoiled (like she described Jackson as) but at the same time be so innocent and like a child that they couldn't possibly ever conceive of adult concepts.
The innocent and childlike image was just PR, which I'm surprised Carrie didn't pick up on with her experience. Maureen Orth wrote a great article, Losing His Grip (http://www.vanityfair.com/fame/features/2003/04/orth200304), about what a savvy manipulator Jackson could be. One of his friends who she interviewed I thought had the perfect quote that summed up Jackson, which is that he didn't act childish because he lost his childhood to fame, but because he was such a pathological narcissist that those he increasingly hung on to when he was a universally beloved child star and was catered to.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2009-07-07 07:44 am (UTC)I also thought Carrie wanted it a bit both ways - a person can't be an adult enough to be competent parent, disciplined and unspoiled (like she described Jackson as) but at the same time be so innocent and like a child that they couldn't possibly ever conceive of adult concepts.
The innocent and childlike image was just PR, which I'm surprised Carrie didn't pick up on with her experience. Maureen Orth wrote a great article, Losing His Grip (http://www.vanityfair.com/fame/features/2003/04/orth200304), about what a savvy manipulator Jackson could be. One of his friends who she interviewed I thought had the perfect quote that summed up Jackson, which is that he didn't act childish because he lost his childhood to fame, but because he was such a pathological narcissist that those he increasingly hung on to when he was a universally beloved child star and was catered to.