I used to think that Michael Jackson was a wierdo who blamed the media for his own eccentricities.

Since becoming a fan after watching This Is It, I’ve come to realize that I was the one being naive, not Michael Jackson. All the more so during the latest media ridiculousness surrounding his upcoming posthumous album Xscape.

I didn’t become a Michael Jackson fan overnight. I was a reluctant fan, if you will. Someone who preferred to give the benefit of the dubious rather than assume the best. Sure, he was acquitted on fourteen counts of wrongdoing in his 2005 molestation trial. I still insisted on believing that the entire jury was blinded by his celebrity status. I fancied myself an open-minded yet concerned citizen, believing that Michael Jackson was a regressed 10-yr old who repressed his desire for women and somehow managed to convert it into inappropriate attention for young boys.

Looking back, after watching countless interviews with him, seeing his home videos, reading most every credible source out there about him, and, most importantly, listening to his lyrics and his music, I’m finally with Michael.

The media tells lies, and badly informed ones at that.

And I was a hypocritical dupe who fell for it because it massaged my own ego and made me feel better to criticize and eventually pity one of the most gifted people to ever grace the earth.

These past ten days, I’ve watched first with bemusement, then with mounting annoyance and anger at how the media has tried to spin stories around Michael based on zero research. His posthumous album Xscape is due out on May 13th. An intriguing and nerve-wracking prospect for fans (I happen to be in the intrigued camp).

Like flies to carrion, most major news outlets have run the story or vented at it—something along the lines of  “Michael Jackson album to offer eight new songs,” “Leave Michael’s legacy alone,” or “Michael Jackson song believed to be about child sex abuse allegations.” The latest buzz has focused on leaks of the actual track Xscape itself…except that it’s not the track from the upcoming album, but a version leaked online years ago in the wake of Invincible‘s release.

None of this is news to fans. We’ve already found and downloaded tracks like Xscape and Do You Know Where Your Children Are. We know that Michael cared deeply about the world and particularly children. We know that he’s previously written and released songs about controversial subjects  like Song Groove aka Abortion Papers.

And we can tell when someone evaluates his songs without even cursory knowledge of his music.

From the way the news outlets blindly ran with Epic’s press release that the music on Xscape is “brand new” (when it’s just the recordings that are new) to the “scoop-of-the-day”-like tone of articles citing the sex abuse content of Do You Know Where Your Children Are (when this track had been leaked years before and is not the first about abused children—MJ had previously released Little Susie on the History album), it’s obvious that the “journalists” who write these pieces to draw eyeballs and advertising money, have barely spared enough attention to repeat the latest from AP Wire (or whatever the tabloid/ gossip equivalent of that might be) before moving onto the next vapid but famous-sounding headline.

No thought, no research, no attention to the subject matter or respect for the truth.

If you have no news, don’t report. Pretending that you have news when you don’t even understand what you’re writing about is an insult to those who actually care about the subject matter and to the intellect of the public.

Don’t get so upset about a pop icon you say?

If media can’t even get the facts straight about one of the most famous people in history, what can the world trust it to do?

This piece is part of the Rants & Ravings column.

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By Jia Jia