Jackson's Celebrity Shouldn't Be An Excuse For His Crimes

Jillian Bandes | June 26, 2009 1:35 PM

Slate's Jacob Weisberg falls into the trap that much of the liberal media has fallen into -- downplaying Jackson's misdeeds in favor of his stardom. Sure, he's one of the greatest artists of all time, but that doesn't detract from the charges of child molestation. Jackson was acquitted, of course, but it's fairly evident that much of the acquittal was based on his celebrity. That celebrity that allowed him to carefully cultivate the bizzaro psyche which the court and Weisberg apparently thinks justifies his interactions with children.

Weisberg has "never believed Michael Jackson was a pedophile" because he never "fit the profile." Sorry -- pedophiles don't always fit a profile, and Jackson was famous for nothing else if not for his lack of fitting any conventional societal profile. Jackson's trial revealed "a man playing with children because he sees himself as one of them," according toe Weisberg. Ignoring a crime because of the mental state of the perp sounds makes Weisberg sound like a bad Law and Order co-conspirator.