Special mistakes in the birthday program for Michael Jackson on the Manoto & To network

This year, the “Manoto & To” network aired a special program to mark Michael Jackson’s birthday—though it was a repeat of last year, and its issues were not corrected.

In various programs, this network has honored many artists, but it has never done justice to Michael Jackson—the King of Pop music, the best showman in the history of entertainment, the best dancer, the best-selling musician, the most successful artist in the field of show production, and the kindest artist of the era.

In the program about Michael Jackson that was broadcast on this network last year and again this year, several of Michael’s songs were introduced, giving general audiences the opportunity to get acquainted with some of the artist’s works. However, many shortcomings and gaps were also clearly felt, and therefore many criticisms have been raised about the program.

The program offered a very superficial review of Michael Jackson’s achievements and, in no way, reflected Michael’s humanity, talent, impact, and art for the general audience.

In this program, a series of general pieces of information were provided about the artist—information that was not necessarily important or interesting. For example, the number of sales for each single is meaningless to the general audience and only targets a niche audience, who already know these things. So why not tell the general audience, instead of these unnecessary and boring details, the truth that Michael was the best-selling artist in history—or at least one of the top three best-selling artists in history?

In 2006, Michael received a Guinness World Records diploma as the most successful artist of all time, and his name was recorded in the book of records. The basis for this selection was the number of sales of the artist’s individual albums, which at the time was announced as 750 million copies—and his album sales with the Jackson 5 and the Jacksons were not even included. By the end of 2011, it was announced that his album sales had surpassed one billion copies. Sources report total album sales for The Beatles (27 studio albums and other works) and Elvis (22 studio albums and other works) as one billion, and Michael—through his 10 studio albums (plus other works)—reached the same sales figure, which is why he is the most successful artist in history.

Also, some other information—such as the length of each clip—could have been replaced with more interesting facts.

Over five decades of life, Michael Jackson earned titles such as Artist of the Decade, Artist of the Generation, Artist of the Century, and Artist of the Millennium. He is one of the few artists who has two stars on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice. He is the only dancer from the world of pop and rock music who has been accepted into the Dance Hall of Fame, and he is also among a small number of artists who received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for a lifetime of artistic work. Michael Jackson was the most famous artist in the world’s history. According to a survey in 1997, 95% of people on Earth knew who Michael Jackson was. He holds records for the most awards and nominations, and also holds the record for the highest number of records registered among artists. Michael personally handled the production of most of his songs; in the album History, he played keyboard, guitar, drums, and percussion. But in this program, the absence of these interesting facts was strongly felt. The truths less often told about Michael could have been far more appealing to general viewers than other matters mentioned—such as naming his collaborators, who are unknown to Persian speakers.

Michael Jackson always had a hand in charity. The record for the kindest artist in the Guinness Book was registered under his name. He was the kindest member of the T.J. Martell Foundation for AIDS Research and, as recognition for his help to the College of Colorful People in America, he received an honorary doctorate degree. The establishment of a special burn-accident unit at the Brotman Hospital is only one of his valuable services. He built this unit with the money Pepsi paid him as compensation for a fire incident; however, the program only mentioned Michael’s fire and did not mention his charitable work, even though this information would be very useful for introducing the inner character and spirit of an artist to the audience. Michael also dedicated the income from his three world tours to charitable causes—for example, the entire earnings from the DANGEROUS tour were used to help charities and to set up the Michael Jackson charity foundation, Heal The World. This charity foundation was one of the supporters of the victims of the Bosnian war.

In this program, Michael’s childhood era full of wonder, the Motown 25 show, and his first performance of Moonwalk, the great Super Bowl show—which is the best and most-watched in the history of that event—his We Are The World project to help the hungry in Africa, his remarkable role in the film WIZ, and winning eight Grammys in a single night—which is a Michael record that has never been broken—were not discussed. Information about the plaque presented to Michael by the then U.S. president, Ronald Reagan, was also not provided. Many important short films by Michael—such as Black or White (the most-watched and highly advanced TV clip), Moonwalker, and Ghosts (shown at the Cannes Festival)—were ignored. No mention was made of his three massive world tours or the stadiums packed with crowds. Even the short trailer film—the only music video that has been registered as a national treasure alongside the best cinematic works of the United States—was not mentioned.

In this program, mistakes were also seen.

In one segment, it was incorrectly stated that Michael’s annual income was five billion dollars! Is such an income even imaginable?

It was also said that Michael had undergone nose surgery four times up to the video Smooth Criminal. But in his autobiography book, Moonwalk, which was released in 1988, Michael said freely that he had had two cosmetic nose surgeries.

Album sales for Thriller were announced as 80 million, which is more than 110 million copies. Thriller is the best-selling music album in history.

Also, in the video Smooth Criminal, ropes were used to perform the famous “45-degree anti-gravity lean.” Using special effects, the ropes were removed from the video, and the shoes were designed afterward for the stage performance, because it was not possible to use ropes on stage.

Quoting supermodel Imán about Michael’s kiss and her kiss in the clip Remember the Time is another mistake. In 1993, in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Imán said that Michael kissed well; but in 2010, after Michael’s death, in a conversation with BET, she said that they could barely even touch each other’s lips—and this point is also visible in the video.

Tatiana Thumbtzen, who acted alongside Michael in the video The Way You Make Me Feel, was not the artist’s lover; she was in love with Michael, and she was fired from a bad tour for kissing him on stage.

In the song Scream, accusations of sexual misconduct against Michael were mentioned, but it was not stated that in 2005 he was cleared of all accusations. Six months after Michael’s death in 2009, the FBI published the files it had about him on its website. These documents showed that the organization had found no evidence against Michael. The U.S. government organization supporting children and families also said in 2011 that after more than a decade of investigation into Michael, it considers him innocent and found no evidence against him.

Also in the same segment, it was said that the song was written by two of Michael’s brothers named Jam and Terry. First, these people are James Harris and Terry Lewis, and they are not Michael’s brothers. Second, Michael and Janet collaborated on this song as writers and producers.

Contrary to what was said in this program, the Prison video for the song They Don’t Care About Us was made after the Brazil version, because Michael was not satisfied with the first video, which was filmed in Brazil.

The impact of the Billie Jean video and the reason MTV opposed airing it—because it was a racist issue—was not raised, and only stated that the network had no desire to show this video. This video was the first clip by Black artists on that network, and Michael paved the way for other Black artists and broke the network’s racial barrier.

Another weakness of the program was that the producers were not familiar with the Persian language, which was completely evident in the way sentences were written. For example, incorrect sentence structure and the use of English names and phrases instead of Persian—especially since the program was prepared for Persian speakers.

The network has also, from time to time, provided incorrect information about this unique figure to its audience in other programs. For example, in the documentary about Elizabeth Taylor that aired in the “Stars of Yesterday” program, it was said that Michael Jackson had AIDS, while that was not true. In one of the “Manoto Plus” programs, the hosts announced that the cause of Michael Jackson’s death was addiction, which is also not correct: Michael was not murdered and his doctor did not end up in prison. Or it was said that in 2003 Michael performed at the Super Bowl, when the correct year is 1993. Also, in some other “Manoto Plus” programs, Michael Jackson’s plastic surgeries were mocked by the hosts, or mentioned as an example to viewers by the program’s psychologist—and it was concluded that Michael became addicted to plastic surgery as a result of being humiliated as a teenager by his father. So, dear parents, watch your behavior with teenagers. Such an approach is not ethical, because we do not have a precise understanding of people’s private lives, personal hardships, and medical and treatment issues, and we cannot present these points as examples for viewers to learn from and claim that an individual did such a thing for that reason. This is only the speaker’s personal interpretation and should not be presented as truth about the person in question on television—especially by a psychologist. The truth is that after Michael’s death, the doctor who examined his body said that lupus disease had damaged his nose, and that medical necessity required reconstructive surgeries on his nose. He also had large wounds on his nose that made breathing difficult.

We, while appreciating that this network kept the memory of this pop king alive on Michael’s birthday, are calling for the creation of a precise and content-rich program based on accurate studies and research—so that the people of Iran, who have always been bombarded with incorrect information, can be introduced to the truth about Michael Jackson.

We also informed the network about some of these issues on Twitter, and they said they would follow up. We also hope these mistakes will be corrected. Twitter link

We posted a message reflecting the fans’ dissatisfaction, which reached us through various channels, on Facebook so that you can also express your views, write down the issues you noticed, and help correct them. Our wish is that in the future we will see better and more content-rich programs about Michael Jackson. Write your opinion here: Here