Via an academically attuned Fox News headline writer, the AP reports from New Haven: “Scholars gather to deconstruct Jacko.” The AP reports on the proceedings at Yale devoted to consideration of the gloved one:
Eighteen scholars from U.S. universities discussed sexual, racial and artistic aspects of Jackson’s life and music Thursday and Friday in the first academic meeting to study him.
Jackson “in many ways is the black male crossover artist of the 20th century,” said Seth Clark Silberman, who teaches about race and gender at Yale. “He has grown up in front of us, so we have a great investment in him, even though some people today may find his image disturbing.”
I think it would be more accurate to say that “most people” find Jackson’s image disturbing, but his image is probably the least of it:
[P]anelists discussed how pedophilia allegations have fed into false stereotypes about gays. Although Jackson married twice and has children, he has long battled rumors that he is gay, said Silberman, who is writing a book about Jackson.
Note the concessive “although” that introduces the issue of Jackson’s pedophilia. Here the AP performs the kind of service for Jacko that it usually reserves for liberal Democrats, working overtime to rehabilitate a reputation through an editorial non sequitur. Let’s call our own conference to unravel a problem even knottier than Wacko Jacko: “Deconstructing the Associated Press.”
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