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Now, I know what you are thinking, "I've just about heard enough of these two to last me a lunchtime." but bear with me. Both of them have been charged with sex crimes this past year, as if you didn't know, and each one is despicable if guilty. My take comes from the fact that I have been a media junky my whole life and I sense a disturbing pattern. Jacko is a master manipulator of the press and has been for years. The fact that he is being charged with manipulating something else is beside the point. I can always tell if he has a product about to be released, his name appears in the paper or on T.V. connected to some off-the-wall (no pun intended) issue, be it kids, The Elephant Man, the Beatles catalog, Elvis's kid or whatever. It got to the point where the public dismissed him as an eccentric who has lost credibility, so the general public stopped paying attention. Did that stop him? Oh no, he took a page from Madonna and went sexual. Sex sells. But with a twist, of course. He got a molestation charge thrown at him. He became big news without recording a song. He settled with his accuser out of court and mercifully spared us the details. His next album flopped and the one after that bombed even worse. So, Mike decided to put out his greatest hits album in time for this Christmas. But, since he had a falling out with his record company, he was not going to get their support. His public outcry against them failed to stir up the needed response. So he fell back on the only trump card he has to generate any publicity…kids. First, he dangled his own out of a window in Germany, then he allowed an interview to be broadcast on which he brazenly bragged of sleeping with boys for years knowing that he would be the lead media story for days, weeks and even months to come. Which brings us to Kobe Bryant, former goody-too-shoes of the National Basketball Association. It has been said for years that Kobe never had the " Street Credibility ", i.e. dangerous reputation, that is needed to sell sneakers to the N.B.A. fan base. They already had the good guy with Michael Jordan. Allen Iverson with his banned rap album, gun possession charges and multiple tattooing was the role model of choice. Rookie LeBron James has such credibility. He signed a contract with Nike shoes for $ 90 million without have even set foot on a professional court. When Kobe bought his way out with his shoe company, Addidas, for $8 million, he could "only" get $45 million from Reebok. He needed an image change. Today ESPN announced that the Kobe arrest was the big story of 2003. I believe both stories are contrivances. The publicity department for both celebrities are paid a lot to get their clients in the media. You ask, "Why would these two multi-millionaires put their freedom in jeopardy to get publicity?" The rich think much differently than you or I do. They know, that with the media's help, they can manipulate us into thinking that they have been wronged. They hope we will buy into their story and with that, we will make them even richer.
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