Thread by @JuliaBerkowitz1

THREAD: #LeavingNeverland heavily features this "grooming" theme. The definition of grooming is:

What the film does is that it manipulatively takes every kind and generous gesture and every gift by Jackson out of context in order to try to turn them into something more sinister. #LeavingNeverland

We learn about “love letters” to James and “love faxes” to Wade, which in reality are completely innocent notes and letters with no indication of Jackson’s interest in these children being sexual/romantic.

The faxes to the Robson family ("Joey" is Wade's mother): …onallegationsblog.files.wordpress.com/2019/02/faxes-… And James's letter attached (notice it starts with "thank you for your letter").

A review on Yahoo put the scene about the faxes to Wade among the film’s “5 most shocking moments”. The context in which it is put is telling the viewer they should be troubled by them.

In the scene Joy Robson says: “The living room would be covered in faxes” and the viewer is left with the impression that the room was covered in faxes, because Jackson was so obsessed with Wade.

However, a totally different picture emerges when we read the same story in Joy Robson’s 2016 deposition in proper context that was left out of the film.

There she tells us that the reason why their room was covered in faxes was because after many weeks of not being able to use his fax machine, MJ finally learnt how to do it.

Another context that was left out is the fact that MJ had a habit of sending letters and inspirational notes like these to people all the time. As well as saying or writing “I love you” to everyone all the time. This was by far not unique to the Robsons and Safechucks.

The film manipulates the viewer like this all along. Long phone conversations between Jackson and these families, especially their sons, are represented as disturbing.

Mind you, the only time Joy ever cut off MJ was because he did NOT call Wade from the Tour. In her deposition Joy characterizes this as emotional abuse. It seems like MJ can’t win. If he called Wade that’s “grooming” and if he didn’t then that is emotional abuse.

The theme of grooming doesn't work at all with Robson's allegations as when you take a deeper look in his story it turns out that Jackson did not even have time to groom him before the alleged molestation started.

The Robsons first met with MJ in 1987 as a part of a fan meet-and-greet. Then they did not meet or talk to him for two years. It was Joy Robson who sought him out again in 1990 when they came to the USA for a family vacation.

According to Wade's story, on that 1990 trip, Jackson started to sexually molest him right away on the first or second night. Incredible risk-taking!

The story here is that this family (mother, father, sister, son, grandparents) comes all the way from Australia and on the first or second night together MJ just starts molesting Wade right away. With no grooming period, whatsoever.

How could Jackson be sure that this 7-year-old child would not tell anything anyone, whether accidentally or deliberately, once the family was back in Austrlia?

Between the Robsons’ first visit to the USA in February 1990 and their moving to the USA in September 1991, they had only two other visits to the USA and Jackson: in May 1990 and in February 1991.

Most of their interactions during that period were through faxes and phone calls as the Robsons lived in Australia.

Then the Robsons moved to the USA in September 1991. Joy testified that by the time Wade felt pushed aside. Jackson did not want to spend as much time with him as the Robsons would have wanted! Wade was 9 years old when they moved to the USA.

So if by the time Wade was 9 he felt pushed aside and if before that most of their interactions were through faxes and phone calls as the Robsons lived in Australia, where does it even leave room for an intense "romance" - the way it is portrayed in #LeavingNeverland?

Wade recently alleges in interviews (apparently stealing Safechuck's line) that he's been abused "hundreds of times" by MJ? When would those "hundreds of times" would even take place?

According to Joy Robson's 2005 testimony between 1991-2005 they only spend four occasions at Neverland when MJ was there too.

In her 2016 deposition Joy also testified that between September 1991 and June/July 1993 (about the time when the Chandler allegations were made) they stayed at Neverland four or five times, but Jackson was only there once and that was during the June/July 1993 visit.

In fact, Wade wanted to go on tour with Jackson in 1992 but he would not take him. One time Joy Robson cut Jackson off for six months and that was because she got angry with him that he did NOT call Wade from the Dangerous Tour!

The Robsons did spend some time with him at MJ's apartments in Westwood, and Century City. According to Joy, Wade slept in those condos a couple of times while MJ was there, but voluntarily also added that "sometimes there were others there, as well. It wasn't just Wade there".

When asked who else were there, she named Emmanuel Lewis (who was around 20 yo at the time), Jordan Chandler, and a boy named Anthony (probably Jackson's cousin, Anthony Jackson).

Wade does not claim to have been molested together with other kids.

It seems that Jackson did not actually spend that much time with Wade, definitely not "hundreds of occasions". Perhaps that is why he is so desperate to claim a molestation story on every single occasion that they were just alone in a room. Like in a recording studio or a trailer

But it still does not look like it could make up hundreds of occasions.

Back to the grooming theme: Joy acknowledges that once they moved to the USA, Jackson was hardly present in their lives. She had to do everything for Wade's career and she had to be the one to chase Jackson around to put Wade in projects such as his Jam video.

Wade felt pushed aside at 9. Right when they arrived in the USA. It really is hard to make sense of both the "grooming" claim and the "obsession" angle in this context.

To sell the "grooming" narrative the director of #LeavingNeverland omits the context of Jackson’s habits generally that many people could have told him about if he had been interested in a fuller picture, rather than just a one-sided narrative.

We already addressed the faxes and notes. Here's the phone calls: Jackson spent a LOT of times on the phone all kinds of people. Not just with children, but with adults as well. A lot of people could have talked about that and refute the “grooming” portrayal of it.

A series of phone conversations known as “the Glenda tapes” can even be found on YouTube as an example of how Jackson’s long calls looked like. On these tapes Jackson is heard in hours long hone conversations with a woman and sometimes her husband and children. Mostly the woman.

Notice how this call was recorded during the Dangerous Tour. The time period when he did NOT call Wade. Some "obsession".

According to the woman’s son, Damion Stein, who appeared in a documentary in 2005, his father secretly recorded the calls because his mother was so much on the phone with Jackson that he became jealous.

“He needed someone to confide in. […] My dad would be waiting for my mom in bed, for her to come to bed and she would never come. You know, she would be speaking with him in depths on the phone, you know, late hours at a night.”

The husband did not have a reason to be worried. This was simply a habit of Jackson to be on the phone with people a lot. Just to connect with everyday people.

Such telephone calls were not unique to the Robsons and Safechucks, and not unique to children either. Jackson was sometimes even secretly recorded by people, but none of these recordings showed any evidence of him ever behaving inappropriately with children.

Every kind gesture, every gift by Jackson is now twisted to serve this “grooming” narrative by Reed and these families. Again, neglecting to mention that Jackson was generous with everyone, not just with children and their parents.

There are countless of accounts of his generosity – going back to his childhood, when you cannot blame it on “grooming”. In a 1990 book his mother mentioned that one of the “problems” with him as a child was that his generosity sometimes went too far.

His father also mentioned how even as a kid Michael would spend all his money on buying ice cream or candy for all the neigbourhood kids. He never cared about the money.

There are many people who could have attested to the fact that Jackson was generous like that with almost everyone. Adults and children alike.

How these families are now trying turn every act of kindness by Jackson into “grooming” is well represented by this part of Joy Robson’s 2016 deposition where she was asked about the last time she had talked to Jackson.

Joy’s children were all grown-up at the time, so what was Jackson supposedly “grooming” her for?

The reality is that Jackson often made such courtesy calls and kind gestures to people. Ryan White’s mother, Jeanne White mentioned Jackson calling her for Mother’s Day long after her son’s death (from 1:20). What was Jackson grooming her for?

Will I Am also talked about Jackson calling him for Father’s Day, even though he was not even a father. What was Jackson grooming him for?

And another thing. None of these families claim that they have received hush. Neither of the parents claim that they were aware of the alleged abuse until their sons were adults. So neither of these gifts to the parents can be characterized as bribes.

Did they make the parents more trustful of Jackson? Well, just ask yourself the question if you trust your friends because of who they are as people or because of the gifts they are giving to you? I know my trust in my friends does not stem from gifts.

These families trusted MJ because of his personality. Joy herself stated in her deposition that had she known at the time about Wade's alleged abuse she would have gone right to the police. I assume it would have been the same for Mrs. Safechuck. Gifts do not factor in that.

As for MJ's personality. He was nice, he was kind, yes. It's who he was. Looking back and what these families are doing with that, how they are twisting his kindness and generosity into something sinister - well, maybe he shouldn't have been so nice to these families, indeed.

"No good deed goes unpunished". #LeavingNeverland