The media is still at war with Michael Jackson but the public isn’t buying it this time.
Jackson’s new biopic, Michael, opened as the number one film in the world and the biggest debut ever for a music biopic this weekend and yet critics buried it with a 37% Rotten Tomatoes score.
The film was an apt representation of Jackson himself: audiences loved it, the press didn’t.
Why? Well, how deep down the rabbit hole shall we go?
It could be simple. To embrace this film would require the media to revisit how they covered him when he was alive. Namely, how quickly they mocked him, how eagerly they amplified allegations, how rarely they actually reported on him accurately. They called him “Wacko Jacko.” They splashed accusations across front pages.
It could be deeper than that.
The public has never been given access to his unreleased work, including songs said to touch on Palestine and global injustice. And even the voices used against him were unstable. Jackson’s sister La Toya Jackson gave a press conference in Tel Aviv in 1993 and accused him of child abuse. She later said she was coerced into those statements by her then-husband, Jack Gordon, who she described as controlling and abusive.
Are there other truths the media does not want the public to consider as this film brings his story back into focus?
Is the film perfect? By no means. It portrays Jackson’s long-time lawyer John Branca as a loyal ally to Jackson when he certainly was not. Jackson fired Branca in the early 2000s but Branca would go on to claim ownership of the Jackson estate based on a 2002 will that the Jackson family has long contested. The will was signed in Los Angeles on a date that Michael Jackson was in New York but no court has ever nullified it.
Branca is also a producer of this film and will benefit financially from its success. If you know that history, it’s hard to ignore.
And yet the film is still a beautiful portrayal of a legend. Jackson’s nephew, Jaafar Jackson, delivers something rare: a performance that channels Michael Jackson so beautifully that it is haunting.
So what is the lesson for the rest of us who never quite understood the media hunt against Michael Jackson?
Maybe it’s this: we trusted the narrative because it was everywhere. It felt authoritative.
Now something is shifting. In the year 2026, we no longer trust the media. Audiences are pushing back on their narratives and reasserting their love for the artist on their own terms. They are rejecting the media and supporting Michael in ways they didn’t when he was alive.
Call it poetic justice: The media loses credibility with every passing day as Jackson’s legacy grows stronger.
How I wish he’d lived to see it.
The post Michael Jackson Won. The Media Didn’t. appeared first on Redacted.
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