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 "Leaving Neverland," in which two adult men say they were
befriended by Jackson and were abused by him from the ages of 7
and 10 in the early 1990s, was met with a mixture of horror and
disbelief after a two-part airing on U.S. cable channel HBO on
Sunday and Monday.
Winfrey, herself a sexual assault survivor, conducted her own
follow-up interview with accusers Wade Robson and James
Safechuck in a special that was broadcast on Monday night in
front of an audience of assault victims.
Winfrey was aware of the attacks they might face.
"All the anger - you guys are going to get it," she said during
the interview. “You’re going to get it. I’m going to get it.
We’re all going to get it.” Robson told Winfrey he had already
received death threats.
Jackson's family has called the documentary and news coverage of
the accusations in it a "public lynching" and said he was "100
percent innocent."
His estate has called the documentary a "rehash of dated and
discredited allegations," and filed a lawsuit against HBO in
February, saying it breached a 1992 agreement that the cable
channel would not disparage Jackson.
The "Thriller" singer, who died in June 2009, was acquitted at a
2005 trial in California on charges of molesting a different
13-year-old boy at his Neverland ranch in California. In 1994,
he settled a sexual abuse lawsuit concerning another 13 year-old
boy.
"Leaving Neverland," which features detailed interviews with
Robson, Safechuck and their mothers and wives, will be shown in
Britain and in other nations later this month.
Dutch station NH radio said it would stop playing Jackson's
music for a few weeks.
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"I don’t think people can listen to the songs the same way
anymore. They are supposed to make you happy, make you sing and
dance," NH radio editor Arjan Snijders said in a Tuesday
broadcast.
Canada's Cogeco Media, which owns several radio stations in
Montreal, said it had temporarily pulled Jackson's songs from
airplay because of the documentary.
"We are attentive to the comments of our listeners, and the
documentary released on Sunday evening created reactions,"
Cogeco Media spokeswoman Christine Dicaire said in a statement.
"We prefer to observe the situation by removing the songs from
our stations, for the time being."
Streaming music services Spotify and Apple Music and radio
network iHeartRadio did not respond to requests for comment on
their policy regarding Jackson following the documentary.
Jackson's fans worldwide rallied round the singer using the
Twitter hashtag #MJInnocent. Some of them raised funds to pay
for posters on London buses with the slogan "Facts Don't Lie.
People do. MJInnocent."
"So many in media, inc @Oprah, blindly taking #LeavingNeverland
at face value, shaping a narrative uninterested in facts, proof,
credibility," Jackson's brother Jermaine wrote on Twitter.
"jermaine - come on," replied actress Rosie O'Donnell, saying
she believed the accusers.
(Additional reporting by Anthony Deutsch in Amsterdam; Editing
by Bill Rigby)
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