The difficult part for me is that there is just too much conflicting information on both fronts for me to come to a conclusion either way.  It's clear that he loves children and does generous things for them--the Ryan White thing and the building of Neverland. Then there are those strange things like James mentioned--the room with the alarm.  The man himself admitted on tv that he still slept with children and felt nothing wrong with it.  There is compelling arguments on both sides and either point could be made.

It's probably just easier to blame it on that giant douchebag Joe Jackson.  I think its pretty sleazy that one of the first things he mentioned in that video posted in the other thread is that Michael's three children are living with him and Katherine and that Debroah Rowe (I presume) will have to deal with him through a lawyer.  I hope Janet Jackson gets as far away from him as possible since she's the only one with talent left in the family.

I think at some point in the last 10 years--probably around 1999-2003 Axl was extremely interested in releasing music.  But when he hit the snags and the project was being ridiculed he lost confidence in the project and just thought to hell with this.

I'm pretty sure this was the reason why the 2006 tour happened as they needed cash to continue with the recording of CD as UMG had cut them off in 2004.  It was a pure cash grab in retrospect.

Let's be honest here  The Jacksons are one dysfunctional family.  In between Joe beating on Michael, Janet and her problems, the feud between Latoya and Michael, there is a lot of unhappiness here.  I think the family still depended on him for income (outside of Janet) since none of them are recognizable names in the music industry anymore.  They were probably still leeching off him until the end.

OT  Has there been any child star that has been able to live a relatively normal life?  It seems like every one of them have some problem or another and most of them end up dying young.

Anybody seen Ninth gate?  I've read the book the movie based on and avoided this film because I've read some bad reviews and I'm pretty sure they focused on the wrong plotline.  I tried watching it on tv once and it was confusing too.

He also paid 20 million to settle that initial 1993 case.  That doesn't scream innocence to me.  If nothing truly happened he would have fought tooth and nail to protect his name and rep.  This was in 1993 where his name still meant something in the music world.  I was watching NBC where this cop who worked on this case said point blank that the accuser gave a very detailed description of Michael's genitals.  I believe the legal document (criminal complaint) that the accuser made in 1993 was leaked onto The Smoking Gun.  I read that and there is a lot of damming evidence against Michael Jackson.

Then around 10 years later similar charges are brought against him again.  I don't think it is coincidental.  He got off by basically putting the accuser on trial by focusing on their problems.  Then there was that Bashir piece that aired on ABC.  That's way too much stuff for me to say he's not a pedophile.