I saw this on Facebook and thought you guys should know about it. It is a posting from MJJ777 regarding a recent article that TMZ spread - right after the Murray hearings ended.
"Positive stories about Murray & his patients then lies about MJ & his son. Expect more & don't give such outlets traffic. This is serious. TMZ doesn't care about ethics, they care about people visiting their site! More clicks = more ad $$. STOP CLICKING. If you follow TMZ on Twitter or Facebook, UNFOLLOW THEM. Having ...a higher follower count increases their perceived value to advertisers."
HERE IS THE SITE THEY CREATED REGARDING THIS MATTER:
Once again, TMZ has fabricated a non-story about Michael Jackson comprised of half-truths and assumptions spun and molded into something completely unrepresentative of reality.
While we think it’s important to know what the actual content of the post is, we don’t want to encourage you to visit the TMZ website (remember, every click you make means increased ad revenue for them!), so we’ve reproduced the article here—including a screen capture:
MJ Pushed Dr. To Improperly Give Son Anesthesia 1/13/2011 1:00 AM PST by TMZ Staff
TMZ has learned … Michael Jackson subjected one of his children to the same risky medical treatment that eventually killed him.
Sources tell TMZ … Michael cajoled a Las Vegas dentist into performing a procedure on Blanket in July, 2008, that involved putting the boy under anesthesia for 2 hours in a dental office that did not have the necessary permit for anesthesia.
TMZ has obtained internal documents from the Nevada Board of Dental Examiners, which detail Michael Jackson’s interactions with Dr. Mark Tadrissi. According to the documents, Tadrissi told Michael he couldn’t perform the procedure on Blanket because he lacked the permit.
According to the Board’s investigator, Michael didn’t want to hear about permits and told the doctor, “Have an anesthesiologist do whatever type of sedation required.”
Tadrissi capitulated and performed the 2 hour procedure on Blanket … who was 6 years old at the time. An anesthesiologist had Blanket sedated the entire time.
Now here’s where it gets mysterious. The Board — which learned of Tadrissi’s actions after Michael died — initiated a disciplinary action against Tadrissi for allowing Blanket to be anesthetized in his office. The Board also went after Dr. Tadrissi for allowing Michael to receive Propofol in his office, without the proper permit.
Dr. Tadrissi struck a deal with the Board in 2010 in which he was sanctioned. In a draft of the report, the Board based the sanctions on his treatment of both Blanket and Michael. But in the final version of the report Blanket was taken completely out — there is no mention of the boy or his treatment.
One source connected with the investigation tells TMZ … pressure was put on the Board to omit Blanket from the report, and when the final version was issued, the discipline was based solely on Michael’s treatment. ++++++++++++++++++++++
What is this article really telling us? Well, let’s look at the crux of the story as if we’re talking about any parent and child, not Michael Jackson and his son…
TRUTH: • A 6-year-old boy needed a 2-hour dental procedure performed on him that required anesthesia. • The dentist lacked a permit to perform procedures under anesthesia. • The boy’s father asked the dentist to hire an anesthesiologist (i.e., a doctor licensed to administer anesthesia) to do the sedation. • The dentist agreed to hire a licensed anesthesiologist, and who then did the sedation on the 6-year-old boy.
In other words, the father acted like any parent with a young child in need of a lengthy dental procedure. Receiving anesthesia for dental care is NOT unusual, even in young children. It is completely normal to want your child to be anesthetized during a 2-hour long procedure, which—if personal experience with dental work is any indication—is likely to be painful. Furthermore, the use of Propofol in dental surgery is extremely common.
Curious about why anesthesia would be used on a young child visiting this dentist? Take a look at these Frequently Asked Questions About General Anesthesia, as provided by The American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry.
An excerpt:
When a child (or a person of any age with a disability) needs extensive dental treatment, general anesthesia is an accepted standard of care. This standard is supported by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, the American Dental Association, the American Medical Association, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The reason a complaint was filed against the dentist wasn’t because of anything the father did wrong—it’s because the dentist didn’t have the right permit to allow the licensed anesthesiologist to administer the anesthetic in his office. Think back to the last time you (or your child) received anesthesia at the dentist: Did you check up on all the intricacies of the dentist’s permits regarding the use of an anesthesiologist in his or her office? I’m guessing you didn’t.
SPIN: What does TMZ want you to take away from their sensationalized report? Well, that’s simple: They want you (and everyone else who reads their article…and everyone who reads every other article based on their article…and so on) to believe that Michael Jackson was such a horrible father and such a delusional junkie that he forced a doctor to put his son to sleep with the very same drug that wound up killing his dad. And if Michael Jackson is that irresponsible and horrible, how can we believe that he didn’t force another doctor to give him an overdose in June 2009? And really, how can we believe that Michael Jackson just didn’t kill himself, since he obviously didn’t care about his kids?
That’s the subtext! That’s what TMZ and the rest of the tabloid media want you to believe. Why? Because it’s “shocking”, it’s scandalous, it involves a very famous person with a lot of public interest, and, above all, because it will get lots of people—including Michael Jackson fans—to click on their site, leave comments, send the link to other people, and ultimately increase TMZ’s value to advertisers.
The media makes a lot of money off of stories about Michael Jackson. It doesn’t matter whether the story is negative or positive, fact or fiction; the public still eats it up. We saw it in 1982, we saw it in 1987, 1993, 2003, 2005, 2009…and on and on and on. As long as the interest is there, the media will provide a story, even if they have to invent it.
We’re in the midst of a period of time between the preliminary hearings and the trial of the doctor accused of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Michael Jackson. It’s a slow time, news-wise. You’re going to see a lot of trash and nonsense and noise coming out so the media can continue filling their pockets while they wait for the trial to start. Be aware.
The best way to take action against tabloid sites like TMZ is with INACTION. • Don’t click on any links to their website. • Don’t share any links to their website. • Don’t comment on any articles on their website. • If you follow their posts with an RSS reader (like Google Reader), delete the feed. • If you’ve liked their page on Facebook, unlike it. • If you follow them on Twitter, unfollow them.
Every click, every link, and every follower makes TMZ a more valuable company in the eyes of advertisers, and that’s where the money lies. Exercise your voice of opposition be refusing to give TMZ a single additional click.
---------- "...be alive, be free, feel consciousness, subsciousness, being GOD..." MJ
I am aware of the issues with TMZ. They are also heavily sponsored by Sony. That is why you did not see the above article posted here. I choose very carefully what I post. I did not see any legal documents attached to this story either.
Hi all please read this, its actually good - http://www.sawfnews.com/Gossip/66107.aspx This writer has written a good piece debunking that Dentist story. So far the TMZ story has not been replicated too much. This week, I wrote several letters to the editor for our papers out here in CA about tabloid journalism and how is damages our justice system. My local paper will print it. I hope the LA Times will. Am truly fedup with TMZ. There needs to be leglislation to monitor media but it won't happen. Tabloid journalists are as good as drug dealers. We put drug dealers in jail.
I love that story by Charles Thomson you added Marta. And YES! Journalism 101 - "Never let the facts get in the way of a good story." That is every Journalist motto these days, especially when it comes to the Jackson family.
Great articles and thank you MLovesYou for elevating the awareness of this story.
