The Resurrection of Michael Jackson

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Brought to you by Apple Card. Hey, you could be earning 2% daily cash back on that purchase.
And that one.
And even that one. That's because Apple Card users earn 2% daily cash back on every purchase, including everyday items they buy online or in store when using their Apple Card with Apple Pay. Not an Apple Card customer? You can apply in the Wallet app on iPhone. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City branch. Terms and more at apple.co. slash benefits.

**Ivan Penn** (0:31)
Okay, we have got to talk about this Michael Jackson movie.

**Michael Barbaro** (0:37)
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:41)
Oh my God, that was like the greatest f***ing movie I have ever seen.

**SPEAKER_5** (0:45)
Oh my God, like I love this man.

**SPEAKER_6** (0:47)
The obsession I have right now with Michael Jackson is just so unreal.

**Michael Barbaro** (0:52)
The record shattering box office success of Michael. The new biopic about Michael Jackson.

**SPEAKER_6** (0:59)
I have not stopped thinking about it. Like every time I talk to my friends, I'm like, dang, I can't wait to get off the phone with y'all so I can listen to Michael Jackson.

**SPEAKER_5** (1:06)
He was so majestic and just like a beautiful human being. I'm genuinely appreciating Michael Jackson as a whole more than I thought I ever would.

**Michael Barbaro** (1:16)
And the outpouring of love for the late musician that the movie has unleashed was no accident.
Instead, it was the culmination of a painstaking years-long effort to resurrect the reputation and profitability of the king of pop, despite the multiple accusations of sexual abuse that have surrounded him for decades. Today, Times Magazine writer Mark Binelli takes us inside the new playbook for rewriting the past.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:54)
It's Friday, May 8th.

**Michael Barbaro** (2:02)
Mark, welcome to The Daily.

**Mark Binelli** (2:04)
Thanks for having me.

**Michael Barbaro** (2:05)
You are not a movie critic.

**Mark Binelli** (2:07)
No.

**Michael Barbaro** (2:08)
And we're not really here to talk about the artistic merits of this movie about Michael Jackson, although just to say, critics have been pretty unkind to the movie overall, which has done nothing to dampen ticket sales. Your reporting has been focused on how the movie came to be and how it fits into a much larger project of Michael Jackson image repair. Is that the way to think about it?

**Mark Binelli** (2:37)
Definitely. Yeah. It's really a fairly remarkable business story, and it was orchestrated by the people now running his estate. And their project, as you said, has been to rehabilitate Michael Jackson, to become a fairly toxic asset, and restore his life and music as exploitable intellectual property. And this biopic, Michael, is the culmination of that years long effort, and it's been an undeniable success, I would say.

**Michael Barbaro** (3:06)
And where in your mind does the story, the project of image rehabilitation, this business success story, begin?

**Mark Binelli** (3:15)
So it really begins right after his death.

**SPEAKER_9** (3:18)
Tonight came the word from LA., Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, as he was called, has died.

**Mark Binelli** (3:23)
In 2009

**SPEAKER_9** (3:25)
A child star at first, who as an adult, was a deeply troubled man with mental and physical...

**Mark Binelli** (3:30)
And to understand just how massive a project the state was facing at that point, you have to remember that Michael Jackson's reputation when he died really could not have been worse.

**SPEAKER_10** (3:40)
Life was tarnished by allegations of child abuse, by addictions to prescription drugs and plastic surgery.

**Mark Binelli** (3:48)
He had been accused multiple times over many years of child sexual abuse.

**SPEAKER_11** (3:54)
Michael Jackson, the biggest superstar in the world, allegations that he sexually molested young boys.

**Mark Binelli** (4:01)
Those accusations were very public.

**SPEAKER_7** (4:04)
Allegations of child abuse have prompted a Los Angeles police investigation of pop star Michael Jackson.

**SPEAKER_12** (4:09)
The Los Angeles Police Department initiated a criminal investigation.

**Mark Binelli** (4:14)
The first instance was a child named Jordy Chandler. This was in 1993

**SPEAKER_13** (4:19)
The resolution of this case is in no way an admission of guilt by Michael Jackson.

**Mark Binelli** (4:26)
That case ended with a multimillion dollar settlement with Chandler and his family.

**Michael Jackson** (4:32)
I am not guilty of these allegations, but if I am guilty of anything, it is of giving all that I have to give to help children all over the world.

**Mark Binelli** (4:44)
He very much denied any wrongdoing, always did.

**SPEAKER_15** (4:48)
Then in 2005, Michael Jackson came face to face with his accuser for the first time in court on Wednesday.