Neverland Chronicle (Feb 15)Written by Gary Whittaker
Is Bashir Man in Mirror? It seems that weekly so-called news magazine 20/20 is now grooming Martin Bashir to be next Barbara Walters. How is that relevant? Well, Disney owned ABC has lured Mr. Bashir from BBC with both 1 million dollar salary, and an agenda to go after Michael Jackson. Mr. Bashir has started his hard-hitting investigative journalism by interviewing Corey Feldman about his upcoming testimony in Jackson Trial. If I was on Jackson defense team, I would have been very concerned over damaging affect this would have against my client right before trial of his life. But that would have been BEFORE interview. AFTER interview, I would be salivating at chance to cross-examine Corey. Martin Bashir seems to have an innate talent to make everyone around him look bad...including himself. His employers must be blinded to this fact, if only because they are too busy thinking about ratings boost that will be coming in next few weeks as Martin continues to come up with "sexy" headlines. But when allegations of his misconduct and questionable tactics start turning public trust against him, executives at ABC will have no one to blame but themselves. I did a quick Google of Martin Bashir and came up with 2 interesting facts. The first of which, was his then employers less than supportive remarks after his first breakthrough interview with Michael Jackson. The second, and most troubling, was his blatant lie in order to meet with father of a missing 16-year-old chess master. He told father that had information as to whereabouts of his missing daughter, but would only give him information if he could be interviewed. Let me ask you, is that kind of reporter you want to put your faith into? As for Corey Feldman, his story is an obvious attempt to get back at a man who he idolized in his youth, but was left aside when Michael Jackson felt that he was about to be betrayed. Here are some of details:
| | Bob Marley Remembrance in Meskal SquareWritten by Chris Meehan
Last Sunday saw 60th anniversary of birth of legendary Bob Marley. Appropriately, thousands of Rastafarians, bedecked in red, gold and green, gathered in Meskal square, Addis Abbaba in Ethiopia, to salute their spiritual fellow traveller and great inspiration. They formed part of a vast crowd that had assembled to commemorate life and philosophy of towering figure that was Bob Marley, who died of cancer, aged 36, in 1981. A musical tribute, in form of a free concert, was paid by likes of Youssou N’Dour, Baaba Maal and Angelique Kidjo. There’s no question that Marley’s music captured world’s imagination and was instrumental in establishing reggae as pre-eminent world-music from 1970s to late 80s. He came to global prominence with his group The Wailers – who initially formed in 1963, securing quick credibility in Jamaica with a number of hits, produced under guidance of Coxone Dodd. International recognition was slower in coming – Marley even had a spell working on a car assembly line in USA in 1969 – and only materialised once a deal with Island Records had been signed and collaboration with producer Lee Perry established sound that came to define Bob Marley and Wailers to millions of fans around planet. With backing vocals of I-Threes (including Bob’s wife Rita) and a new line-up in 1974, Marley bandwagon began to roll in earnest. 1977 and 78 marked release of 2 seminal albums: Exodus and Kaya – which ,in addition to critical acclaim they received, were massively successful in commercial terms, too. Island Records calculated that, in 1981, extent of Marley’s global sales stood at £100 million.
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