Jeff Koopersmith, one of the few opinion journalists to defend Michael Jackson during his tabloid-driven scandals, has plenty to say about the phenomenal and influential performer and his shocking death at the age of 50.

June 26, 2009 – Geneva (apj.us) – I woke this morning at five to hear the BBC news reader reporting that Michael Jackson, at 50, had died of a heart attack at his temporary Holmby Hills home where he was preparing for a sold-out tour in Britain.  I wept like child.

When Jackson, a severely misunderstood genius, was charged with hideous and false accusations, I was one of the few who defended him during that ordeal.

I never believed that Michael Jackson did what the publicity-seeking Los Angeles Police Department and a twisted, fame-grabbing district attorney crammed down the insensitive, sycophantic media's throats. Of course, Jackson was acquitted.

But the theater of celebrity justice killed him then, and he disappeared, feeling humiliated and unrecovered.

Now he is gone, and all I gave him was my courage that he was just as he said: a man who loved children, and a childhood that was robbed from him by us.  Michael Jackson was one of the most talented performing artists of the 20th century.

This morning, scanning the news, I see that the media are up to our old tricks. 

Instead of simply celebrating the joy Jackson broought a worldwide audience, dead-tree outlets and cable bobbleheads obsess over the more tawdry and seemingly inexplicable facets of his too-short lifetime.

I once claimed that we had lynched Michael Jackson.  I stand by that opinion.  As surely as others close to him sucked him dry, stole his treasure, and accused him with vicious malice, we lynched him. I will miss him.  We will all miss him.