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'Faking Michael' Podcast Out Now

Mister_Jay_Tee said:
Damien is just another guy trying to cash in on Michael, same as many of the figures currently in his life and speaking on him. He's chosen a reasonably net positive and different angle, but it's still a commercialization. He wants to be the subject matter expert on a subject while he can. He tried with Xscape stuff too, and his book was pretty good. But, yeah.

The only thing to explore is to just hear the demoes in my opinions. That's the way the fans cash in on Michael, just enjoying his art.
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It’s cost him far more to put together than he could ever hope to possibly make.

It’s a huge scandal that always needed exploring in detail and nobody else has stepped up to do it., including the media who should have explored this as it’s such a massive story.
 
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StellaJackson said:
It’s cost him far more to put together than he could ever hope to possibly make.

It’s a huge scandel that always needed exploring in detail and nobody else hashas stepped up to do it., including the media who should have explored this as it’s such a massive story.
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(y)

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1840185317443416570


@DamienShields
"[...] There will always be fakes. But fakes only cross the forgery line when the false attribution is used to transact for large sums of money. Then it becomes a federal crime. [...]"
 
StellaJackson said:
It’s cost him far more to put together than he could ever hope to possibly make.

It’s a huge scandel that always needed exploring in detail and nobody else has stepped up to do it., including the media who should have explored this as it’s such a massive story.
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This is also all true as well. I agree.
 
I enjoyed the series but find Damien condescending and self important. He is on record that Michael's unfinished work shouldn't be shared yet takes the opportunity to listen to the tracks himself, I actually laughed out loud when in the podcast he states that he emailed the Head of Sony Australia telling "him to clear his diary", Damien had a conversation he wanted to have lol, or his shock that his emails to John Branca went unanswered. Then we have Charles Thompson who calls a lot of Michael's later work "shit" praising this podcast to high heaven because Damien is his friend.
 
Zeus 7 said:
I enjoyed the series but find Damien condescending and self important. He is on record that Michael's unfinished work shouldn't be shared yet takes the opportunity to listen to the tracks himself, I actually laughed out loud when in the podcast he states that he emailed the Head of Sony Australia telling "him to clear his diary", Damien had a conversation he wanted to have lol, or his shock that his emails to John Branca went unanswered. Then we have Charles Thompson who calls a lot of Michael's later work "shit" praising this podcast to high heaven because Damien is his friend.
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I felt a bit conflicted about those bits about Damien contacting a Sony exec as well. This whole podcast is presented as investigative journalism. I think the investigator himself should be neutral in his presentation of the facts he uncovered. The mix with Damien's own activism makes it feel like a fan project, and therefore less objective. Even though he brings a very well researched story.
 
I’ve always felt that Damien was very self-aggrandizing, but this just takes the cake. I’m happy to have snippets of “Monster” and “Water,” but does anyone else remember when Damien denounced leaking MJ’s unfinished music? And now here he is, on a podcast he professionally benefits from and draws attention to his name, leaking MJ’s unfinished music. It’s hypocrisy at its highest order.
 
Piek said:
I felt a bit conflicted about those bits about Damien contacting a Sony exec as well. This whole podcast is presented as investigative journalism. I think the investigator himself should be neutral in his presentation of the facts he uncovered. The mix with Damien's own activism makes it feel like a fan project, and therefore less objective. Even though he brings a very well researched story.
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I agree that the podcast definitely feels biased. However, it's difficult to maintain a neutral stance when there isn't much information or any testimonies from the other side. If you look closely, this was a blatant fraud. So I personally don’t see why Shields should feel obligated to remain neutral. His opinion is evident from the very first episode, but this is labeled as a 'true crime' podcast, so listeners should expect that a crime has indeed taken place.

Could it have attracted more listeners if it were marketed as a mystery podcast? Possibly. But I completely understand Shields leaning into the true crime theme, as there wouldn’t be much mystery left after the first three or four episodes.

And yes, the moment when he tells the Sony executive to clear his diary felt absolutely silly. It didn’t take me out of the series though.
 
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Well while y'all hate, I will appreciate. So what that he told the Sony executive that he knew before the fake track premiered on the website to clear his schedule for the day so that he could meet up with him in person 🤷 I tell you y'all on internet always want to pick a beef, quick criticize and start stuff with people that are doing the good work that your ass don't want to get out and do. I actually applaud Damien for trying to use his resources to try to stop this track breaking news for going further. Can any of y'all say the same thing?
 
Dtwmjj said:
Well while y'all hate, I will appreciate. So what that he told the Sony executive that he knew before the fake track premiered on the website to clear his schedule for the day so that he could meet up with him in person 🤷 I tell you y'all on internet always want to pick a beef, quick criticize and start stuff with people that are doing the good work that your ass don't want to get out and do. I actually applaud Damien for trying to use his resources to try to stop this track breaking news for going further. Can any of y'all say the same thing?
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Nobody is "hating", you can wipe that nonsense straight out of your vocabulary. It's just objectively true that he has changed some stances on things and did things for reasons that are not very understandable by any angle except financial gain. And that's fine with me personally, I'm cool with whatever.

If Damien does something YOU don't like, we'll see if you're still accommodating him or affording him any justification based off of his "good work" or not.
 
The presentation being repetitive to the point of annoyance was not a major issue to me. I skipped ahead those parts when that became a clear pattern.

That Damien and the team is biased towards MJ and his fans, in such an obvious case of art forgery, should be a good thing. It shows "our side" can do good journalistic work, even involving forensic science to reveal the truth.

There's one thing concerning this general bias that I don't agree much with, that be more controversial and I'm mulling over how to express it... (will probably try in a later post)

Damien (and kudos to his whole team) obviously payed a lot with his hard work to be able to share and contribute as much to the fan community as he does and has for many years. To me, it's a whole different thing to "leak" quite high quality snippets, especially in a very rigorous investigation of art forgery. He clearly isn't a trader who gate keeps stuff but someone trying to respect the honor and rights of Michael and his heirs, AND the wishes of us fans. This is all very rare, it seems.

As has been said before, the economical cost he's down will probably outweigh whatever he may get back. I'm happy if all this work gets wider recognition beyond MJ fan circles. It's well deserved. Even academic study, and I think it actually partly aims for such a reach.

Some may disagree but when he tried contacting Branca et al. about this affair, I feel he represented a lot of us. Confronting and laying bare all these power dynamics deserves at least my credit.
 
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Sensual visionary said:
The presentation being repetitive to the point of annoyance was not a major issue to me. I skipped ahead those parts when that became a clear pattern.

That Damien and the team is biased towards MJ and his fans, in such an obvious case of art forgery, should be a good thing. It shows "our side" can do good journalistic work, even involving forensic science to reveal the truth.

There's one thing concerning this general bias that I don't agree much with, that be more controversial and I'm mulling over how to express it... (will probably try in a later post)

Damien (and kudos to his whole team) obviously payed a lot with his hard work to be able to share and contribute as much to the fan community as he does and has for many years. To me, it's a whole different thing to "leak" quite high quality snippets, especially in a very rigorous investigation of art forgery. He clearly isn't a trader who gate keeps stuff but someone trying to respect the honor and rights of Michael and his heirs, AND the wishes of us fans. This is all very rare, it seems.

As has been said before, the economical cost he's down will probably outweigh whatever he may get back. I'm happy if all this work gets wider recognition beyond MJ fan circles. It's well deserved. Even academic study, and I think it actually partly aims for such a reach.

Some may disagree but when he tried contacting Branca et al. about this affair, I feel he represented a lot of us. Confronting and laying bare all these power dynamics deserves at least my credit.
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Absolutely. Calling this a leak is complete nonsense. The snippets were used purely for investigative purposes. Shields made an effort to show rather than just tell the story, and that added another layer to the podcast, which I enjoyed.
Sensual visionary said:
Some may disagree but when he tried contacting Branca et al. about this affair, I feel he represented a lot of us. Confronting and laying bare all these power dynamics deserves at least my credit.
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I can only speak for myself, but I wasn’t criticizing him for reaching out to the people involved in the case. I simply pointed out that telling a Sony executive to clear his diary was too much, especially since this person didn’t have direct influence over the release.
 
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AlwaysThere said:
I’ve always felt that Damien was very self-aggrandizing, but this just takes the cake. I’m happy to have snippets of “Monster” and “Water,” but does anyone else remember when Damien denounced leaking MJ’s unfinished music? And now here he is, on a podcast he professionally benefits from and draws attention to his name, leaking MJ’s unfinished music. It’s hypocrisy at its highest order.
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Exactly. Totally hypocritical. I think he doesn’t want the music to leak so he can feel special.
 
Inthestudiowithmj said:
Exactly. Totally hypocritical. I think he doesn’t want the music to leak so he can feel special.
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Come one guys. Stop looking at this from an “unreleased music” perspective. This is bigger than that. Its bigger than a few seconds of unheard music, which was clearly used as part of the investigation and to SHOW the listeners how songs with the same titles differs and are not the same (since some people insist that they are which he mentions as well). I don’t think he did it to tease fans lol.

From what I've seen so far is that some people are so hyper focused on the unreleased music portions that they forget what this podcast is really about. It’s not about unreleased music, point blank. In my honest opinion I think he did a great, great job with this. Sure, somethings I could live without, but this is the type of stuff that really needs to be pushed to the forefront.
 
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Themidwestcowboy said:
Come one guys. Stop looking at from an “unreleased music” perspective. This is bigger than that. Its bigger than a few seconds of unheard music, which was clearly used as part of the investigation and to SHOW the listeners how songs with the same titles differs and are not the same (since some people insist that they are which he mentions as well). I don’t think he did it to tease fans lol.

From what I've seen so far is that some people are so hyper focused on the unreleased music portions that they forget what this podcast is really about. It’s not about unreleased music, point blank. In my honest opinion I think he did a great, great job with this. Sure, somethings I could live without, but this is the type of stuff that really needs to be pushed to the forefront.
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Exactly. This is NOT a regular MJ video made by a community member. It’s a professionally produced project that investigates a fraud involving none other than Michael Jackson. It’s on a much larger scale. That’s also why I’m taking the time to give such detailed opinions and analysis.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
Come one guys. Stop looking at from an “unreleased music” perspective. This is bigger than that. Its bigger than a few seconds of unheard music, which was clearly used as part of the investigation and to SHOW the listeners how songs with the same titles differs and are not the same (since some people insist that they are which he mentions as well). I don’t think he did it to tease fans lol.

From what I've seen so far is that some people are so hyper focused on the unreleased music portions that they forget what this podcast is really about. It’s not about unreleased music, point blank. In my honest opinion I think he did a great, great job with this. Sure, somethings I could live without, but this is the type of stuff that really needs to be pushed to the forefront.
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Even so, it still broadcasts unfinished and unreleased MJ music to the masses. Regardless of the purpose, he’s still doing the exact thing he discouraged.

Having finished the series (at least the available episodes), I still think it’s excessive and overly repetitive. Three or four episodes max, with much of the fluff cut out, and maybe it’d be better. But as it stands, this is a very niche topic for a podcast that (in my opinion) was very poorly executed.
 
AlwaysThere said:
Even so, it still broadcasts unfinished and unreleased MJ music to the masses. Regardless of the purpose, he’s still doing the exact thing he discouraged.

Having finished the series (at least the available episodes), I still think it’s excessive and overly repetitive. Three or four episodes max, with much of the fluff cut out, and maybe it’d be better. But as it stands, this is a very niche topic for a podcast that (in my opinion) was very poorly executed.
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I agree with the last part. This could have been produced in a much better way with a more engaging structure. However, claiming that Shields is broadcasting unreleased MJ music to the masses is simply unfair. The snippets are less than 10 seconds long and are clearly used for investigative purposes. From your message, it sounds as he's streaming the full unreleased songs on his podcast, which isn't the case.
 
alanram said:
Absolutely. Calling this a leak is complete nonsense. The snippets were used purely for investigative purposes. Shields made an effort to show rather than just tell the story, and that added another layer to the podcast, which I enjoyed.
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Is that better for general audiences or the hardcore fan? That seems the most like what the subject debate is about.
 
Themidwestcowboy said:
Come one guys. Stop looking at from an “unreleased music” perspective. This is bigger than that. Its bigger than a few seconds of unheard music, which was clearly used as part of the investigation and to SHOW the listeners how songs with the same titles differs and are not the same (since some people insist that they are which he mentions as well). I don’t think he did it to tease fans lol.

From what I've seen so far is that some people are so hyper focused on the unreleased music portions that they forget what this podcast is really about. It’s not about unreleased music, point blank. In my honest opinion I think he did a great, great job with this. Sure, somethings I could live without, but this is the type of stuff that really needs to be pushed to the forefront.
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(y)

Haven't listened to the podcast and have never paid enough attention to Damien to have an opinion on him, one way or another.

Re-posting Damien's tweets as FYI bc I think this is the point:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1840185317443416570

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1840203969009987992
 
A big thank you to Damien Shields for this outstanding piece of work. I get the critique that at times it’s a tad repetitive but I’ve experienced that before with similar types of series’ and ultimately it’s not a major issue for me.
Honestly, I was enthralled and learned a hell of a lot about what actually went on behind the scenes. This is a major piece of work in my opinion and Damien ought to be commended for it. It’s very well done.
If any of the armchair critics on here can deliver something of a higher standard then I’m all ears. I doubt it though. Easy to criticise and nitpick, less easy to pour years of your heart and soul into a project of this size. Well done Damien.
 
I don't quite get what Damien and his research team could get from this. There is no money involved. They're putting this on a podcast for free. The only way he can get money from it is if you purchase the book version. Also he's been threatened because Eddie Cascio, James Porte, John Branca and John McClain are monsters. They are animals. If he was biased towards any party you would think he would've talk about the will is fake. How Branca and McClain not only popped up out of nowhere after Michael's death but were fired long before.

It still makes me mad they tarnished and destroyed his estate.
 
Dtwmjj said:
I don't quite get what Damien and his research team could get from this. There is no money involved. They're putting this on a podcast for free. The only way he can get money from it is if you purchase the book version. Also he's been threatened because Eddie Cascio, James Porte, John Branca and John McClain are monsters. They are animals. If he was biased towards any party you would think he would've talk about the will is fake.
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This is the most reasonable post in this thread.
 
dam2040 said:

August 2022. Teddy Riley admits they're fake, but still lies through his teeth because "the family gave him their blessings".
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3m 12s - 'What do you expect me to do?'

Show some integrity?

Haven't seen this footage in ages. Had forgotten how 'interesting' his body language is, especially at the beginning.
 
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