“What about the children who have suffered in Iraq?”

Harry Belafonte is defending Michael Jackson, and condemning the media:

Calypso singer and civil-rights promoter Harry Belafonte was in Nairobi when he spoke out praising Jackson, saying that “no single individual has had influence in the world” like the embattled pop star, who is facing child molestation charges.

“Michael Jackson is innocent until proven guilty by the court of law,” Belafonte [said] . . .

“I cannot charge my colleague on the basis of media reports and television programs.”

Belafonte also lashed out at American news organizations’ “insatiable appetite” for the Jackson scandal.

“This is [a] travesty of journalism,” he said. “It is inappropriate for the media to start asking what ifs and what abouts [about Jackson]. What about the children who suffered in Iraq?”

     I agree: It is much more important for the media to talk about the children who suffered in Iraq — and about how the liberation of Iraq has dramatically increased their prospects for free speech, religious freedom, the right to vote, and other civil rights — than to focus on Michael Jackson.