Jon LaJoie is a singer songwriter in the mold of Weird Al Yankovic. He’s also a man who tells the truth, no matter how uncomfortable that truth may be. Which makes his Michael Jackson Is Dead song very uncomfortable indeed.

Michael Jackson’s death has been the media event of the decade. Nothing on this scale has been seen since Princess Diana died in 1997. But like with her, the media has changed tact suddenly and totally, all of a sudden treating Michael Jackson as a legend who could do no wrong.

The truth, as LaJoie so tactfully tells it in this video, is that the media painted Michael Jackson as a weird freak who loved plastic surgery almost as much as he loved little boys. At least they did before he died from cardiac arrest last week.

If I’m honest with myself, I also thought of Michael Jackson in this way while appreciating his music. In death, everyone tends to forget the bad and focus on the good. It does make us all hypocrites, and the media are no exception.