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Randy pissed off by helicopters over burial
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 7 September 2009
Randy Jackson has hit out at the news media who sent helicopters above the Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park to record the burial of his brother Michael last week.
As previously reported, Jacko was finally laid to rest in the LA cemetery on Thursday following a short private service boasting a much more celebrity audience than either the singer’s formal funeral or the big memorial bash held back in July. The Jackson family allowed TV cameras to record guests arriving at the cemetery service, and even to show guests taking to their seats, but a number of news stations also sent their helicopters overhead to get extra footage.
It’s the overhead filming Randy seems pissed off about. On Friday he called on the TV networks that commissioned the helicopters to pull any footage they recorded from their output. He said in a statement: “As a family, we are all aware of how Michael’s life, and his death, touched so many around the world. It is why we held a public memorial in my brother’s honour. And it is the reason we chose to release a small amount of footage leading up to yesterday’s ceremony at Forest Lawn. I was dismayed last night and again today at the coverage I saw on television of our ceremony for Michael. We had asked the media to respect the privacy and the sanctity of this event; to give us one moment of privacy to mourn as a family out of the public spotlight.
He continued: “Unfortunately, despite a no-fly zone around Forest Lawn, many media organisations decided to ignore our wishes. They employed helicopters that not only surreptitiously recorded our private family ceremony, but also severely disrupted it. I therefore ask today that media organisations airing helicopter footage of the ceremony we held for my brother immediately pull that footage from their air and refrain from airing it in the future”.
