February 8, 2026 — On 7 February 2026, the New York Post ran a piece claiming “Michael Jackson was a paedophile who could abuse children almost with impunity,” according to Ron Zonen, the deputy district attorney who prosecuted Jackson in 2005. The timing wasn’t exactly subtle. With Epstein documents circulating and actual documented abusers’ names being discussed, the Post pivoted to recycling debunked allegations from a prosecutor whose case collapsed spectacularly two decades ago.
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The Tabloid Economy Thrives on Familiar Villains
Michael Jackson’s nephew, Taj, called it out immediately: “The more the public talks about Epstein, the more you post about Michael Jackson. The public has caught on. I suggest you read the room.” Taj’s response pulled 152,000 likes and 25,000 retweets, absolutely burying the Post’s own engagement numbers. As for the 2005 trial, that ended with Jackson acquitted on all fourteen counts. The prosecution’s case featured a family with documented histories of making false accusations for financial gain, timeline contradictions, and “victim” testimony that contradicted prior sworn statements. The mother claimed Jackson held her family captive whilst she was simultaneously visiting spas and going shopping at Jackson’s expense.
Scapegoats, Not Subjects
More damningly, Zonen married Louise Palanker in September 2011, a prosecution witness from the case. Palanker had befriended the Arvizo family and given them $20,000, yet admitted in her police interview that she found Janet Arvizo “totally bipolar” and said “this family can be as wacky as they want to be.” Under cross-examination in court, she dismissed these statements as a comedian’s hyperbole, though they appeared in official police records. Now, two decades later, both appear together in Channel 4’s Michael Jackson: The Trial, where Zonen continues to insist he was prosecuting a paedophile whilst his wife validates his version of events.
Roger Friedman, who covered the trial for Fox News, was direct: “Ron Zonen was a terrible prosecutor. He was outplayed by Tom Mesereau. He had an obsessed boss in Tom Sneddon. Michael was clearly innocent. Did you know that Zonen married one of his witnesses?” In a follow-up, he added: “Zonen is a liar. He was also incompetent during the trial. I was there.“
So when the New York Post decides to platform Zonen in 2026, they’re simply recycling propaganda from a failed prosecutor with compromised credibility, seventeen years after Jackson’s death and two decades after losing every single charge at trial. The New York Post is Rupert Murdoch’s flagship American tabloid, part of the same ecosystem that produced the News of the World, the paper that was shut down in July 2011 due to criminal phone hacking.
Why the Story Never Ends
The author of the Post’s article, James Desborough, worked for News of the World during its most toxic era. He was arrested in August 2011 as part of Operation Weeting on suspicion of phone hacking, spending eight months on bail before being released without charge. His editor, Colin Myler, was found in contempt of Parliament for deliberately misleading MPs about widespread illegal practices. The Parliamentary committee discovered that both Myler and the paper’s lawyer, Tom Crone, had given false testimony, deliberately avoiding disclosure of crucial information about the extent of phone hacking at the tabloid.
After News of the World shut down, both Myler and Desborough migrated to American outlets. Desborough freelances for multiple publications, including the New York Post, carrying with him the institutional DNA of Murdoch tabloid journalism, and the methods are still clearly visible in his work, as Desborough’s only bylines at the Post tell the story: Jackson hit pieces in the midst of Epstein documents circulation.
Bill Bottrell, the music producer and engineer who worked on Jackson’s Dangerous album and actually knew the man, described the Post article as “shameful, cheap-ass blurb from losers sitting around a table asking each other: ‘everybody’s thinking about Epstein, what can we do to exploit that and sell clicks?’ Low lives who hate their jobs.” The Epstein case involves flight logs, witness testimony, photographs, and a conviction. The Jackson allegations involved a prosecution that couldn’t convince a single juror on a single count despite unlimited resources and a DA with a decade-long vendetta. Yet the New York Post chose to platform the latter whilst the former circulates.
But the public wasn’t having it. Readers immediately identified the timing as Epstein deflection, comments sections cited Jackson’s acquittal on all counts, and engagement overwhelmingly rejected the premise. The playbook that worked for decades crashed against a public that’s learned to spot manufactured outrage.
Time to read the room indeed, New York Post.
Photo: Unknown
Author Bio
As a freelance journalist, Ryan Smith’s work is driven by a commitment to restoring what has long been absent from institutions meant to uphold truth and accountability: honesty and transparency. Alongside his analysis works on the life, career, trials and tribulations of Michael Jackson, whose unfair treatment over the years paved the way for the path he is on, Smith also dissects and examines popular culture, such as books, movies and video games, always aiming to shed light on what’s beneath the surface.
