Jacko Defended By Brother

Michael Jackson's older brother Marlon says the media is obsessed with his brother Michael and called the current round of reports "a modern-day lynching."

In an interview Tuesday on The Early Show, Marlon Jackson said, "Everybody is trying to get their Jackson fix and here we are about to go to war. We should be talking about how we can get the world leaders together to study peace."

Marlon, who is launching his own TV network aimed at family programming, confirmed Michael's account of having an abusive father, but dismissed accusations that Michael is a poor parent or sexual predator.

Marlon was asked to provide some insight into his brother's life in the wake of a controversial TV documentary. Marlon said he did not see the 90-minute program by journalist Martin Bashir that stirred up comment because it captures Jackson saying on camera he sometimes lets children sleep in his bed.

In the voice-overs in the documentary, Bashir expressed concern about Jackson's treatment of his three children, including the baby whom Jackson dangled over a hotel balcony in Germany.

Marlon said he has not talked to Michael since the documentary aired but that his own wife has told him that Michael had mentioned to her "that he offered his bed to them and he slept on the floor and things of that nature.

"I don't see anything wrong with that," Marlon said. "The thing is that, I think the media is taking things and twisting them around. To me, I think it's a modern-day lynching."

Asked about the multimillion-dollar child sex abuse case that Michael settled in 1993, Marlon said it was done to prevent a media-circus trial. "Well, you know, everybody can have their opinion on this and their opinion on that," he said. "But the true fact is that those things didn't happen. So if you look at the truth, you'll be fine."

Marlon confirmed Michael's accounts of abuse from his father, Joe, that Michael said was most often aimed at Marlon . "My father was a disciplinarian," Marlon said. "But you know, I got lit up. Yeah, it was Christmas for me every other day."

"But, the thing about it is, is that in our neighborhood, that wasn't abnormal. And that doesn't mean that it was right either. But that's the way they disciplined in those days."

As for his brother's denials that he has had cosmetic surgery, Marlon said, "That's his body; that's his face. We weren't put on his earth to judge others, OK."

Michael Jackson's British-based lawyer said Sunday he would release a video, no more than five minutes long, in which Bashir praises the way Michael treats children, including his own. The video was shot during the making of the documentary.

In the statement, Jackson again denied that he molested a boy who had stayed at his home in 1993. No charges were filed at the time and Jackson reached a financial settlement with the boy's family.

"I have never, and would never, harm a child. It sickens me that people have written things that portray me as a child abuser," Jackson was quoted as saying.

The statement added that Jackson chose to pay a "considerable" settlement to the boy's family "to avoid being subjected to a media circus."

In the Bashir documentary, Jackson said he had slept in a bed with "many children," including actor Macaulay Culkin and his brother, Kieran.

"When you say 'bed,' you're thinking sexual," the singer said. "It's not sexual, we're going to sleep. I tuck them in. ...It's very charming, it's very sweet."