Michael Jackson’s Estate Outraged By Autopsy Reenactment

Executors of the late Michael Jackson’s estate aren’t that ‘thrilled’ with The Discovery Channel at the moment.

Executors of the late pop star’s estate sent an outraged letter to Discovery Communications today, expressing their, outrage over plans to air Michael Jackson’s Autopsy: What Really Killed Michael Jackson, which would feature an imagined reenactment of Jackson’s autopsy, on Jan. 13 in Europe.

“Your decision to even schedule this program is in shockingly bad taste, insensitive to Michael’s family, and appears motivated solely by your blind desire to exploit Michael’s death, while cynically attempting to dupe the public into believing this show will have serious medical value,” wrote coexecutors John Branca and John McClain.

Branca and McClain made an interesting point however when they expressed the most outrage towards the “sickening” print advertisement for the special, which depicts a corpse on a gurney with a hand clad in a spangly white glove poking out from beneath a sheet.

“The ad is debased, sick and insensitive,” they wrote. “No doubt this fictitious, morbid image is being spread worldwide even now on the Internet”—well, it is now!—”viewed by Michael’s loved ones, and even accepted as authentic by those who may be unaware that Discovery made it up.”

Citing the network’s history of “some of the best programming television had to offer,” Branca and McClain expressed further wonderment at how it could go ahead with something “so mind boggling,” and urged it to reconsider.

Discovery hasn’t yet responded to requests for comment. Fans started an online petition earlier this month in an attempt to get the show pulled from the schedule.

Should a show such as this air so early after the death of one of the world’s most infamous pop stars? And [I urge you to check it out if you haven’t already] is the ad for this one a bit too close to home for fans who hold Jackson dear in their heart [and may not want to imagine the pop star in such light]?