The Lone Wolf of Wall Street
The Lonely Wolf of Wall Street. Just because you saw it in a magazine or on a TV screen didn't make it fact.
The documentary opened with a quote from the lyrics of "Tabloid Junkie," a track on Michael Jackson's eighth studio album, HIStory. Michael Jackson's relationship with the press had been extraordinarily toxic. His worst feud was with the British tabloid The Sun, whose appetite for sensationalism found in Jackson an endless supply of perfect material. The pattern was simple: The Sun would seed the most vicious rumors, and the rest of the yellow press would dutifully follow.
In America, Fox News— which had already targeted Yoo Jae-won on several occasions—led the charge. Every time something happened involving Michael Jackson, the network wrote about it with open malice. People absorbed those stories whether they wanted to or not, and their perception of the pop star steadily soured. The tabloid method was particularly vile: they paid anyone who had ever crossed paths with Jackson to sit for interviews, then let those sources say whatever the papers wanted to hear. The resulting articles were edited to be as inflammatory as possible. Cross-verification was nonexistent. Truth had never been the point. What mattered was that the more outrageous the claims, the more eyes landed on the page and the higher the sales climbed.
The same machinery had been used against Jordan Chandler, the boy at the center of Jackson's first child molestation accusation. Michael had spoken on the phone with the thirteen-year-old out of simple kindness, then invited the boy's family to Neverland for a party. Then, without warning, Jordan's father, Evan Chandler, filed suit alleging sexual abuse. Jackson countersued for false accusation, and the long, grinding legal battle began.
For the tabloids it was a dream come true. They ran multiple interviews with Evan Chandler, each one more lurid than the last. Facts were irrelevant; the opportunity to savage Michael Jackson was all they needed. After all, this was America—land of the free press. The First Amendment meant you could say anything, right? The idea that one person's freedom should not trample another person's basic rights seemed entirely absent from their calculations.
And the allegations were false.
As the documentary moved into its second half, it presented Evan Chandler's own words—caught on tape as he threatened Jackson and, in his rage, accidentally revealed the truth. Fragments of genuine evidence gathered by ID Group's intelligence team were also shown, though not the complete file. The trial was still underway in 2005; revealing everything too early could give the other side room to maneuver. The film closed by showing how the Los Angeles District Attorney's office, swept up in the toxic public opinion manufactured by the tabloids, had approached the case with the assumption of guilt from the very first day.
It struck the calm surface of public consciousness like a boulder the size of a house. The ripples were enormous.
A few days later, Yoo Jae-won's phone rang.
"Mr. Yu, thank you."
The voice on the other end belonged to Michael Jackson. Communication between them had existed long before the Timeflex documentary was even conceived. Yoo Jae-won had never believed the tabloid lies, so when the two men met, he displayed none of the reflexive prejudice most people of this era carried. Michael, for his part, had grown so scarred by the tabloids' tactics that he was nearly developing clinical social phobia. They offered huge sums to anyone who had ever met him, then used those paid voices to say whatever they wished. They had even twisted an interview with his own sister to make it sound as if she supported Jordan Chandler.
Yoo Jae-won, however, was untouchable. He had no financial need to sell interviews, and his stature was so absolute that no one would believe smears against him. Their few in-person meetings had been brief, but they had spoken on the phone many times.
"It was something I should have done for a friend long ago," Jae-won replied.
"That word—friend—sounds so precious. I never expected to hear it from you."
Yoo Jae-won felt the same warmth. He was grateful they had been able to act before it was too late. Yet the battle was not over. The documentary had exposed the media's behavior, but Michael Jackson's real war was still being fought in the courtroom.
"I'll be waiting for good news."
"Of course. The moment the verdict comes, you'll be the first person I tell."
There was real strength in Michael's voice now—nothing like the broken man before the regression who had needed drugs just to fall asleep under crushing stress. Just hearing that quiet confidence was enough to reassure Jae-won. Hope was a powerful thing. The belief that he could truly win had transformed Michael Jackson.
"It would be nice if the media changed too. But I suppose that's impossible."
Reactions to the Timeflex documentary were split down the middle. Half responded with common sense—new evidence had emerged, so the trial should be watched carefully. The other half claimed Yoo Jae-won was manipulating the narrative to protect his business partner. A tiny fringe even suggested the whole thing was an attempt to distract from ID Group's supposed losses in subprime CDO investments.
They didn't dare publish outright lies; ID Group's power was too great. But in Jae-won's eyes they were hyenas, circling, waiting for any sign of weakness so they could tear into him.
By the time December arrived, the final month of 2005, the economic press was filled with stories of the astronomical bonus parties taking place on Wall Street. News of fund managers receiving millions in bonuses had become routine. The numbers were now so large that hundreds of millions seemed ordinary. Only when the heads of funds like Quantum or Tiger received tens of millions did it make headlines.
Among them all, Lehman Brothers threw the most lavish feast. The exact total was kept secret to avoid controversy, but when word leaked that CFO Aaron Fuld—the man who had designed the subprime mortgage derivatives—had received a $100 million bonus, the scale of the party became clear.
It was the kind of news that inspired envy in everyone else. To Yoo Jae-won, it only looked grotesque. These people were throwing a debt party with money scraped together from ordinary citizens' savings.
Yet he had good news of his own.
Evan Chandler Sued for False Accusation!
The documentary had reversed public opinion. In the trial that followed, Michael Jackson—armed with overwhelming evidence—achieved a complete turnaround. The materials submitted destroyed the prosecution's logic and satisfied the jury's demand for truth. The verdict was unanimous: not guilty on all counts of child molestation. Evan Chandler, by contrast, now faced charges of false accusation and a massive civil damages lawsuit. The harm done to Michael Jackson's life and reputation had been astronomical.
Dozens of others who had tried similar extortion schemes were also named. So were the tabloids that had interviewed them and published lies as fact. A wave of criticism against the mass media followed—the backlash against years of manufacturing sensationalism purely for clicks.
Right on cue, President Henry of Nextcom delivered his report.
History function implementation complete. Beta version now available on news page prior to full rollout.
"I'll take a look!"
Jae-won opened a browser and navigated to the Nextcom news page. A new tab labeled BETA glowed invitingly among the monochrome category tabs. He clicked it.
The redesigned page greeted him with improved fonts for better readability and a smarter article layout. Popular pieces still rose according to clicks, but now stories reflecting the issues netizens cared about most were also algorithmically elevated to the top. The crucial difference was that this ranking was performed automatically by AI Gold and its specialized algorithms rather than human editors.
After examining the overall layout, Jae-won turned his attention to the new History function. His cursor drifted to the most-clicked article about Michael Jackson's acquittal, titled "Now Is the Time to Listen to MJ's Voice." The byline belonged to Charles Brown. When he hovered over the headline, a sidebar slid open showing every previous article the reporter had written on the subject.
Caught in the act. The same journalist now writing favorably about Jackson had once parroted Evan Chandler's claims verbatim. The true power of the History function wasn't simply showing old articles—it synthesized everything a writer had published on the same topic or keyword. Brown's dramatic flip in tone made him the perfect showcase.
By contrast, the journalists who had covered subprime mortgages—the very reason the feature had been created—displayed perfect consistency.
Stable Housing Market!
Most Promising Investment Sector Next Year as Well!
Subprime Default Scale Not Large Enough to Cause Concern.
They wrote like fervent believers in the myth of real estate's invincibility. Jae-won would have bet his entire fortune that these same writers would flip their positions the moment the subprime crisis exploded. But now, thanks to the History function, ordinary readers could see their past words with a single click.
Whether it was the Michael Jackson case or the coming subprime disaster, people who had been burned would lose faith in legacy media forever. The only regret was that no credible alternative had yet risen to fill the vacuum.
"That's unfortunate," Jae-won murmured.
He had witnessed the evolution of media with his own eyes. He knew exactly what would replace newspapers and network news. But knowing and implementing a solution were two different things. The vacuum had been filled by individuals—bloggers, YouTubers, influencers—who eventually wielded more influence than traditional outlets. No amount of money or planning could artificially manufacture trusted voices like that.
"I just need to do what I can."
Instead, Jae-won focused on the best countermeasures he could prepare for the coming storm. Chief among them was Adam McKay's new film, which had finished casting smoothly and was already in production. Because it was financed entirely by Jae-won's personal investment, detailed progress reports arrived like clockwork. The production had received full support—including use of the ID Investment Building in Manhattan and his San Francisco residence as filming locations.
McKay promised an accelerated release as early as next summer.
Today's report contained the latest poster concepts.
"The title's been changed..."
The composition—featuring Vincent Greenhill with his signature white hair alongside other key figures—was almost identical to what Jae-won remembered. Only the title had been altered.
The Lonely Wolf of Wall Street.
There could be no more perfect description of Vincent Greenhill: the man who had sensed the danger in subprime mortgages and boldly bet on the collapse.