AFP, February 16, 2001Michael Jackson's father recommends spanking children
VIENNA, Feb 15: The father of pop star Michael Jackson has told an Austrian newspaper that he believes there would be less crime if parents regularly spanked their children.
"There wouldn't be so much crime these days if parents were prepared to punish their kids a little and take care that they stay on the right track," Joseph Jackson, 73, said in the German-language daily News today.
A father of nine, Jackson said this method had made his son Michael, 41, "one of the best artists in the world", ahead of his younger sibling Janet.
Joseph Jackson was in Vienna to launch a new firm called Royal Distribution, which will sell CD vending machines.