These days, testimony is being heard in a Los Angeles courtroom in a wrongful death suit brought by Jackson family members against AEG. According to The New York Times, the suit "hinges on the narrow question of whether Jackson or the company was responsible for hiring Dr. Conrad Murray, who administered the anesthetic that killed Jackson in June 2009. Dr. Murray is serving a four-year prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter."

During the Murray trial, Randy Phillips, the chief executive of AEG Live, told how the idea of the Jackson tour was spawned. As reported in the Los Angeles Times, Phillips said that the concert tour "grew out of a 2008 phone call from Philip Anschutz, .... [who] asked him to meet with Century City financier Tom Barrack, whose company had recently purchased a note on Jackson's Neverland ranch."

Whatever testimony might be elicited during the course of the current trial, it is doubtful that the Anschutz name will surface often, if at all.

The Anschutz Empire

Over the years, Anschutz has avoided the public spotlight while amassing his fortune and supporting conservative institutions, candidates and causes, including Colorado's controversial anti-gay Amendment 2 campaign. He's also supported the Discovery Institute in Seattle, a major proponent of Intelligence Design.
Thus far this year, according to OpenSecrets.org, Anschutz has contributed $21,500 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee, $5200 to House Speaker John Boehner and another $15,000 to three other Republicans.

Over the years, he has also contributed to: Brent Bozell's right-wing Media Research Center; the New York-based Institute for American Values; Enough is Enough, a conservative philanthropy-supported organization that campaigns for marriage and against single parenting, which claims to be "Lighting the way to protect children and families from the dangers of illegal Internet pornography and sexual predators"; and, Morality in the Media, established in 1962 "to combat obscenity and uphold decency standards in the media."

On its list of world billionaires in March of this year, Forbes magazine had Anschutz ranked number 38 in the U.S. and number 109 in the world with a net worth of $10 billion. Although he has made "fortunes in oil, railroads and telecom," these days, according to Forbes, "his biggest bets are in entertainment" .

In its profile of Anschutz, Forbes noted that: "Through AEG, he operates dozens of the world's greatest concert venues like the Staples Center and Nokia Theater in L.A., London's O2, and Shanghai's Mercedes-Benz Arena. He fills his halls with his own in-house entertainment, including the L.A. Lakers and NHL's L.A. Kings. His music division manages rock stars like Justin Bieber, Enrique Iglesias and Jennifer Lopez. His film division has produced the Chronicles of Narnia series. New deal: AEG partnered with Ryan Seacrest and Mark Cuban to rebrand HDNet as a new TV network called AXS. It will feature lots of live entertainment from AEG's venues. AXS is also the name of AEG's new no-fee ticketing venture to compete with Ticketmaster."

Through his Clarity Media Group (CMG), Anschutz owns a number of media entities. In 2005, he started the free circulation Washington Examiner, a volubly conservative newspaper. In June of this year, CMG announced it was laying off 70 percent of the Examiner's staff and scrapping local media coverage, focusing instead on plans to move the paper to an online business model with a weekly print magazine, which will focus on national political reporting and commentary.

CMG bought the neoconservative Weekly Standard in 2009. It also owns The Gazette newspaper in Colorado Springs, the state's second-largest daily newspaper, and The Oklahoman, the daily newspaper of Oklahoma City, and Red Alert Politics, which describes itself as "an online publication written by and for young conservatives."

Anschutz has made his mark on Hollywood films as well. Last fall, Anschutz's Walden Media produced "Won't Back Down" - starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Oscar Isaac, Holly Hunter -- which, according the Campaign for America's Future's OurFuture.org, "portrays so-called `Parent Trigger' laws as an effective mechanism for transforming underperforming public schools".

"While Parent Trigger was first promoted by a small charter school operator in California, it was taken up and launched into hyperdrive by two controversial right-wing organizations: the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Heartland Institute," OurFuture.org reported.

The Anschutz Foundation is intimately tied to ALEC according
to OurFuture.org: "In 2010, The Anschutz Foundation, gave ALEC $10,000 and his Union Pacific firm was an ALEC sponsor the following year. The Foundation funded three ALEC members who sat on the ALEC Education Task Force which approved the Parent Trigger Proposal: The Independence Institute, Center for Education Reform, and Pacific Research Institute."

Walden is not a novice in pushing school privatization plans, as it was one of the producers of the pro-charter documentary film "Waiting for `Superman'." Neither "Won't Back Down" ($5.3 million) nor "Waiting for `Superman'," ($6.4 million) performed well at the box office, but the latter received an enormous amount of publicity from tight-wing think tanks and the conservative media.

AEG on Trial

In previous legal proceedings, most notably the one against Dr. Conrad Murray, Anschutz escaped unharmed by any revelations. And even though Jackson died before the tour started, Anschutz's company hasn't lost money. During Murray's trial, Westword.com's Michael Roberts questioned whether "the case's revelations [would] splash back on ... Anschutz, who stood to profit handsomely had Jackson been able to headline the tour he was financing?" Roberts also wondered whether Anschutz would take a financial bath because of Jackson's death.

According to Roberts, "Anschutz was able to turn these fiscal minuses into a plusses. By late October, he'd reportedly made back the $36 million the non-tour cost him by selling `This Is It' rehearsal footage to Sony for over $60 million. And he also had a sizable piece of the `This Is It' movie, which proved to be a cash cow as well." The film has grossed over $260 million.

Questions about Jackson's comeback tour and death abound. Apparently he was motivated to make the comeback because of enormous financial pressures. The New York Times reported that "At the time of his death, Jackson was more than $500 million in debt and faced the loss of his financial lifeline: a 50 percent stake in Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which controls most of the Beatles catalog."

According to KABC in Los Angeles, "AEG's defense says [previous drug incidents show] that Jackson developed a practice of using propofol years before he met Dr. Conrad Murray or contemplated a comeback tour. The plaintiffs say that AEG executives were aware of Jackson's stint in rehab and should have monitored him more closely."

The Denver, Colorado-based and Kansas-born Anschutz is, as always, sitting in the catbird seat. His Los Angeles enterprises, his firm grip on the Denver business community, his billionaire status has rendered him an untouchable. Nevertheless, it remains fair to ask: Did Anschutz's AEG push an financially disabled, out-of-shape, drug-taking Jackson to the brink?