I don't think anybody is slandering MJ as a child rapist. The two boys, now men, he had sex with don't describe it that way at all. They describe it as essentially consensual--something they want to do at the time; something they "shared" with MJ, who was a kind of god to them, but who was also emotionally manipulative in the extreme.
Boys that age, of course, can't give consent, as we define it, and for good reason. When I saw them on Oprah, I saw two guys who are still trying to make sense of what happened to them as boys. I didn't see the whole interview, but at no point did they suggest that MJ raped or otherwise violently violated them.
That's not the problem. That's not what damns him. What damns him is that he did what he did--which is to say, what they're now describing. He consorted with notably underaged boys. He used his power to violate them in that way, and he broke the law when he did so.