[Update at end of post]
Remember the Jan Moir article trashing the memory of Stephen Gately? Well, now we have another in the long line of Daily Mail hacks taking their turn on the cab rank to produce character assassination to order. This time, in an unpleasant parallel with the Colin Stagg case – one where Paul Dacre never apologised – we have the odious Amanda Platell putting the boot into Amanda Knox.
“What is it about Amanda Knox that so chills the blood?” asks Platell. Can’t be the name, I suppose? Go on, Mandy, enlighten us. “We should be happy for her, the innocent victim ... but there is something disquieting about Amanda Knox” she goes on, before the inevitable “I’m not saying for a moment I think she’s guilty – I simply don’t know”. Yeah, right.
And there’s more: “While Meredith’s family was learning the shocking details of her death, Amanda was performing cartwheels and handstands while being questioned about the murder” ... “Is it just kooky or genuinely spooky? She repeatedly changed her story and accused an innocent man to save her own skin” ... “Oscar-winning performance in court”.
This is then juxtaposed with the supposed way in which Meredith Kercher died, making the very clear inference that Knox was responsible. And then comes the payoff: “In the coming months we’ll get to see a lot more of Foxy Knoxy as she sells her story for millions and helps write the script for her Hollywood movie. She will no doubt portray herself as a cross between Mother Theresa and Angelina Jolie”.
That’s enough, thanks Mandy. Not only are you a stinking coward – asking “how high?” when your legendarily foul mouthed editor orders you to jump – you are also utterly devoid of any journalistic principle. Your “article” contains so little that is factual that it does not even qualify as informed comment. It is vindictive filth of the lowest kind. It is repellent, nauseating and smug in equal measure.
How hacks like Platell can shamelessly sit there on The Andy Marr Show (tm) sofa and smile at the camera – and God knows, she’ll be there again before long, though He alone knows why – while disgorging poisonous bullshit like this is no doubt what sets them apart from ordinary, decent human beings. But it does not excuse this article, the one from Moir on Gately, or anything else in the genre.
It is not good enough. And it is high time this kind of mean-spirited attack hackery ended. For good.
[UPDATE October 7 1800 hours: the Mail cannot let go of this story. There has been another piece co-authored by the now discredited Nick Pisa - the one whose by-line appeared on the "guilty" article posted by mistake and containing manufactured quotes - and my mention of Jan Moir has brought the appalling Glenda out of the woodwork with the obligatory loaded comment piece. The Mail is having difficulty preventing itself descending into self-parody, so similar is this to the aftermath of Colin Stagg's aquittal following the collapse of the Rachel Nickell trial, and running this serious of "she did it anyway" articles will not help the Kercher family one bit. But more papers may be sold - which is the real reason for continuing the attack. Paul Dacre and his obedient hacks couldn't give a stuff about the Kerchers]
19 comments:
I am not sure where you are going with this, tbh.
I hate the DM as much as any sane person (well, sane-ish), but I can't help finding Knox deeply unsympathetic, and I can't help but draw the conclusion that she knows how Meredith Kercher died, and was involved in some capacity. The fact that some lawyers have managed to convince a jury that there is enough reasonable doubt to release her does not change that.
It seems to me that in your haste to join the hate the DM bandwagon that really seems to be gathering momentum right now that you have picked your target poorly.
The various legal systems worldwide are rubbish, and this decision has less to do with justice, and more to do with spin.
I think the DM (or anyone) has a right to espouse these opinions - what are we supposed to do - assume that they got it right, just like courts did with OJ Simpson, or William Kennedy Jr?
Meredith Kercher's family still haven't found the truth about her death - and Knox knows what the truth is. And now Kercher's family can only watch whilst Knox becomes a millionaire on the back of their daughter's death.
It's all really fucked up, but don't make the mistake of thinking just because the DM says it, that it is dangerous right wing nonsense.
Hello - why not reply to me instead of running to Twitter? Do you want a debate, or do you want to score cheap points by misrepresenting me on social networking sites?
This is just typical of the utter lack of substance that goes for debate these days.
I did not say that I "believe" the DM - I just said that legal systems are so bereft of justice and truth that I don't think we should necessarily accept that someone who was a murderer last week is not one this.
I have qualified my comments - having followed the trial carefully both times, I stand by my comments that Knox was complicit in the murder of Meredith Kercher, and that she has retained knowledge (and blamed others) to save herself.
I could be wrong, of course.
But I am allowed to have an opinion, and, like it or not, so is a rag like the DM, and the fact that I may share some common ground with them on this does not mean I "believe" them - I drew this conclusion without their help, you know.
Mat, this is a blog on which readers can post comments. I have published a post and you have been allowed to post your comments. That is all.
The previous comment was removed to prevent other blog readers from losing the will to live.
I refer the commenter to my previous observation.
I wonder when Mat will work out that he's just been caught hook, line and sinker?
Hey - enlighten me, Neil!
Not just yet, evidently.
More excess verbiage has been removed to prevent the wasting of bandwidth.
I know very little about the details of this case. I intend to put that right in the next couple of days before making up my mind and in this day and age, there's there's really no excuse not to; if anyone can point me in the direction of the best two documentaries pro- and anti-Knox as a starting point to get me up to speed, along with any online resources with scans of the court paperwork and evidence file, I would be really grateful.
@16, one resource you might look at is this:
http://injusticeinperugia.blogspot.com/2011/09/amanda-knox-and-architects-of-foxy.html
to put alongside the Daily Mail line which is, roughly, "She did it anyway".
Nick Pisa was the hack whose "guilty" story with accompanying fabricated quotes was published on MailOnline the other day.
I'm not sure where you might find any of the court documents, though.
I'll take a look at that now, many thanks.
For the court documents, go to the Guardian.co.uk and check out the comments thread to Deborah Orr's excellent sum up of the tabloids (and by all means broadsheet as well, see Libby Purves amazingly misogynistic column on Times Online in 2009...) defamatory and completely factually incorrect coverage of the case. Several sources are quoted within the comments, both from the botched original trial as well as full a report of the appeal. Mat Baker: you clearly have NOT followed this case, as you have come to such a deluded conclusion. Maybe it's worth looking at your own self instead, asking yourself the uncomfortable question as to WHY you have managed to actually believe, against all the evidence, that the forensic experts, judges and counsel of the appeal court are wrong, but you are right? Are you sure there is no sneaky misogynism lurking in the back waters of your brain? Some subconscious willingness to believe all the hype we've all been brainwashed ever since this murder took place? Howcome you find Knox so unsympathetic while not Sollecito, who was also implicated and sentenced over this crime? It is indeed a shame that Meredith Kercher had to be wrapped up in the same flurry of bias and women-hatred that brought about her death, in the very attempts supposed to find justice for her. If you had truly followed the case you would not allow yourself ''opinions'' like these.
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