Category: CNN Network

Friday, June 12, 2009

Trial: CNN Reports Defendant Claimed Questioned While On Drugs

Posted by Peter Quennell

Click above for the report by CNN Rome’s Hada Messia.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Influential Legal Talking Head Nancy Grace Of CNN Is Now On The Case

Posted by Skeptical Bystander

[Click the arrow above, and then drag the time button to the 5-minute mark.]


Nancy Grace [image at bottom] runs a wildly popular CNN crime talk-show.

It is the companion program to the wildly popular show of Jane Velez-Mitchell that is already on the Perugia case.

A couple of days ago Nancy was on another wildly popular show, ABC’s The View, talking about the Perugia case. The View reaches three and a half million viewers daily, remarkable for a daytime show.

I think we can all agree that Nancy Grace does not mince her words. Nancy proceeds methodically here, presenting these relevant facts:

• Age of the victim and the American suspect
• A description of the relationship between the victim and her American roommate
• Knox’s statement to police that she was present when her roommate was killed
• Knox’s subsequent claim that she was coerced into making the statement, rather weakened by her assertion that she had smoked pot on the night of the crime and was therefore confused
• The key physical evidence placing Knox at the scene (the knife and the mixed blood).

Nancy then closes the segment with these observations on the case:

• She says Knox was “obviously” involved in the murder.
• She notes that the victim was tortured and sexually assaulted prior to being murdered.
• She ends by bringing up two other seemingly unlikely murder suspects: Ted Bundy and Scott Peterson.

This came just two days after the antic Paul Ciolino fundraiser which got extensive coverage in Seattle.

Nancy’s compelling intervention on The View could not have exactly pleased the David Marriott PR team or the Friends of Amanda who organized the fundraiser.

Nancy’s appearance also coincided with the release of the much-awaited and very detailed report of Judge Paolo Micheli (post below) on the Guede sentencing. It was Judge Micheli who had decided after a preliminary hearing that there was ample evidence against Knox and Sollecito to send them to trial.

The wheels really seem to be coming off the media effort at this new development.

We already see anew the reflexive barrage of protests from Friends supporters in Seattle. Candace Dempsey, the Seattle blogger who signed a book deal with Penguin to make money out of Meredith’s murder, attended the Saturday night Friends fundraiser for Amanda Knox.

But in her very next post, rather than describe her wonderful night with Mr Ciolino, she weighed in on Judge Micheli’s ruling. The title of her post is quite ludicrous: Why would she [meaning Amanda] let a killer in?

Well, Rudy was not actually a killer at the point when Amanda Knox allegedly let him in. And he was not convicted until months later. Is this really too subtle a point to be grasped?

And there’s more. On the NBC Today show on Wednesday morning, a visibly agitated Anne Bremner claimed to bemused host Matt Lauer that Judge Micheli was guilty of “theorizing” (gasp!)

She then changed tactics in a way frequently observed of the Friends PR effort: Oops! Change the story-line being propagated.

Perhaps a Lone Wolf or a Spiderman didn’t actually enter the cottage through the window? Bremner “theorized” that perhaps it was Meredith who opened the door to Guede?

Do I hear Candace Dempsey shouting “Why would she let a killer in?” Never mind! Remember Jonathan Demme’s terrific Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense?

It looks to me like some people have really heeded that command.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Influential Legal Talking Head Jane Velez-Mitchell of CNN Is Now On The Case

Posted by Peter Quennell

[click above for the transcript]

CNN airs two one-hour crime talk-shows nightly. Nancy Grace’s, and Jane Velez-Mitchell’s.

They are wildly popular in the US, and the shows can be real scene-changers.

Nancy and Jane are INTENSE advocates for and defenders of victims’ rights - something this case could use some of, right now. 

They have very little patience for defendants who make a weak case or lie. And if they see tricks going down, in the courtroom or outside, they will leap on the case like a dog on a bone.

Usually for days or weeks, and sometimes for months.

Jane has clearly concluded that tricks are going down in the Meredith case. She is becoming very, very scathing in her increasingly frequent segments.

The first time we caught Jane on the case, she was working over a confused, stuttering Peter Popham of the Independent - that’s a great comment below his absurd piece, by the way.

You could watch Jane’s skepticism growing, minute by minute. Last night, her show aimed its spotlight at the opening session of the trial.

Click on the shot above for the astonishing discussion.