Category: Hoaxers: media groups
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Slanted Associated Press Paroting Of Knox PR Campaign Release Achieves Over 800 Google Hits
Posted by Peter Quennell
Click above for Marta Falconi’s rather slanted AP report.
At time of posting it appears on at least 800 news websites. It opens with these paragraphs sympathetic to Knox’s Christmas plight:
The family of an American student accused of killing her British roommate says she is heading into her second Christmas in jail disappointed at a trial delay but “holding up pretty well under the circumstances”.
Knox is planning to attend an in-jail Christmas Day Mass, the family said in a recent statement emailed to The Associated Press.
Visitors are not allowed to bring in wrapped presents, but Knox’s parents are trying to get her “warm sheets, slippers, cold weather underwear, wool socks and a sweater.”
Trial delay? Of course the trial might have happened very much faster if (1) the defendants had not told several differing stories, (2) the crime scene had not been extensively rearranged to make it look like a sole-perpetrator crime, and (3) more and more witnesses had not kept coming forward.
But the AP story does not mention any of this.
It instead implies that the Italian slowness is unfair. But luckily, our plucky heroine “is holding up pretty well under the circumstances.”
Then we get this single sentence - one suggesting cold indifference - on the Christmas plight of Meredith Kercher’s sad, bereft family.
For their part, Kercher’s family will be spending their second Christmas without Meredith.
Finally, to their slight credit, the Associated Press conclude with the prosecutor’s scenario of the crime.
Prosecutors allege that Kercher was killed during what began as a sex game, with Sollecito holding her by the shoulders from behind while Knox touched her with the point of a knife. They say Guede tried to sexually assault Kercher, and then Knox fatally stabbed her in the throat.
Prosecutors say Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of a knife that might have been used in the slaying, while Kercher’s DNA was found on the blade.
For that slight attempt at corrective balance, we reckon Falconi’s story rates an E grade rather than an F.
The AP is notorious for parroting press releases rather than for doing any real digging. American newspapers are relying on it more and more as they cut back on their own reporting operations..
It is the main source for news and analysis of Meredith’s case for most American newspapers. The case reporting has been spasmodic and indifferent at best. To its credit, the New York Times has not usually published the AP releases.
The Associated Press would welcome your feedback on the story here. So would the 800-plus newspaper sites that carried the story.
They do pay for AP’s reporting, of course.
Posted by Peter Quennell on 12/24/08 at 03:10 PM •
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Archived in The officially involved, News media & movies, Hoaxes against Italy, 12 Rabid media hoax, Hoaxes Knox & team, 20 No-PR hoax, Hoaxers: media groups, Assoc Press •
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Thursday, September 18, 2008
Why CBS Should Report Better - Way Better - On This Case
Posted by Peter Quennell
Pizzey makes at least two mistakes in this gushy little report from Rome on CBS News
- The short-form trial can normally result in a 1/3 reduction in the sentence - the 2/3 claim appears to be baseless.
- Rudy Guede “admits” to having sex with the victim - better make that “claims” to have had sex, widely disbelieved.
CBS continues its abysmal track record of being one of the most factually-challenged sources on the case.
Click here for the rest
Posted by Peter Quennell on 09/18/08 at 10:49 PM •
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Archived in Evidence & Witnesses, Other witnesses, News media & movies, Hoaxers from 2007, More hoaxers, Hoaxers: media groups, CBS Network •
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