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Anorak News | British Press Won’t Let ‘Beaming’ Amanda Knox Go Free

British Press Won’t Let ‘Beaming’ Amanda Knox Go Free

by | 5th, October 2011

AMANDA Knox is innocent. Her link to the murder of Meredith Kercher was a miscarriage of justice. But for reasons not entirely clear many British newspaper lead with her photo and name juxtaposed against images of one of the murdered woman’s family. The contrast between smiling Knox – and she must always be pictured smiling – and the sober Kerchers is stark.  The Sun and Mail describe Knox as “beaming“. You might focus on her tears. But the British press wait for her to smile. The headlines are delivered in a gossipy style with big sideways eyes and a bitter undercurrent:

The front pages:

The Times: “Kerchers face more anguish as happy Knox heads for home”

The Kerchers face more anguish because Knox has gone home? Justice pains them? The Kerchers have been dignified and just. In the media glare and the emotional maelstrom of his daughter’s murder, Lyle Kercher says:

“While we accept the decision that was handed down yesterday and respect the court and the Italian justice system, we do find that we are now left obviously looking at this again and thinking how a decision that was so certain two years ago has been so emphatically over turned now.”

The Times’s headline does them a disservice.

Daily Mirror: “Meredith Who? Grinning from ear to ear, Knox flies back to a new life in the US.. while heartbroken family start again on a quest for justice.”

The question – Meredith Who? – hangs over a photo of an understandably smiling Knox. The words are coated in yellow ink. They seem to be emerging from the innocent woman’s brain. There impression is that Knox has moved on and forgotten about her murdered roommate. One woman’s life was ended in a violent crime. Another woman’s life was almost ruined by a flawed investigation into that crime. It’s been hours since Knox’s releases from an Italian jail and the Mirror says Knox has forgotten already? The Mirror says she carries no scars.

i: “Beaming Knox heads home.. leaving Kerchers ‘back to square one”

Well, no. Rudy Hermann Guede is serving 16 years for Meredith’s murder. His DNA was found inside Meredith Kercher. He says he was not alone when the young woman was killed. Is he telling he truth? Who was he with? Was he with anyone? Experts suggest Meredith Kercher was held down by one person and raped by another. They suggest Meredith Kercher was killed bv two knives. But they do not know. All we know for certain is that he was not with Amanda Knox.

Daily Express: “Cleared of murder and she’s laughing all the way to the bank”

Because – and let’s imagine this scenario – if Amanda Knox said she’d talk only to her favourite paper, the Daily Express, for a reduced fee, the Express would say “no”.

Daily Mail: “As jubilant Amanda Knox flies home to a celebrity welcome murdered Meredith’s distraught family plead… GIVE OUR GIRL JUSTICE TOO”

No. What Meredith’s mother Arline Kercher said as journalists pressed her for a reaction they could hang a story on:

“I’m not interested in Amanda having a show. Either way [Meredith] is not coming home. Their lives have been destroyed. Our lives have been destroyed.”

The vilness reaches its sink in the Mail, where Amanda Platell writes:

Yet there is something disquieting about Amanda Knox, something that slightly chills the blood. Those piercing blue eyes have hardly flinched during her court appearances…Her Oscar-winning performance in court yesterday felt just like that – an act. And again, so insensitive pleading: ‘I don’t want to be deprived of my life.’ No, and nor did Meredith when she was forced to kneel, her face pushed into the floor, then raped at knife point before being stabbed and strangled to death

Amanda Knox is innocent. But some sections of the media cannot let her go free, creating around her an aura of suspicion that only serves to explain that whatever Amanda Knox earns rom her ordeal, she deserves every penny. And what she does with any cash is up to her. It is, once again, her life.

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US murder suspect Amanda Knox is escorted by penitentiary police officers as she arrives for a hearing in the Meredith Kercher murder trial, in Perugia, Italy, Saturday, June 6, 2009. Knox and her former Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, are on trial for the murder of Knox's British roommate, student Meredith Kercher, found dead in the house they shared in Nov. 2007. (AP Photo/Stefano Medici)



Posted: 5th, October 2011 | In: Key Posts, Reviews Comments (11) | TrackBack | Permalink