New Yorker writer recounts her second chance in a libel lawsuit

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/09/08/new-yorker-writer-recounts-her.html

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This is a pretty wonderful article. Janet Malcom is a terrific writer, and her book about Green-Beret doc Jeffrey McDonald, Joe McGuiness and herself (The Journalist and the Murderer) is a a great read.

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I liked it, but I was left wanting more of the courtroom drama. I’d love to see this fleshed out in a dramatization with more detail.

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As a monologue, perhaps?

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I could never do that because whenever I read about things like that it makes me start loathing the people who are impressed by it to the point where I cannot hide my disgust with them.

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Movies like Runaway Jury left me conflicted about the focus on the jury in courtroom dramas. That’s probably because I watched classics from the '50s and '60s first, where there was more emphasis on presenting new evidence, surprise witnesses, or proving someone was committing perjury.

I was thinking along similar lines. At the suggestion that I’d need an expert like that, my inner monologue would’ve been, “Save your money, we’re not gonna win this one.” I was once drafted to participate in a pageant, and couldn’t manage to act like I was thrilled while on stage for only 30 minutes. :woman_shrugging:t4:

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I have that book and I agree it’s a crtical yet necessary read about journalism ethics.

(And while Malcolm may be correct about the ethics of journalists who interview their subjects by cultivating a personal relationship, I’m still convinced that Jeffrey MacDonald is a narcissistic sociopath and he killed his family.)

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