Nick Pisa & Barbie Nadeau
Freedom
looks to be on the horizon for Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito, in
Perugia, Italy. Both were convicted in 2009 for the murder of Knox’s
roommate Meredith Kercher. Both have adamantly denied any involvement in
the murder.
Where
the original trial was a prosecutor’s dream come true, the appeal has
been a complete disaster, where the prosecution has lost every key
issue. The prosecution’s most important witness from the first trial
admitted that he was a heroin addict on appeal and told the court, quite
unashamedly, he was using heroin on the night in question----a
humiliating blow to the prosecution, prompting Judge Hellmann to cut his
testimony short and have him escorted out of his courtroom.
The
most damaging blow to the prosecution came from independent experts
appointed by the court to review the DNA evidence. The experts’
testimony discredited the alleged murder weapon and a DNA laden bra
clasp used to secure the convictions of Knox and Sollecito. Knox’s father Curt Knox summed it up best when he told CNN “the prosecution has no case left.”
The Architects of “Foxy Knoxy”
While
the common wisdom is that the tabloid media played a major role in
spreading lies and misinformation, the reality is that a trio of yellow
journalists have been the worst offenders. Those journalists are Nick Pisa, Barbie Nadeau and Andrea Vogt. These
three journalists were the chief architects of the Foxy Knoxy myth and
have fueled the Anti-Knox fervor working as mouthpieces for Giuliano
Mignini, the corrupt and convicted prosecutor that secured the
convictions against Knox and Sollecito.
Media
coverage of this case played a role in the wrongful conviction of Amanda
Knox and Raffaele Sollecito. Knox was mistreated horribly by the media
with disparaging headlines that were endless. These
disparaging headlines and salacious articles were not confined simply to
common tabloids, but to well known magazines as well, such as Newsweek.
Nick Pisa
Nick Pisa
Nick Pisa,
a freelance journalist from the United Kingdom who writes often for The
Daily Mail, has recently shifted his opinion in the case, now leaning
toward innocence. Regrettably however, his change of heart
is too little too late because of the damage he has already caused. in
In fact, he was the first reporter to use the name “Foxy Knoxy” after
browsing Knox’s MySpace page looking for dirt. The catchy nick-name was
very attractive to the media helping to fuel the myth that Amanda Knox
(Foxy Knoxy) was a satanic ritualistic sex crazed killer. However,
Amanda Knox was actually given the nickname as a child for her moves on
the soccer field. By the time the world came to realize who the real
Foxy Knoxy was, it was too late. The damage was done.
Pisa’s
tabloid sensibilities were loud and clear in the most recent appeal
hearing when Knox appeared to bow her head momentarily in court. This
prompted Pisa to contact the family, looking to see if Amanda had
“passed out.” As it turned out Knox was completely fine leaving Pisa
without his shocking headline.
Barbie Nadeau
Barbie Nadeau
Barbie Nadeau, who reports for the
Daily Beast, did not disappoint her fans with her rapid fire tweeting
from the pressroom at the most recent hearing. In fact she earned the
award for most tasteless tweet for this gem: “Court discussing the appropriate way to cut a bra off a dead body. Where is a mannequin when you need one?”
In
recent months, Nadeau has exhibited an obvious bitterness during the
appeal----a resentment that most likely stems from being on the wrong
side of history. Nadeau, who published a book under the laughable title: “Angel Face: The True Story of Student Killer Amanda Knox” must feel pretty awkward for being so blatantly on the wrong side of history. At
one point, Nadeau hilariously tweeted that she was actually objective,
somehow forgetting the title of her horribly written book.
Recently
Nadeau wrote an article for the Daily Beast suggesting that Meredith Kercher’s
actual killer might receive a get out of jail free card if Knox and
Sollecito were allowed to walk. To anyone who understands the forensics
in this case, this line of thinking is beyond absurd as all credible
evidence in this case points directly at Rudy Guede. Unfortunately, Nadeau
has little choice but to go pursue the “Amanda got away with it” angle.
Whether she likes it or not, Nadeau is one of the main faces of the yellow
journalists who forced Knox’s guilt down her readers’ throats, all while
distorting facts, using sloppy analysis and in some cases stating
outright lies.
Recently,
best selling author Douglas Preston who wrote the Monster of Florence,
confirmed Nadeau’s feelings for Knox and her family when he revealed
that Nadeau openly admitted that she despises Knox’s family and she
called the Friends of Amanda support group a "cult." Nadeau made these
comments almost three years ago, yet she continues to present herself as
an objective journalist with regard to this case.
Andrea Vogt
Andrea Vogt
Andrea Vogt, who has written freelance
pieces for Seattlepi.com and attended much of the first trial, has been
conveniently absent during most of the appeal.
Currently,
Vogt is working on a documentary about Amanda Knox which is expected to
air after the verdict. In an amazing and ridiculous course of events,
she actually sent an email to Knox’s family saying that they had her
permission to ask to be in her documentary. Yes, you read that correctly. The family of Amanda Knox was told they could ask to be in Andrea Vogt’s presumably horrible documentary which is about their own daughter! Keep these ridiculous things in mind when you hear certain journalists talk about how objective they are.
Vogt has
had an intimate relationship with Anti-Knox bloggers since as early as
2008, interviewing them as objective sources without disclosing that
they had been blogging under fake names about their belief in Knox’s guilt long before
she ever even had a trial.
Vogt’s propensity for quoting anti-Knox bloggers as legitimate sources had not been confined to isolated incidents. Rather, she has kept up this pattern consistently for years. Very early in the case, Vogt quoted a woman named “Laura Wray”
under the guise the she was an objective source, when in fact she had
been blogging on Amanda Knox hate sites as early as 2008. Additionally, Laura Wray only possesses a Bachelor’s Degree in science.
However, “Laura Wray” was not the first Anti-Knox blogger Vogt would quote as an objective source. In January of 2009, before Knox had even been tried for murder, Vogt wrote an article for the Italian publication Panorama in an article entitled “Meredith’s Murder Divides Seattle”. In
the article she quoted a man named Randy Jackson, who is now the
moderator of an Amanda Knox hate forum called Perugia Murder File. Vogt
quoted Jackson as if he was an objective source without revealing that
he had been blogging about his belief in Knox’s guilt for some time. That same article quoted a woman named Kris Arneson who had also been blogging on Amanda Knox hate sites quite frequently. Again, this fact was not revealed. One
would assume an objective journalist would give some sort of disclosure
in all these instances, but Andrea Vogt never did any such thing. Her
consistent interviewing of Amanda Knox hate bloggers raises serious
questions about her honesty and closeness to these sites.
The Architects Feast at the Table
The
architects of the Foxy Knoxy myth, (Andrea Vogt, Barbie Nadeau and Nick
Pisa) were recently interviewed together along with an Italian
television producer, Sabina Castelfranco, for Dateline Australia. Pisa
appeared blatantly uncomfortable throughout the video as Vogt and Nadeau
spoke of well-known falsehoods as if they were common facts----the
largest being that there was mixed blood found at the crime scene (100%
not true). To Pisa’s credit, he managed to interject a
little common sense when he said that the case would have never gone to
trial in the UK due to a lack of evidence.
However,
Pisa threw journalistic ethics out the window when he pathetically
attempted to explain away his horrendous reporting on this case by
placing the sole blame on the authorities in Perugia, espousing the
principle that you should just write what the police tell you:
"If you're getting some information from a primary source - like a police officer, like a prosecutor - you've got to take it at face value, you've got to believe what you're being told"
Of course this logic is beyond ridiculous. If
this were a journalistic standard to strive for, we wouldn’t need
journalists in crime cases----rather we could just have the police write
the articles themselves.
In the jaw
dropping video, Vogt and Nadeau continue to promote one of the most
egregious lies to be seen in this case: there was mixed blood at the
crime scene. Both frequently repeat that Kercher’s blood was mixed with
Knox ’s blood in several different places in the cottage. Mixed blood
was never claimed by the prosecution, and no testimony was heard at
trial. But Nadeau, being the advanced forensic scholar
that she is wouldn't let facts get in the way, giving case followers
possibly the dumbest analogy ever uttered by a reporter:
"I live in a house with three people (my two sons and my husband); I guarantee you I have never mixed blood with any of them anywhere in the house; I don't bleed where they bleed; we never bleed at the same time."
Yes, she actually said this on video. Whenever you read something this ridiculous, it is no wonder the media has gotten this case so wrong. With
utterances like these, we are not exactly dealing with sophisticated
minds amongst the guilt purporting journalists in this case.
The truth
is Kercher’s blood mixed with residual DNA that was already present in
the cottage long before the murder took place. Knox was examined by the
police and no wounds were found on her body. Knox was not bleeding, but
more importantly, she was not there. Knox’s blood never mixed with
Kercher’s blood anywhere at any time.
After
nearly four years, if the architects of the Foxy Knoxy myth still
cannot understand simple falsehoods like these, is it any wonder why the
public has been so misinformed in this case? Readers
deserve better than the tabloid principles of Nick Pisa, the illogical
musings of Barbie Nadeau and the terribly sourced articles of Andrea
Vogt.
Hopefully,
when Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito are acquitted, it will be the
architects of the Foxy Knoxy myth who will have to finally answer some
tough questions of their own.