The murder of Meredith Kercher: CBS Reporter’s Bizarre Claims About Prosecutor And Reporters

Right: Meredith Kercher

Saturday, April 11, 2009

posted by Skeptical Bystander

truejustice.org, an online publication

from Perugia, Italy

Peter Van Sant of CBS, in promoting his “48 Hours” report on April 11, which by all accounts seemed intent on equaling CBS’s record for worst report on the case, Mr Van Sant has come out with an interview which is an absolute classic for how not to do such things.

First, consider Mr Van Sant’s remarks about one of the prosecutors in the case.
As for the accusation that Kercher was killed over a sex game, Van Sant cites an Italian blogger for putting that notion into the prosecutor’s mind. Van Sant said the blogger claims that she speaks to a dead priest who tells her what happened at crime scenes.

The blogger told the main prosecutor in the Knox trial, Giuliano Minnini (sic), that this was a satanic sex game and that’s how the theory started, Van Sant said. Sliming of a prosecutor in this fashion has already been strongly protested against by Amanda Knox’s own defense team.

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And the prosecutor in question, one of two (real name: Mignini), many weeks ago made clear that he had NOT listened to the Rome blogger (had locked her up in fact), is NOT especially pushing any particular theory of motive for the crime, is not especially central to the continued momentum of the trial - and has actually started a lawsuit against precisely this kind of libel!

Second, consider Mr Van Sant’s remarks about the reporting of the case. Among the many (actually rather neutral and non-inflammatory) journalists on the case that Mr Van Sant seems intent on sliming is of course Andrea Vogt of the Seattle PI. He all but refers to her by name and it seems rather obvious who he had in mind. (remember, Amanda Knox is from Seattle)

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Ms Vogt is the reporter from the Pacific Northwest who is based in Bologna, Italy and who has been covering this case for the Seattle PI for over a year. Many observers have been impressed with her thorough, objective and factual reporting, particularly since the trial phase began.

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Anyone who has been following the case knows how non-objective and pro-defense much of the reporting has been in the US, and how much fluffy air time has actually been arranged by the family-hired PR firm Marriott and company. So the particular focus of Mr Van Sant’s criticism is really surprising.

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After claiming that Italy has the most irresponsible tabloid press on the planet and that local Seattle papers like the Times and the PI can’t afford to send reporters to Italy to cover the story, he explained that they hire “stringers”. Apparently these stringers simply translate articles from the Italian tabloids into English and, via the local newspaper circuit which publishes them, they get recycled and become legitimate news.

Mr Van Sant uses the terms “filtered” or “laundered”, as if he were talking about Mafia money being invested in life insurance policies. The Seattle PI has enough problems without having to deal with this irresponsible and possibly defamatory remark. And Andrea Vogt, who to our knowledge is the only “stringer” working on this case who is filing stories for the PI, has been providing some of the best coverage of this case to U.S. readers...