I don't know how many of you have been following the murder of a British student in Perugia (Meredith Kercher murder may have been premeditated - Times Online for a summary) but the press coverage here of it has *really* annoyed me. Clearly, I think its a heinous crime and deeply sinister that her flatmate was involved. Who is clearly not a nice person. However the press seem to have jumped on the fact she had *casual* sex to basically be one step away from being a serial killer. For example:

"One acquaintance said that Ms Knox had not been corrupted by any particular person because she was “already up for it”. She had plunged fresh from Seattle into a world of vodka, marijuana and free-and-easy sex. According to Mr Sollecito’s statement to police, she went to bed with him the day they met and, according to leaked testimony, she was known to pick up men in the bars and internet cafés. Ms Knox is thought to have “befriended” at least one North African man."

Oh my god. She slept with someone on the first date AND she has slept with someone.... BROWN. She must be a sexual deviant... Its quite tragic that in this day and age having one-night stands and sleeping with someone on the first date makes you some evil devil woman for whom its no surprise if you start slashing your flatmates throats.

i read it wrong first, (thought it was the victim but it was the murderer)
Vodka (shock) pot (shock) casual sex (shock) all the ingredients for a cold blooded murderer surely people....

I donbt really have much to add because I completely agree with you. I was reading the paper this morning and their reporting of it disgusted me.

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Now honies play me close like butter played toast

how many? not a good habit tho.

Meh, the press have always had an interesting double moral standard. Notice how the same papers have barely-legal naked ladies on page 3? Notice how they pretty much invent whole celebrities just so that they can chart their rise to naked fame and then chronicle their downfall? They swagger back and forth between lecherous dilletante and Puritan nosy neighbour, sometimes in the space of a single page.

So yeah, doesn't surprise me at all.

Who hasn't? Seriously, show of hands:


My guess is they're just needing to find something really awful about her because they can't find any photos of her looking rough.

I think it SUCKS how a girl who has "casual sex" is automatically a bad person capable of anything. Another thing that sucks about this whole case is how she is being judged based on her blog entries at MySpace where she wrote some short stories. BUT that said after everything I've read and the fact that her story has changed over three times so far I have to say I think she had a part in the murder.

I don't doubt that she is part of the murder, she seems guilty as hell. But that doesn't justify making the link between someone who *shock horror* has sex with people of a different colour and religion on a casual basis and someone who would perform a murder. I mean, no one is saying "My god, her boyfriend, what a sexual deviant! He slept with her on the day they met! He must have gone wild and lost all control!" I guess they are intrigued because women aren't accused of murder as often as men, but still.

I was so angry, I just wrote an angry letter to the editor of The Times about it, which I have never done before. I hope they publish it, although that will probably mean I get a whole bunch of angry letters from people accusing me of being a soulless feminist. I am not trying to stand up for her however, I am just trying to stand up against horrendously outdated and sexist views being expressed in a condescending manner by a major newspaper. I used to be comparatively proud of reading The Times. This makes me want to hang my head in shame.

what i found really hilarious was the amount of info they gleaned from her myspace profile and took completely at face value, like the pictures and stuff. the daily mail (read fascist) has since referred to her in every single article by her screen name of foxyknoxxy.

and i completely agree with you, that whilst she is almost certainly involved in the murder, and is probably not very nice, the sensationalism surrounding her sexual freedom has been a bit 19th century.

on the whole writing to the paper things, its completely unrelated but me and a friend once spoofed melanie philips for a college thing.

I was tempted to write in my narky letter to The Times that such journalism is normally the preserve of a paper like the Daily Mail. And then realised that was probably slander or something. The sensationalism really does make me want to write "Hello, you may not be aware of this but something called the *sexual revolution* happened in the 1960s. You might want to read up on it because most of your readers realised it happened".

yeah its just the same reactionary bullshit as always, rather than trying to report it in a dignified manner, they go for the sensationalist angle. I thought the daily mail having MEREDITH'S AGONIZING FINAL MOMENTS scrawled across the front page was a bit unecessary as well. oh well, papers eh?

I did notice the London Lite using the charming moniker "Foxy Knoxy". I swear, someone really should really send everyone who works for the papers under The Daily Mail on some sort of "get some taste" course.

For what it's worth, here are some recent articles from the Seattle Times: Search Results | Seattle Times Newspaper

I held British journalists as among the best in the world. Now I'm thinking that when it comes to world events/politics this may be true, but when it comes to crime reporting, what I hate most about the British press is that the reporters tend to sensationalize stories that are already quite sensational without all the "Foxy Knoxy" bullshit. I mean, it almost makes light of a suspect in a rerally heinous crime, and there is nothing cutesy or "foxy" about it. It's gross. I mean, if they would just stick to REPORTING THE STORY, no one would find it boring. It's shocking enough, really.

About a week ago, many people who knew Amanda commented generally on how nice she is, which, knowing Seattle culture, is quite an interesting phenomenon. Guess there are two sides, and many different impressions. From the most recent news and supposedly story changes (and now evidence on camera), however, it sounds like Amanda Knox was involved.

News from a week ago: Search Results | Seattle Times Newspaper

About Amanda's MySpace friends getting hounded by the press:
Search Results | Seattle Times Newspaper

the first thing i do if i am ever accused of murder is taking my facebook profile down

i dont think the tabloids and some broadsheet papers (in the uk) are capable of reporting stories without being sensationalist anymore, a lot of stuff is just outright distortion. from what i can tell it looks like this girl was involved in the murder, but i dont think that means they should be treating the story the way they were. typical of the sort of reporting was in the daily mail when they basically said she was driving to sexually compete with her mother because her parents had split up when she was little... they had zero evidence for it, and were just spectulating,

The tabloids have always been awful, but its a shame to see the serious papers dumbing down. The Seattle coverage was so much less sensationalist... Its true, facebook is both a curse and a blessing. Its fun with your friends, but it so public. I don't drink but I bet someone could find a picture of me looking like I was paralytically drink etc. And I am always dressing up for costume parties, so they could probably portray me as some unhinged psycho from that. I guess though its hard because even if you deactivate your facebook, any photos of you in other people's albums remain...

I agree with you & never was... and just about ANYONE could be made to look like a psycho. I mean, even without all the speculation about Ms. Knox, her "alibi" and role does not look good, but then, we all have to remember that speculation is just that, the truth is stranger than fiction, and it seems that suspicion should surrounds the bar owner, who was probably the one having sex with Ms. Kercher when she was stabbed, and not Ms. Knox. I mean, there are so many unanswered questions, I think it's highly irresponsible to focus all of the blame on one person because of the "shocking" aspect, before the case comes to trial.

Also, I'm not impressed at all by Ms. Knox's Italian lawyer. One article in the Seattle Times said: "A lawyer for Knox, Luciano Ghirga, told reporters Friday that his client had given 'three versions and ... it is difficult to evaluate which one is true.'" I mean, if he really said that (and you never know-- something could have been lost in the translation there with the press), that's one hell of a shitty defense lawyer! Ms. Knox already has that against her.... and you never know, maybe the 3 different stories could be 3 different interpretations, from Italian to English and so forth.

You know, if she's guilty, then she's got to lie in the bed she made, but good grief, if she's innocent, this already has the workings of a miscarriage of justice to me. It makes a better story for the British press if she's guilty (Foxy Knoxy kills Brit student in sex scandal!), the Italian authorities want the crime easy to solve, to bring peace of mind back to the nice town of Perugia..... I would say, things are not looking good for whoever knew the late Ms. Kercher. But goodness, what a totally fucked-up crime! I feel so bad for the families of all these people.... the horror!

I have to say, this story is extremely shocking for Seattleites as well, and is being discussed among neighbors more than any other at the moment-- even national election news, which is always at the forefront of discussion here in the liberal-island "People's Republic of Seattle" . For being the largest city in the state, Seattle is mellow.... and the crime rate here is low compared to other US cities, so this story is being closely followed by people here. (I'll never forget that they did an experiment among US cities years ago, placing a wallet on the sidewalk filled with money and seeing what people do with a hidden camera. 9 times out of 10, a wallet filled with money was turned in to the authorities in Seattle, where in other American cities people pocketed the cash more than half the time! On the other hand, the Northwest is known for its share of breeding serial killers like Ted Bundy and the Green River Killer! )

Photos, blog posts from UW student detained in Italian murder

I could not access any Amanda Knox's MySpace blog. Maybe the took it down in the frenzy. There are two "Amanda Knox" accounts that seem fake, and another from an actress in NYC.

... But aside from everything else, what could her motive have been? I mean, as touchy as roommate situations can be, I cannot imagine risking one's freedom and reputation to take part in something so awful. I mean, there would be more motive to discourage murdering one's roommate, than motives to do it. They barely knew each other a month. Also, sorry to be prejudiced here, but men seem to be more motivated, statistically speaking, to be involved in violent crimes of a sexual nature than women. By process of elimination, of the 3 suspects, I would wager that if the bar owner were sexually involved with Ms. Kercher, and knew of Ms. Knox's weird MySpace blogs and stories, he might take advantage of that to frame Ms. Knox. This story could be even more tangled than we could ever imagine, which makes it so intriguing and horrific. I feel just so awful for the Kercher family. It must be terrible for them. Call me naive, but these people are so young, I can't imagine all of them involved in something so sinister. I hope this mystery is solved & the truth is learned.