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An interesting essay on journalistic ethics. However, reading the rebuttal that McGinniss has appended to the newest edition of "Fatal Vision" the argument could be made that Janet Malcolm also played fast and loose with her reporting of the MacDonald v. McGuiniss lawsuit. Given her scant attention to the facts of the MacDonald murder case, you could get the impression from this book that MacDonald is innocent of the murder of his wife and daughters when in fact the evidence is overwhelmingly against MacDonald. A good read, but you need to read McGinniss' rebuttal to make a fair assessment.
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Malcolm is at her best when she gets under the surface of her subject, and she her writing, insight and perceptions are brilliant in this particular arena. She brings light to often neglected issues of honesty, intent and outcome in reporting.
Joe McGinniss fell into that murky area of journalism while deceiving Jeffrey McDonald because he needed to quarantee a financial success for his publisher and himself. This ruse may have cost him his integrity and literary career. I purchased his book immediately after reading Malcolm's criticism, needing to see the book myself before reaching a final conclusion.This is not an easy subject, nor is McDonald a sympathetic character. Janet Malcolm exposes the amazing and elaborate deception used by McGinniss to trap and crucify his subject. Her investigation into this relationship is so brilliant that you're hooked from the beginning!
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I found this to book by Janet Malcolm to be a fascinating read, especially for anyone interested in journalism and the relationship between journalist and subject. Using the murder case of Jeffrey MacDonald as a backdrop, Malcolm looks at the unethical deal Joe McGinniss made for exclusive access to MacDonald to write his book. The initial murder case is overshadowed by a case of fraud and Malcolm suggests that McGinniss is guilty of misleading MacDonald. How do we make sure journalists remain ethical in their reporting. Does Malcolm give us all the facts? Is she herself participating in the very thing she accuses McGinniss of? This book left me with many questions.
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The Journalist and the Murderer is really a must-read for aspiring journalists, and writers, and anyone interested in what goes into postmodern character development. Malcom - with whom I disagree, as a human - asserts that there is a cynical and manipulative relationship that governs all interactions between interviewer and interviewed, and to ignore this is to either be disingenuous or naive. The story follows how she came to conclude that journalist and author Joe MacGuinness was a jerk, and the subject of a book of his, a convicted mass murderer, was innocent.
The book makes for compelling reading. It's well written. It examines terrifically interesting topics from an interesting perspective. Paradoxically, it espouses and falls victim to many of the very biases and assertions that Malcom herself describes as bad, or in poor taste, and, ultimately, one is left with the sense that she doesn't like herself very much.
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A must read for any journalist. Malcolm deconstructs this famous case and fashions a cautionary tale about the relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee.
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Written in the style of a journalist, it's an interesting "meta" journalistic style of novel. She has a refreshing writing style that is precise and thoughtful , every word exactly where it should be. And, did I mention that her subject matter is fascinating too?
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Janet Malcolm writes in the grand tradition of the old New Yorker writer, precisely and objectively about a difficult, heated subject. She sets out, quite courageously, to tell us why her fellow journalists are so easily corrupted or corruptible. Although they claim to be dispassionate reporters of the facts and only the facts, here she tells a rather horrifying story of a fellow journalist, Joe McGinniss, who, believing the man he was writing about was guilt of cold-blooded murder of his wife and children, pretended to be the man's best pal, defending his innocence in order to get the killer to unwittingly tell his story. Malcolm claims that most journalists avoid telling their subjects what they know or believe, and, although it is standard practice, she finds it ethically deplorable. This is a sad saga, in which the main players and the supporting cast are depicted vividly, unforgettably with the skill of a first-rate journalist. Malcolm is not afraid to tell us what she feels is wrong with this messy business of what is now essentially fiction disguised as non-fiction. By doing so, she stepped on few sensitive toes, but the truth is the truth, and no one tells it, or, for that matter, writes it better than she does.
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