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Janet Malcolm

The Journalist and the Murderer Paperback – October 31, 1990

by Janet Malcolm (Author)

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A seminal work and examination of the psychopathology of journalism. Using a strange and unprecedented lawsuit as her larger-than-life example -- the lawsuit of Jeffrey MacDonald, a convicted murderer, against Joe McGinniss, the author of Fatal Vision, a book about the crime -- she delves into the always uneasy, sometimes tragic relationship that exists between journalist and subject. In Malcolm's view, neither journalist nor subject can avoid the moral impasse that is built into the journalistic situation. When the text first appeared, as a two-part article in The New Yorker, its thesis seemed so radical and its irony so pitiless that journalists across the country reacted as if stung.

Her book is a work of journalism as well as an essay on journalism: it at once exemplifies and dissects its subject. In her interviews with the leading and subsidiary characters in the MacDonald-McGinniss case -- the principals, their lawyers, the members of the jury, and the various persons who testified as expert witnesses at the trial -- Malcolm is always aware of herself as a player in a game that, as she points out, she cannot lose. The journalist-subject encounter has always troubled journalists, but never before has it been looked at so unflinchingly and so ruefully. Hovering over the narrative -- and always on the edge of the reader's consciousness -- is the MacDonald murder case itself, which imparts to the book an atmosphere of anxiety and uncanniness. The Journalist and the Murderer derives from and reflects many of the dominant intellectual concerns of our time, and it will have a particular appeal for those who cherish the odd, the off-center, and the unsolved.

Print length

176 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Vintage
Publication date

October 31, 1990
Dimensions

5.1 x 0.48 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0679731830
ISBN-13

978-0679731832
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In a work that sparked controversy when it first appeared in the New Yorker, Malcolm suggests that journalist Joe McGinniss may have betrayed convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald in McGinniss's bestselling book Fatal Vision.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"It is not with regard to jounralism but with regard to the making of works of art that Malcom's important book gathers its inspiration, its breathtaking rhetorical velocity, and its great truth." —David Rieff, Los Angeles Times

From the Inside Flap

In two previous books, Janet Malcolm explored the hidden sides of, respectively, institutional psychoanalysis and Freudian biography. In this book, she examines the psychopathology of journalism. Using a strange and unprecedented lawsuit as her larger-than-life example -- the lawsuit of Jeffrey MacDonald, a convicted murderer, against Joe McGinniss, the author of Fatal Vision, a book about the crime -- she delves into the always uneasy, sometimes tragic relationship that exists between journalist and subject. In Malcolm's view, neither journalist nor subject can avoid the moral impasse that is built into the journalistic situation. When the text first appeared, as a two-part article in The New Yorker, its thesis seemed so radical and its irony so pitiless that journalists across the country reacted as if stung.
Her book is a work of journalism as well as an essay on journalism: it at once exemplifies and dissects its subject. In her interviews with the leading and subsidiary characters in the MacDonald-McGinniss case -- the principals, their lawyers, the members of the jury, and the various persons who testified as expert witnesses at the trial -- Malcolm is always aware of herself as a player in a game that, as she points out, she cannot lose. The journalist-subject encounter has always troubled journalists, but never before has it been looked at so unflinchingly and so ruefully. Hovering over the narrative -- and always on the edge of the reader's consciousness -- is the MacDonald murder case itself, which imparts to the book an atmosphere of anxiety and uncanniness. The Journalist and the Murderer derives from and reflects many of the dominant intellectual concerns of our time, and it will have a particular appeal for those who cherish the odd, the off-center, and the unsolved.

From the Back Cover

In The Journalist And The Murderer, Janet Malcolm examines the psychopathology of journalism. She delves into the always uneasy, sometimes tragic relationship that exists between journalist and subject.

About the Author

Janet Malcolm's previous books are Diana and Nikon: Essays on Photography; Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession; In the Freud Archives; The Journalist and the Murderer; The Purloined Clinic: Selected Writings; The Silent Woman: Slyvia Plath and Ted Hughes; and The Crime of Sheila McGough. She lives in New York with her husband, Gardner Botsford.

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Product information

Technical Details

Publisher

‎Vintage; Reprint edition (October 31, 1990)

Language

‎English

Paperback

‎176 pages

ISBN-10

‎0679731830

ISBN-13

‎978-0679731832

Item Weight

‎5.8 ounces

Dimensions

‎5.1 x 0.48 x 8 inches

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Customer reviews

5 star		62%
4 star		18%
3 star		12%
2 star		4%
1 star		4%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Tony B.

A sophomoric and narcisstic book

Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book was loathsome from beginning to end. It begins with a broad-stroke admonishment of journalism and continues to trade in generalities and opinion stated as fact.

The most regrettable part of the book is that the subject matter is fascinating. The story is lost in dense prose and overly long (yet remarkably bland) quotes and excerpts from transcripts. For all of her research, the author failed to construct a compelling narrative, despite what should have been a slam-dunk for riveting plot and conflict. What a terrible waste of potential.

The author's sentences are needlessly complex, and she seems to choose words based on how exotic or esoteric they are, not whether or not they properly convey any real meaning. There's a sprinkling of references to Russian and French literature to drive home the point that the author is smart, much smarter than you. In her 15-page afterword, she speaks at length about her lawsuit with bitter defensiveness. The entire work is sophomoric in its delivery. I hope that one of her neighbors reports the abuse of her thesaurus and that the proper authorities step in to ensure it goes to a good home where it can recover and live out the rest of its days in peace.

23 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kat Essenmacher

A truly insufferable read

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2021

Verified Purchase

Malcolm pats herself heartily in the back for what she imagines to be an insightful look into journalistic ethics. She begins with a brief and disingenuous show of feigned self-awareness by announcing that all journalists know their work is morally indefensible before launching into a colorful attempt at a moral defense anyway. Subjects who are deceived by journalists, she explains, are only the subjects of bold experiments, or else they secretly know they're being lied to and choose to proceed, or else they're really the ones exploiting the journalists. Rather than an actual insight into journalistics ethics, this is 177 pages of, "IT'S NOT MY FAULT!". Just as McGuinness ("The Journalist") was handed the solution to his desperate need to remain relevant on a silver platter when offered the opportunity to write about MacDonald ("The Murder"), Malcolm was spoon-fed the premise of this book when she received a letter from McGuinness's attorney lamenting the tragedy of a subject being able to even attempt to sue a journalist for using falsehood to extract a story. Given the gift of the least sympathetic possible subject, a man convicted of murdering pregnant wife and two daughters who offered himself up to be written about in a desperate cash-grab, to use as a parable, Malcolm attempts to explain to us that dishonesty on the part of the journalist is really the fault of the subject. McGuinness, the journalist who went so far as to get himself hired on to MacDonald's defense team in order to get his story, is the victim. MacDonald, the vicious, vile murderer, deserved McGuinness's exploitation. MacDonald's attorney is a horrible, bloodthirsty monster who was not representing his client in a lawsuit as he was hired and duty-bound to do, but was actually maliciously victimizing poor, put-upon Mr. McGuinness and seeking to bring down the bold institution of American journalism. And the 5 jurors out of 6 who found in favor of MacDonald are really just uneducated plebeian scum who only found for him because they were too stupid to know better. Like the subjects who only learn the journalist's true intent when they read the product of his work, the reader learns Ms. Malcolm's intent in her Afterward. We have been presented with 177 pages of pretention and blame shifting, riddled with as many literary and cultural references as could be forced into the pages to demonstrate Ms. Malcolm's superior intelligence and education, for the sole reason that Ms. Malcolm wanted to use the parable of The Journalist and the Murderer to absolve herself and restore her own reputation.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Richard Weems

A needed discussion right now

Reviewed in the United States on July 16, 2018

Verified Purchase

In being nearly twenty years old, Malcolm’s book suffers a bit of dating and a somewhat heavy faith in psychoanalysis, but her ideas about the role of a reporter in dealing with the subject of a news story and how journalism has to break from the narrative that subject wants while actually yay-saying that narrative in order to keep the subject engaged are important ones, especially these days of a media besieged by propagandists who are either too sensitive to understand that proper news outlets have a deeper responsibility or their lackeys who deliberately cloud what that exact responsibility is. Malcolm takes the case of a libel suit against a reporter by the convicted murderer he wrote about being guilty to examine the psychological dynamics behind journalism, trials and jury deliberations (as the libel trial ended in a hung jury before a settlement was reached). With discussions of lies vs. untruth, how we speak vs. what we hear, and fiction vs. nonfiction, Malcolm’s definitions are pretty vital now that entertainment has not only infiltrated the news box but assisted by an administration that heavily favors and spreads propaganda.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

AJF

Great read, but still think it needed more McGinnis

Reviewed in the United States on January 2, 2018

Verified Purchase

This was a very thoughtful read on what constitutes ethical journalism, and the book raises poignant questions about whether a reporter can truly ever capture the "truth" of a person. At the outset, the main subject of the book declines to make himself available to the author. While somewhat disappointed initially, Malcolm seems to take relief in the fact that her personal dealings with the man can not complicate her writing about him. I bought this argument initially (and maybe I still do) but I do have to say that I think hearing more of his perspective was necessary to make this 4 star read an absolute 5. Ultimately, writing a book about a man's lack of ethics without allowing him to contextualize his side with the benefit of hindsight seems nearly as unfair as what McGinnis did to MacDonald. Her book isn't unethical, but it feels incomplete. Still, an excellent and thought provoking read

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Will of the Wisp

worth reading

Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2014

Verified Purchase

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.

21 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Glowglowgirl

Very Readable

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

This is not a true crime book as you might think but a critical analysis of the journalist's role. While it deals with very abstract concepts and quotes learned sources, it manages to be readable understandable and enjoyable.

One person found this helpful

Mr. M. Ogborn

Fascinating look into the author/journalist and subject relationship including how ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 9, 2018

Verified Purchase

Fascinating look into the author/journalist and subject relationship including how it can be skewed over time and by the rollercoaster of ego.

One person found this helpful

Rudi

janet malcolm - new journalism

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2013

Verified Purchase

An article in a weekly magazine portrayed three female writers of New Journalism (1960s) so I browsed and ordered some recommended work, one of which this book. It does illustrate very well the trappings a wrter / journalist may face. Enjoyed it thoroughly.

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Good on journalist ethics

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 27, 2021

Verified Purchase

Useful real world ethics in journalism case study. A little dry and slow but laboured through in the hope of learning something

DivyaKBhavani

Well packaged, timely delivery

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 19, 2014

Verified Purchase

I'm quite happy with the punctuality of my delivery!

I was recommended this book in one of my journalism classes and it's a great read so far! Definitely makes you think about the media, crime and the fascination with it all! Must-read!

One person found this helpful

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