Analysis of Janet Malcom´s The Journalist and the Murderer

802 Words2 Pages

Self-motivation and determination are two of the main ideals of being journalist. If a journalist does not have the desire to find and report a story, he has no career. A journalist depends on finding the facts, getting to the bottom of the story and reporting to the public, whether it’s positive or negative. Janet Malcom states in the book The Journalist and the Murderer, “Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible.” (Malcolm, 3) Her starting words speak volumes about “the Journalist and the Murderer” and the lessons that can be learned. Young journalists can learn a lot from Malcom’s book because it presents some troubling issues. A main issue would be the author-subject relationship and where the writer-friend line exist. The Journalist and the Murderer tells the story of Joe McGinnis and Jeffrey MacDonald. McGinnis is an author looking to write a book on MacDonald who is convicted of murdering his wife and two daughters. MacDonald wanted his voice to be heard, and he wanted to get his side of the story out to the world. McGinniss follows the trial with MacDonald and his group of lawyers, going to all the hearings, listening to his side of the story and even staying in MacDonald’s condominium – which McGinniss took advantage of in the name of his book. McGinniss, from the beginning, never gave MacDonald a second chance about who was going to write Macdonald’s story. McGinniss gave the impression that he was there as both an author and a friend, someone he could trust. In the end, McGinniss wrote Fatal Vision in which MacDonald was accused of being a publicity-seeking womanizer who was also a latent homosexual. (Malcolm, 30) After a ... ... middle of paper ... ... about how much journalism can affect a person’s reputation. After the publication of Fatal Vision, MacDonald received a letter in jail from a reader. The reader was on vacation in Hawaii with his wife when he read the book and decided to write to the star of the novel. J.H, the Hawaiian vacationer, basically told MacDonald that he should rot in jail and not receive parole in 1991. (Malcolm, 145) Fatal Vision introduced the story of MacDonald to the world and a much larger audience than the case would have had if there was no book. With the publication of Fatal Vision, so many people did not get to hear MacDonald’s true voice, whether he was lying or telling the truth, the world would only see McGinniss’ viewpoint of the murder and trial, that is until Janet Malcolm wrote The Journalist and the Murderer. Works Cited The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcolm

Show More
Related

  • A Murder In Virginia Summary

    900 Words  | 2 Pages

    The previously mentioned accused included three female neighbors and a male who had worked for Edward Pollard, whose wife had been killed. Despite a personal dislike of reading about history, the book was captivating enough to get through. Ann Field Alexander, author of “Race Man: The Rise and Fall of the ‘Fighting Editor,’ John Mitchell Jr”, explains the hardships of a black male activist in the same time period as Lebsock’s novel. Mitchell was president of a bank and ran for a political office, but was tried for fraud.

    Read More

  • American History Judith Ortiz Cofer

    740 Words  | 2 Pages

    The author Joanne Ostrow and Judith Ortiz Cofer both use Kennedy’s assassination in their writing to explain how TV news affects people in a community. In “American History” Cofer shows how TV affects Mr. DePalma and Elena’s mother. Mr. DePalma was known as a tough teacher, “Muscular Man” but seeing John F. Kennedy’s assassination on TV affected him during school. Most kids thought it was very strange for Mr. DePalma to cry, “Mr. DePalma to our complete shock, was crying”. The TV news also affected Elena’s mother, “ When I walked

    Read More

  • How Good People Make Tough Choices Summary

    1046 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Rushworth Kidder’s book “How Good People Make Tough Choices,” Kidder provides a series of different methods, codes and examples of what being an ethical journalist could mean. He gives examples of different situations where a person’s ethics are tested and what would be a good way to deal with these situations. He starts by explaining the difference between things that are right-versus-right dilemmas, and those that are right-versus-wrong dilemmas.

    Read More

  • Society´s Role in Morley Callaghan’s novel More Joy in Heaven

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    Morley Callaghan’s novel More Joy in Heaven follows the short life of notorious bank robber and gunman Kip Caley. Callaghan's novel is based off and follows Red Ryan's now forgotten story almost word for word. Red Ryan and the fictional Kip Caley both face the effects of a being an outsider in a forceful, high-class society. Individuals and organizations play a huge responsibility role to ex-convicts; readers of More Joy in Heaven unfortunately see the side effects when selfishness and thirst for glory play into this important, delicate role. Nonetheless that readers see what the wrong individuals will do to an ex-convict, readers will also see what kinder individuals can do to someone trying to reform. Yet what the public does and does not do is not to be blamed systematically; Red Ryan and Kip Caley crave societies attention and even begin to depend on it before their story is over. Their craving for attention makes them vulnerable to being abused by society. Both society and parolees want to live the upstanding lives, but neither takes into account what the others wants and needs are, so who’s fault is it when a parolee fails to meet societies precast expectations?

    Read More

  • Ethical Behavior in the Film Capote

    639 Words  | 2 Pages

    The film Capote, based on the how the writer of “In Cold Blood” did his research to write his book, a masterpiece of literature, has portrayed Capote’s behavior during his research vividly. Capote’s behavior during the years Perry waits on death row in order to get personal testimony of the night of killings is a controversial topic. Some argue that what Capote did was absolutely necessary for an ambitious writer to create such a master piece while other argue that human ethics is more important than the creation of an ideal “non-fiction noble” and the paths he took to get there are morally ambiguous. Even though he gave the world a milestone in literature, his behaviors seem unethical because he lied, pretended to be a friend of an accused murderer who was in a death row, and did not have any empathy to him.

    Read More

  • America's Flawed Legal System Illustrated in the Film, The Thin Blue Line

    1772 Words  | 4 Pages

    Reading newspapers or watching TV at home, at least we find one article or news describing a killing, a shooting, or an armed robbery. With all these problems, we are in fear but cannot avoid hearing and dealing with them. They happen every day and some time justice system blunders and leads to wrongly convict people for what they do not commit. This is reality of wrecked system that is resulted by injustice and corruption. Ultimately, Errol Morris confirms this reality based on a true story of an innocent convicted Randal Adams for a criminal case by creating a film, The Thin Blue Line. David Harris, an important accuser, claims Adams was a murderer and shot Robert Wood, a Dallas police officer. With Morris’ suspicion of Adams’ innocence, he turns himself to be a detective movie director and investigates the criminal case that occurred in Dallas, Texas in 1976. His goal is to show that Adams was wrongly convicted and justice system was flawed. By using juxtaposition and recreations, Morris successfully contrasts Adams and Harris to show that Adams is innocent and Harris is guilty, intensifies distrust of the legality in Adams’ wrong conviction to prove a flawed legal system, and evinces the eye witnesses are discreditable.

    Read More

  • Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

    1238 Words  | 3 Pages

    Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood, was a breakthrough in literacy in that it was accredited as the first non-fiction novel. There was a lot of controversy when the book was first published because of the incredibility of the work. This could be expected in that time, because people where not familiar with the concept of non-fiction novels yet, but this is where the beauty of this style of writing lies, the recreation of the truth. It would have been impossible for Capote to have documented the occurrence fully, because he only read about the murder after it had happen, after all, this was not what he wanted to do. Capote got a lot of criticism for the book, because of him bending the truth, putting in scenes that never happened and his ways of gathering information, but people still saw the talent that went into creating the non-fiction novel. Truman Capote will forever be recognized for this novel and the contribution he made to literacy. In this essay we will be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of In Cold Blood when it delivers facts and the credibility of the work. We will also be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the novel when Capote bends reality and ad some parts of fiction.

    Read More

  • Walter Mcmillian Guilty

    410 Words  | 1 Pages

    Stevenson’s principal focus as an attorney is death penalty cases. He aims to get falsely accused inmates off of death row. The case at hand is that of Walter McMillian, a male that was charged for the murder of a woman named Ronda Morrison. As the case unfolds, it is evident that the evidence presented did not help to validate Walter McMillian as guilty. Due to the local police being pressured to convict a murder for the victim, they were hasty in their investigation of the evidence and quickly pinned it on a practical target. There is also an underlying racial aspect of McMillian’s conviction since he is a black male and had been with interracial, adulterous relationship with a married white woman and that had made people suspicious of him.

    Read More

  • The Role Of The Monsters In Beowulf

    3014 Words  | 7 Pages

    MacAskill, Ewen. "Families Rebuke NBC for Broadcast of Killer's Rant." Guardian.co.uk. 20 Apr. 2007. Web. 26 Apr. 2010. .

    Read More

  • Everett Ruess: A Vagabond For Beauty

    1697 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Everett was strange, “Sleight concedes. “kind of different. But him and McCandless, at least they tried to follow their dream. That’s what was great about them. They tried. Not many do.” (67) John Krakauer’s book, Into the Wild, briefly makes a comparison between two young boys Chris McCandless and Everett Ruess and fills the reader with different perspectives about them and their experiences. While the author wrote about McCandless he is reminded of Ruess and his book Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty written by W.L. Rusho and it sparked an interesting comparison between the two. The use of storytelling and letters about McCandless and the use of Artwork, letters,

    Read More

  • Use of Literary Techniques in Into The Wild, by John Krakauer

    1067 Words  | 3 Pages

    ..., the use of literary techniques including irony, characterization and theme convey the author’s purpose and enhance Into The Wild. The author accomplished his purpose of telling the true story of Chris McCandless. He was an eccentric, unpredictable man that led a very interesting life. His life deserved a tribute as truthful and respectful as Jon Krakauer’s. Through his use of literary techniques, the author creates an intense, and emotional piece of literature that captures the hearts of most of its readers. Irony, characterization, and theme all play a vital role in the creation of such a renowned work of art. “Sensational…[Krakauer] is such a good reporter that we come as close as we probably ever can to another person’s heart and soul” (Men’s Journal).

    Read More

  • Truman Capote's In Cold Blood: Orb Project

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    HISTORICAL CONTEXT: In Cold Blood, a 1966 book by author Truman Capote, tells the true story of the barbaric 1959 murders of a successful farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, Herbert Clutter, his wife, and two of their four children. When Capote was informed about the murder of these four innocent souls before the two selfish men were captured, he decided to travel to Kansas and write about the crime. Nelle Harper Lee, a childhood friend and fellow author, accompanied him and together they interviewed local residents and investigators assigned to the case. As a result, thousands of pages of notes were documented for Capote’s literary works. The murderers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested six weeks after the murders and after the criminals were found, tried, and convicted, Capote organized personal interviews with both Smith and Hickock. Capote portrayed Smith as the more sensitive and guilt-ridden of the two killers due to his fascination with Smith. Rumors of a relationship between Smith and Capote still linger to this day. The book was not completed until after Smith and Hickock were executed. Capote ended up spending six years dedicated to his book, which became the greatest crime seller at the time and is almost universally acknowledged as one of the best books of its type ever written.

    Read More

  • Film Techniques In Shattered Glass

    883 Words  | 2 Pages

    “It's true, journalism is hard work. Everybody's under pressure. Everybody grinds to get the issue out. Nobody's getting any sleep, but you are allowed to smile every once in awhile” (Stephen Glass).

    Read More

  • A Love Story Analysis

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    After casually meeting the rape victim, Teena Maguire, and then being called to her crime scene, John Dromoor goes on a hero’s journey, starting with the hearing in September 1996. When madness ensues in Judge Schpiro’s courtroom, “Dromoor had seen the derailment. Sick in the gut, had to escape” (Oates 75). It is just a month after that Dromoor begins to take matters into his own hands in order to protect Teena and her daughter. By shooting James DeLucca with deadly force, an act that can be considered by some one of a madman, Dromoor asserts himself as the family’s protector and ‘hitman’. In his further actions, seeking out and likely being the killer of the Vick brothers and Fritz Haaber, Dromoor does what he knows the Maguires are desiring: to feel safe. Dromoor has a serial killer gene in his body, using his victim’s weaknesses to lure them to their death (i.e. Fritz Haaber’s affection towards young girls), but the reader knows that he is so meticulous because he wants the best for the Maguires. When the young daughter of the victim feels sad, Bethel Maguire calls the man that she knows can protect her, John Dromoor, and says, “Help us please help us John Dromoor we are so afraid” (Oates 120). Then, after seeing the convict that scared her the most, Fritz Haaber at the mall, Bethie confides in her grandmother to make her aware of Haaber’s presence at the mall purely because she knows that her

    Read More

  • A Critical Analysis of Judith Wright's 'the Killer'

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    Judith Wright's poem `The Killer' explores the relationship between Humans and Nature, and provides an insight into the primitive instincts which characterize both the speaker and the subject. These aspects of the poem find expression in the irony of the title and are also underlined by the various technical devices employed by the poet.

    Read More

More about Analysis of Janet Malcom´s The Journalist and the Murderer

Open Document