An Innocent Abroad?
There is an article in the New York Times by Timothy Egan titled “An Innocent Abroad” about one Amanda Knox accused of murder in Italy. It is an Opinion piece, not a news report and in it the author Egan does more than merely insinuate, he practically accuses the Italian justice systems of unfairness and casts grave aspersions on the character of the prosecutor. Now, Knox may or may not be guilty of murder and every accused is of course entitled to be presumed innocent. However, Egan’s article (the title tells you all about its slant) comes across as a puff piece that puts his perception of the truth without even bothering to give balanced account of both sides of the story. That is the sort of writing that may pass muster at a lesser paper, but to be associated with as august a paper as The New York Times is quite sad. I wonder if the NYT is slipping in terms of quality control? Because quite simply the article (albeit listed as an Opinion piece) was simply a disgraceful piece of writing.
This is not to say if Knox is or is not guilty. That is not the topic discussed. It is instead the ethics of writing a blatant puff piece casting various assertions with skimpy evidence. Indeed the article is thick with irony as it castigates an allegedly crooked prosecutor for accusing Knox with insufficient evidence even as it blatantly defames the prosecutor with equally threadbare “evidence.”
