Monday, January 03, 2011

A Belated Attempt To Do A U-Turn On The Misconceived Loser Of A PR Campaign?

Posted by Peter Quennell


Click above for Nick Pisa in the Sun on winding it all down a few notches.

Right after the whole of Planet Earth was regaled for days on end about how Christmas in Capanne Prison is all really very nice - but also, of course, quite unbearable.

As the huge and incessant PR effort - the first and hopefully last for a convicted murderess in human history - was beamed at the wrong countries (the US and the UK) with the wrong message (Italy is third-world and all of its justice officials corrupt) in the wrong language (English) to the wrong audience (mostly those at a loose end after breakfast) it always looked to us like it was painting Knox into a pretty bad corner. (Deathfish’s post was over two years ago.)

This U-turn if heartfelt is unlikely to have very much effect on public opinion generally in Italy (which is firmly pro-guilt) or the appeals court in Perugia in particular (which seems to be simply going through the motions of checking a carefully argued and decided case).

Being very noisy about being very noisy is certainly a new one on us.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 01/03/11 at 05:39 PM in The officially involvedThe wider contextsAmanda Knox

Comments

Anyone notice that in most of the photos of Amanda she has a diabolical look on her face?  There are a few I’ve seen that are downright creepy. Her darker emotions and intentions really show on her features.  Rafaelle at least usually looks racked with nerves. 

Peter Hyatt has an excellent analysis of Amanda’s latest appeal statements at http://seamusoriley.blogspot.com/2011/01/amanda-knox-appeal-statement.html.  You can search his site for other posts about the case.  (I hope it is okay to make reference to another site here.)  We all know she is lying, but it is interesting to see the science of statement analyis used to pick apart her words to show the deceit.

Posted by Mechele on 01/04/11 at 06:33 PM | #

Mechele, I was thinking the same thing. Especially her eyes. Very unsettling. Awhile ago, someone posted a pic of Charles Manson’s eyes, next to Amanda’s. The likeness was eerie. They say that the eyes are the Window of the Soul. Not good, IMO.

Posted by capealadin on 01/04/11 at 10:24 PM | #

I am not sure if this is a U-turn or again the same old story from Seattle. Arent’t they getting tired of the sentence already: there is no evidence of Amanda’ guilt. How about reading the Massei report before they say anything like this?

http://www.king5.com/video/featured-videos/Curt-Knox-Hopeful-about-Amandas-New-Trial-112818219.html

Posted by Hungarian on 01/05/11 at 12:04 AM | #

Yes, before reading the comments, I also noticed the photo of AK, particularly her expression. She looks demented to me.

Her expressions recently convey to me a person who is beyond the denial stage. The stage where she thought there was a possibility she could get out of the mess she got into. At this point, she is simply going through the motions because there is no turning back and perhaps she feels what does she have to lose?

She looks like she has finally accepted the fact that she was involved in a killing and therefore she is a murderer. Her expressions reveal this is the image she has accepted of herself.

Posted by Kazwell on 01/05/11 at 06:50 AM | #

Quoting from Seattle Post-Intelligencer, one poster (Squiggles 1) mentions top ten ways to avoid publicity while in jail:

“9 – While awaiting trial, ask your family to refrain from being on Oprah to talk about you. And Good Morning America. And the CBS Morning Show. And Today. And CNN. Because it at this point appears that the most dangerous place on the planet is between a tv camera and your family.”

In this & other articles in the Seattle P-I one finds a very vigorous back & forth in public attitudes toward the Knox publicity.  Not surprisingly, quite a few have rejected Knox’s claim of innocence right there in her home territory.

http://www.seattlepi.com/soundoff/comment.asp?articleID=432652

Posted by Ernest Werner on 01/05/11 at 12:07 PM | #

On AK’s looks this is actually a tough one for us because many of the shots available have this hard resigned look and some make her look quite loopy and if we posted all of them it might look like we are playing gotcha.

Kazwell’s comment above seems very insightful. Psychology as a possible mitigating factor has never been raised by the defence and our lawyers say it is improbable she would get a break if they did.

The judges who read the report on her tests in prison (never made public) refused to allow her to move from a holding cell pre-trial to house arrest which seems ominous. The conspiracy theorists tend to forget that THIS was the reason she was locked up for so long before trial.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 01/05/11 at 03:18 PM | #

Hi Hungarian.

What you point to seems to us maybe a big difference between Chris Mellas and Curt Knox in what should happen to the massive PR effort.

Curt Knox seems deeply wedded to the thing and has been paying out for it, apparently with large gifts from addled friends and supporters. In turn it seems to keep him going financially since Macy’s laid him off from his accounting job a while back.

Chris Mellas on the other hand makes money out of IT where he seems quite good (we believe he may be working long-distance while on these extensive stays in Italy) and is more closely in touch with Knox and the lawyers and may be seeing what we see: a lot of damage from a PR scheme that has long outstayed its welcome and usefulness.

We watch and wait and see. John Kercher’s two articles protesting the PR have rattled their cages as the articles showed what moral power John brings to the situation. We see signs that Edda appears to be pretty rattled - several weeks ago she was nervous and defensive on the BBC and since has done little air time.

Despite softball questions from a very misinformed King5 host on that clip you linked to - talk about pandering on steroids - Curt Knox also seemed defensive and mostly out of answers there. That he cannot face the type of interviews we usually see of perps’ families on CNN and Fox Cable News is very telling.

That lack of an audience that might matter largely undermines his whole woolly-minded campaign.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 01/05/11 at 03:51 PM | #

far too little and way too late. why is sollecito remaining quiet? i find it hard to believe his family does not have some sort of strategy.

Posted by mojo on 01/05/11 at 05:44 PM | #

What I wouldn’t give to read their prison/personality tests!

Posted by Jumpy on 01/05/11 at 08:04 PM | #

It seems ridiculous that Knox protests the “celebrity” that her family’s $$$$ PR campaign inflated deliberately.

Is it true that if this appeal fails, the next (last) appeal will not be heard until Knox is about 30 years old?

Posted by giustizia on 01/05/11 at 08:05 PM | #

Sorry being the messenger again from Seattle. It seems to me that the PR firm never sleeps here.
Now it is for sure, the Lifetime movie is ready.
http://www.komonews.com/news/entertainment/113116759.html

Shall we start a movement to boycott this film ( and all the others alike also?)

Posted by Hungarian on 01/08/11 at 05:55 AM | #

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