Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Oprah, Perhaps Your Guests On Today’s Show Could Explain This Very Tough One Away

Posted by Peter Quennell


Click here for Finn MacCools’ chilling analysis of Amanda Knox’s first call to her mom the day after.

Finn posted this incriminating piece of work on TJMK last July, and ever since, it has awkwardly lurked like an elephant in the room.

The prosecution never really required a smoking gun to prove the Knox-Sollecito case. To those in the courtroom who heard all the fine details, the totality of the evidence overwhelmingly pointed to guilt.

But for anyone for whom it hadn’t, this strange story of the call that suddenly wasn’t came as close as anything in the evidence to a smoking gun. One that Edda Mellas may have dropped to around two years ago, as Finn shows.

One that that in most courts around the world would almost by itself result in case closed.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/23/10 at 04:31 AM in The wider contextsMedia developmentsMore hoaxers

Comments

I sure hope Oprah has been reading up on the case from this website.  Unfortunately, I highly doubt she is going to be hard on Curt and Edda.  Amanda will be shown as the “innocent abroad” once again.  I invite Oprah to prove me wrong on this one…I hope she does!

Posted by chira385 on 02/23/10 at 08:07 AM | #

I don’t expect Oprah to harass her guests. They are not the first to be on her show and she wants to hear “their story” and other stories of families who will follow in similar situations.

Elizabeth Vargas on the other hand is supposedly a reporter, it will be up to her—has she done her job and gotten the actual facts of the case… uh, you know what I mean, Liz— FACTS IN EVIDENCE.

If the Knox contingent gets to put forward the Amanda sob story, then it’s up to Ms. Vargas to put anything they say straight. Amanda’s been found guilty—not by a kangaroo court, but by a legally seated judge and jury in the full glare of the press presence, just like Scott Peterson.

Nancy Grace gets it, as well as the others you’ve mentioned. The biggest problem for Americans in this case is linguistic, to be able to know what’s really going on you need to speak/read italian, and it’s become rather obvious that most of our journalists are too lazy to bother with actually looking at what happened in court.

Once the report from the court is out (will Oprah be aware of the existence of said report OR the earlier report??) ...once that report is out in the public domain, will we revisit this on national television…or will MSM casually let it pass unnoticed, uncommented?

Posted by mojo on 02/23/10 at 12:55 PM | #

Don’t expect Elizabeth Vargas to do any such thing. She got an exclusive with the family the day the verdict was announced! Her 20/20 coverage of this case has been hopelessly one-sided. She seems to have become quite close to and sympathetic with Edda Mellas.

The family and PR firm have a blacklist of journalists they will not deal with, comprised of every journalist who has been consistently objective and truthful, and who has looked behind the spin and talking points. Elizabeth Vargas is not on that list. I rest my case.

Posted by Skeptical Bystander on 02/23/10 at 06:18 PM | #

As a Seattleite who has studied the case from day one, and also an Oprah fan, I am stunned that she would allow her forum to be used by a woman who along with her convicted daughter were complicit in fingering an innocent man for murder.

Oprah and the ignorant Trump - synonymous? It would appear the latest bottom-feeding attorney they have hired and their Seattle PR firm will have made a dupe of one whose passion for truth used to be unquestionable.

Shame Oprah. You will be abetting the ongoing slur on Italy, its officials, and its institutions.

Posted by jennifer on 02/23/10 at 06:27 PM | #

The show has just been broadcast in the NYC area.

Wow. Oprah Winfrey REALLY got snowed. No wonder she looked so very uncomfortable. Rarely does she look so ill at ease.

There were so many mis-statements of hard fact and claims made up out of thin air that we lost all count. We have recorded the show and in one or two days will be making our usual effort to set the record straight.

What Oprah seemed blissfully unaware of is (1) the judges sentencing report which is due on 2 March; and (2) book after book which is due out soon which will show just how guilty Knox is.

Perhaps Oprah’s next few guests on the case will include Tina Brown and Ann Coulter and Jeanine Pirro. For the quaint concept of some balance.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/24/10 at 01:08 AM | #

2/23/10
After seeing the Knox family on Oprah show, my first impressions:
Curt preempts Edda’s tears. Tears are the order of the day, even from the young children of Curt’s 2nd wife, the little Ashley and Delaney. (and what’s with the names all A & D? Amanda and Deanna, Ashley and Delaney?) They had on tons of eye makeup and giant gold hoop earrings. It seemed out of place at their tender age, especially on the youngest child. They are both beautiful children without adult embellishments.
Edda appears in flaming red again. Her hair did look nice.

Curt got the most nervous when asked by Oprah, “Have you ever directly confronted Amanda and asked her if she had anything to do with this murder?” He began to answer “of course”, Amanda is innocent, yada yada yada, but he was spared having to amplify his response beyond nervous body language and a big swallow. No doubt he was grateful to be saved for once by Edda’s constant interruptions as she dived in to simultaneously answer the same question, with a lot of headshaking on her part and general nervous chatter. There seemed to be a large gulp in her throat, too. Her glib responses to this heavy question felt canned. Though very well acted, I felt she was parroting the party line. As Curt also did soon thereafter when asked if he had spoken to the Kercher family. He always answers “no” and proceeds to repeat, “Their family received the worst phone call possible… we still have a chance with our daughter.” I don’t like how he equates Meredith’s death to the calls they received in Seattle. He did say they try to express their condolences through the media. Oprah graciously gave them an out by suggesting that lawyers often urge clients not to speak.

Blood evidence was totally left out of the dialogue. Curt stated his belief that Rudy killed Meredith.

In explaining how the DNA evidence was argued as if in two separate languages, Elizabeth Vargas made a slip. She used an analogy like “The prosecution said, “The sky is blue”, while the defense contended the sky is green.” Well, I believe the prosecution is correct, the sky is blue except right before a tornado or hurricane?

The photo of beautiful, serene Meredith flashed on the screen at times and completely humbled the entire proceedings.
 
Deanna says she has quit college due to her sister’s situation and is working fulltime, that she is taking care of her mom and dad (emotionally). Curt later seemed to confirm that Deanna is more involved with her two younger half-sisters than he is, that he has been somewhat unaware of their pain, due to his trips abroad and the toll the case has taken on his time. He didn’t seem too broken up about it.

I assume Deanna left college to avoid being the center of unwanted questions about Foxy. It would be exhausting to constantly field responses. Perhaps finances played a part. She says her life is “on hold” and that their entire family is in a waiting pattern until Amanda comes home. She confessed that she has trouble being the oldest sister, that Amanda was better at it and that Deanna’s just the substitute. I believe she is very honest about the difficulty of that role reversal for a second-born.

Ted Simon spoke from the audience. His hair has grown longer and looks rather distinguished with silver on the sides, but he is misled by this client.

The entire family gathered around the table for the weekly phone call from Amanda. The 10-minute call from Amanda in prison was blocked from broadcast, in keeping with Italian law it seems. The scene at the table was bizarre to me, as if it’s a Thanksgiving feast and the main event in the lives of approximately 12 people, many of whom sleep over at the Mellas house the night before to be able to hear Amanda’s voice or speak with her. Whatever. (all for TV impression, IMO). It may be a big deal for awhile. Sad to say, I can’t imagine anything more tedious and draining over time.

Finally at this point in the show, Cassandra Knox appears in the camera at the table, with Chris Mellas I believe standing and reaching over the table to pour coffee for her. Seems the two “second spouses” need a caffeine boost to survive this production.

Amanda used her phone call to ask Edda to tell Oprah, “I love you,” and to relay thanks on Oprah’s show to all the people who have written to support Amanda in jail. It seems she “doesn’t have time” to respond. I suspect she is indifferent to their verbal support since they can offer little else. She is studying and doing assignments for University of Washington professors who work with her in an independent study plan. Curt says she is not “wasting time” in prison.

Much was made by Curt of the 45 minutes Amanda cried in his arms during one of his visits. He became so upset and tearful while recalling it that he had to leave the camera. This was in a little clip inserted into the show. Tears were the order of the day on this program. I believe Curt has suffered, but I also believe that at the 3-year mark he will bail again like he did when Amanda was a toddler.

Posted by Hopeful on 02/24/10 at 02:20 AM | #

thanks for the rundown, Hopeful. self-centered Amanda is not wasting time, yet, her sister seems to be holding on by her fingernails and taking care of everyone else.

yes, Amanda, seems in your world view it is still about you! Oprah isn’t the only one who has been snowed.

Posted by mojo on 02/24/10 at 07:01 PM | #

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