Mez: DATELINE MEREDITH -

Meredith Kercher Murder Case -

The American NBC TV Dateline program presented a special about this case Friday evening, The Mystery of Meredith's Murder. Overall, it was a good show. Essentially, it was a recap of the case to date. Those in the U.S. who haven't been paying attention to the investigation in recent months got an opportunity to catch up on it. The case was presented in a dignified manner without sensationalism.

"Our man in Perugia" on this occasion turned out to be Richard Owen whose reportage on the case we have been reading at The Times of London. He appeared on camera and made a good impression as a careful reporter.

Toward the end of the show a professional American defense lawyer, Theodore Simon Esq of Philadelphia, made an appearance and gave what I thought was a fairly sound assessment of the situation - the kind of assessment you could reasonably expect from your defense lawyer if you ever needed one. I thought he made a valuable contribution in that regard.

I was pleased to see, however fleetingly, the Japanese vampire comic book we have been hearing so much about. But we weren't shown any graphics from it. Do any of the pictures in that comic book resemble the crime scene? And, if so, how close is the resemblance?

I have only one criticism of the show. One segment included an appearance by Amanda Knox's biological parents together. I was very offended by it. I felt it was a deliberate attempt to mislead and deceive the public, because their joint appearance misrepresents the household and home environment from which Amanda Knox emerged before she traveled to Perugia.

From what I understand, Knox came out of a blended family. Each of her parents has remarried to other spouses. Amanda Knox's home environment consisted of her biological mother and sister, plus her mother's new spouse. This new spouse never appeared on the show at all, which I found very weird. I presume Knox may have some step-siblings, too, in addition to her natural sister.

The joint appearance by Amanda Knox's biological parents came off as a sham, a charade and a fraud. It was an insult to the intelligence of the American Public. Blended families are not so unusual these days. I'm sure the American Public can cope with the issue. But they seemed to think that the American Public is stupid. Hey, we're not buying it out here!

A more important question, perhaps, is how NBC got sucked up the tube on this. It was a serious flaw in an otherwise very good program.

:: NBC Dateline ::

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