Mez: 48 HRS MISFIRES -

Meredith Kercher Murder -

Remember the old Hollywood movie where Tuesday Weld gets locked up by an evil Southern sheriff? That was the kind of story line used for this CBS TV program about the case in Perugia. The problem with it was: they identified the wrong guy as the sheriff.

Who is keeping Amanda Knox
locked up? Who is in charge of this case?

They seemed to think it is the prosecutor, Mignini. Actually, it's an administrative judge named Micheli. This was a rather serious flaw which eroded the credibility of the perspective they used, which was: hometown American ingenue in trouble abroad.

The next problem was even worse. It turned out that they hadn't even bothered to read the indictment and, instead, presented it as a weird fairytale. Alas, this is not the CBS of Edward R Murrow anymore; and there is no accountability for accuracy anymore either.

A few more brief notes:

-- First, on a brighter note: reporter Nick Pisa appeared in cameo snippets sprinkled throughout the program, and there was nothing amiss with his contributions.

-- On a darker note: the author of a book about serial killings in Florence was brought in because he had some personal experience with the prosecutor. It was a time-wasting distraction.

-- Lastly, a downright creepy sound bite of Amanda Knox was included. In it, she says: "I am not the person that the prosecutor says I am."

Where have we heard something like that before? In the case of the Long Island train shooter; it became his main defense.

The text version of the program comes off
a bit more credible than the televised version:

:: American Girl, Italian Nightmare ::

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