The Journalist and the Murderer
Encyclopedia
The Journalist and the Murderer is a 1990 study by Janet Malcolm
about the ethics of journalism
published by Alfred A. Knopf
/Random House
. Attracting heavy criticism upon first publication, it is now regarded as a "seminal" work, and ranks ninety-seventh on Random House
's The Modern Library's list of the 100 Best Non-Fiction works of the twentieth century.
; the murderer is the former Special Forces
Captain Jeffery MacDonald
, who became the subject of McGinniss' 1983 book Fatal Vision
.
When Malcolm's work first appeared in March, 1989, as a two-part serialization in The New Yorker
magazine, it caused a sensation, becoming the occasion for wide-ranging debate within the news industry.
project that would become Fatal Vision, McGinniss struck up a close friendship with the accused murderer Jeffrey MacDonald.
MacDonald, an Army physician, had been charged with the 1970 murders of his twenty-six year-old pregnant wife Collette and their two young daughters. The agreement was that the journalist would report from both the court room and from within MacDonald's team. McGinniss shared housing with his book's subject, exercised with him, and sat beside him at the defense table during his trial.. As Malcolm writes, "They clothed their complicated business together in the mantle of friendship—in this case, friendship of a particularly American cast, whose emblems of intimacy are watching sports on television, drinking beer, running, and classifying women according to their looks." Within a month of MacDonald's conviction, the journalist began a series of letters. Malcolm quotes McGinniss' expressions of sympathy—"any fool can recognize within five minutes that you did not receive a fair trial...it was utter madness"—as well as his tacit assurances that the book would help win his release: "it's a hell of a thing—spend the summer making a new friend and the bastards come and lock him up. But not for long, Jeffrey—not for long."
Malcolm states that in fact McGinniss had become swiftly and easily convinced of MacDonald's guilt during the trial. She also describes how, in the same months that he wrote warm letters to the now-jailed MacDonald, he was also writing to his editor Morgan Entrekin
, discussing the technical problem of not spoiling his work's effect by making MacDonald, in the book, appear "too loathsome too soon."
Throughout the years of interviews, as Malcolm writes, "MacDonald imagined he was 'helping' McGinniss write a book exonerating him of his crime." What she terms MacDonald's "dehoaxing" took place in "a particularly dramatic and cruel manner"—a 1983 taping of the CBS
news program 60 Minutes
. As host Mike Wallace
read aloud portions of the now-completed Fatal Vision, the cameras broadcast MacDonald's look of "shock and utter discomposure."
who, unbalanced by amphetamines, had murdered his family. But to Malcolm, MacDonald in person seemed sturdy, unremarkable, and incapable of such a crime. McGinniss drew upon the works of a number of social critics, including the moralist Christopher Lasch
, to construct a portrait of MacDonald as a "pathological narcissist."
But as presented by Malcolm, what drove McGinniss to this strategy were professional and structural liabilities—MacDonald's "lack of vividness," his drawbacks as the real-life figure who would serve as main character for his book. MacDonald, charismatic in person, lost vigor on the page. As other journalists noted, when interviewed MacDonald could "sound like an accountant."
"As every journalist will confirm," Malcolm writes,
In Malcolm's depiction, it was in order to conceal this deficit that McGinniss turned to social treatises like Lasch's The Culture of Narcissism
. This, to her, is McGinniss' professional sin. In Malcolm's eyes McGinnis' moral sin—and the basis for her broader journalistic critique—was to pretend to a belief in MacDonald's innocence. In Malcolm's opinion he does this long after he'd become convinced of the man's guilt. This is the "morally indefensible" position she speaks of on the book's first page.
reported in March 1989, Malcolm's "declarations provoked outrage among authors, reporters and editors, who rushed last week to distinguish themselves from the journalists Miss Malcolm was describing. They accused her of tarring all in the profession when she was really aiming at everyone but themselves." Although roundly criticized upon first publication—by both newspaper reviewers and media observers like former CBS News
president Fred Friendly
, who descried the book's "weakness" and "crabbed vision"—it was also defended by a number of fellow writers. These included the journalists Jessica Mitford
and Nora Ephron
. Her then controversial premise that every journalist was in the business of "gaining [a subject's] trust and betraying them without remorse" has since been accepted by journalists like Gore Vidal and Susan Orlean. Susan Orlean
"endorsed Malcolm's thesis as a necessary evil." As Douglas McCollam wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review
, "In the decade after Malcolm's essay appeared, her once controversial theory became received wisdom." He also writes that "I think both the profession and subjects have paid a high price for our easy acceptance of Malcolm's moral calculus."
The book has since become regarded as a classic by some, ranking ninety-seventh in The Modern Library's list of the twentieth century's "100 Best Works of Nonfiction." However, the way in which Random House composed these lists has been brought into question. Ironically, it appears just one spot below Truman Capote's In Cold Blood
, the first non-fiction novel
and originator of the true-crime genre to which Fatal Vision belongs; a quarter-century earlier, it too had been serialized in The New Yorker
.
Janet Malcolm
Janet Malcolm is an American writer and journalist on staff at The New Yorker magazine. She is the author of Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession , In the Freud Archives and The Journalist and the Murderer ....
about the ethics of journalism
Journalism
Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience. Along with covering organizations and institutions such as government and...
published by Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf
Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. is a New York publishing house, founded by Alfred A. Knopf, Sr. in 1915. It was acquired by Random House in 1960 and is now part of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group at Random House. The publishing house is known for its borzoi trademark , which was designed by co-founder...
/Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
. Attracting heavy criticism upon first publication, it is now regarded as a "seminal" work, and ranks ninety-seventh on Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
's The Modern Library's list of the 100 Best Non-Fiction works of the twentieth century.
Overview
The Journalist and the Murderer is an examination of the professional choices that shape a work of non-fiction, as well as a rumination on the morality that underpins the journalistic enterprise. The journalist in question is the author Joe McGinnissJoe McGinniss
Joe McGinniss is an American author of nonfiction and novels. He first came to prominence with the best-selling The Selling of the President, 1968 which described the marketing of then-presidential candidate Richard Nixon, and has authored 11 works since that time...
; the murderer is the former Special Forces
Special forces
Special forces, or special operations forces are terms used to describe elite military tactical teams trained to perform high-risk dangerous missions that conventional units cannot perform...
Captain Jeffery MacDonald
Jeffrey R. MacDonald
Jeffrey Robert MacDonald , is an American convicted in 1979 for the murders of his pregnant wife and two daughters in February 1970. At the time of the murders, MacDonald was an Army officer, medical doctor and practicing physician...
, who became the subject of McGinniss' 1983 book Fatal Vision
Fatal Vision
Fatal Vision is a best-selling true crime book published in 1983 by journalist and author Joe McGinniss. The following year it was made into an NBC television miniseries under the same name. Fatal Vision is the real-life story of Captain Jeffrey MacDonald, M.D., who in 1979 was convicted of the...
.
When Malcolm's work first appeared in March, 1989, as a two-part serialization in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
magazine, it caused a sensation, becoming the occasion for wide-ranging debate within the news industry.
Themes
Malcolm's thesis, and the most widely quoted passage from The Journalist and the Murderer, is presented in the book's opening paragraph: "Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible." She continues:- He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse. Like the credulous widow who wakes up one day to find the charming young man and all her savings gone, so the consenting subject of a piece of nonfiction learns—when the article or book appears—his hard lesson. Journalists justify their treachery in various ways according to their temperaments. The more pompous talk about freedom of speech and "the public's right to know"; the least talented talk about Art; the seemliest murmur about earning a living."
The journalist and the murderer
Malcolm took as her subject the popular non-fiction writer Joe McGinniss; McGinniss had become a best-selling author with his 1969 work The Selling of the President. After an interview with the accused murderer, Jeffrey MacDonald, MacDonald proposed that McGinniss write a book of his story, and asked for a share of the revenue from the book as a way to fund his legal battle. MacDonald agreed. Having received a sizable advance payment for the true crimeTrue crime
True crime is a non-fiction literary and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people.The crimes most commonly include murder, but true crime works have also touched on other legal cases. Depending on the writer, true crime can adhere strictly to...
project that would become Fatal Vision, McGinniss struck up a close friendship with the accused murderer Jeffrey MacDonald.
MacDonald, an Army physician, had been charged with the 1970 murders of his twenty-six year-old pregnant wife Collette and their two young daughters. The agreement was that the journalist would report from both the court room and from within MacDonald's team. McGinniss shared housing with his book's subject, exercised with him, and sat beside him at the defense table during his trial.. As Malcolm writes, "They clothed their complicated business together in the mantle of friendship—in this case, friendship of a particularly American cast, whose emblems of intimacy are watching sports on television, drinking beer, running, and classifying women according to their looks." Within a month of MacDonald's conviction, the journalist began a series of letters. Malcolm quotes McGinniss' expressions of sympathy—"any fool can recognize within five minutes that you did not receive a fair trial...it was utter madness"—as well as his tacit assurances that the book would help win his release: "it's a hell of a thing—spend the summer making a new friend and the bastards come and lock him up. But not for long, Jeffrey—not for long."
Malcolm states that in fact McGinniss had become swiftly and easily convinced of MacDonald's guilt during the trial. She also describes how, in the same months that he wrote warm letters to the now-jailed MacDonald, he was also writing to his editor Morgan Entrekin
Morgan Entrekin
Morgan Entrekin is the president and publisher of Grove/Atlantic Inc. Books in New York City. He is one of six owners of the publishing company. He is from Nashville, Tennessee.-Timeline:...
, discussing the technical problem of not spoiling his work's effect by making MacDonald, in the book, appear "too loathsome too soon."
Throughout the years of interviews, as Malcolm writes, "MacDonald imagined he was 'helping' McGinniss write a book exonerating him of his crime." What she terms MacDonald's "dehoaxing" took place in "a particularly dramatic and cruel manner"—a 1983 taping of the CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
news program 60 Minutes
60 Minutes
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine, which has run on CBS since 1968. The program was created by producer Don Hewitt who set it apart by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation....
. As host Mike Wallace
Mike Wallace (journalist)
Myron Leon "Mike" Wallace is an American journalist, former game show host, actor and media personality. During his 60+ year career, he has interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers....
read aloud portions of the now-completed Fatal Vision, the cameras broadcast MacDonald's look of "shock and utter discomposure."
Pathological narcissists and auto-fictionalizers
In the published Fatal Vision, McGinniss depicted MacDonald as a "womanizer" and a "publicity-seeker," as well as a sociopathPsychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
who, unbalanced by amphetamines, had murdered his family. But to Malcolm, MacDonald in person seemed sturdy, unremarkable, and incapable of such a crime. McGinniss drew upon the works of a number of social critics, including the moralist Christopher Lasch
Christopher Lasch
Christopher Lasch was a well-known American historian, moralist, and social critic....
, to construct a portrait of MacDonald as a "pathological narcissist."
But as presented by Malcolm, what drove McGinniss to this strategy were professional and structural liabilities—MacDonald's "lack of vividness," his drawbacks as the real-life figure who would serve as main character for his book. MacDonald, charismatic in person, lost vigor on the page. As other journalists noted, when interviewed MacDonald could "sound like an accountant."
"As every journalist will confirm," Malcolm writes,
- "MacDonald's uninterestingness is not unusual at all...When a journalist fetches up against someone like [him], all he can do is flee and hope that a more suitable subject will turn up soon. In the MacDonald-McGinniss case we have an instance of a journalist who apparently found out too late that the subject of his book was not up to scratch—not a member of the wonderful race of auto-fictionalizers, like Joseph MitchellJoseph MitchellJoseph Mitchell was an American writer best known for the work he published in The New Yorker. He is known for his carefully written portraits of eccentrics and people on the fringes of society, especially in and around New York City.Mitchell was born on his maternal grandparents' farm near...
's Joe GouldJoe GouldJoseph Gould may refer to:* Joe Gould , writer, eccentric, homeless man* Joe Gould , manager of boxer James J. Braddock* Joe Gould's Secret, the 1965 book by Joseph Mitchell...
and Truman CapoteTruman CapoteTruman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
's Perry SmithPerry Smith (murderer)Perry Edward Smith was one of two ex-convicts who murdered four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, United States on November 15, 1959, a crime made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood.-Family and early life:Perry Edward Smith was born in Huntington,...
, on whom the "non-fiction novel" depends for its life...The solution that McGinniss arrived at for dealing with MacDonald's characterlessness was not a satisfactory one, but it had to do."
In Malcolm's depiction, it was in order to conceal this deficit that McGinniss turned to social treatises like Lasch's The Culture of Narcissism
The Culture of Narcissism
The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations is a 1979 book by the cultural historian Christopher Lasch exploring the roots and ramifications of the normalizing of pathological narcissism in 20th century American culture using psychological, cultural, artistic and...
. This, to her, is McGinniss' professional sin. In Malcolm's eyes McGinnis' moral sin—and the basis for her broader journalistic critique—was to pretend to a belief in MacDonald's innocence. In Malcolm's opinion he does this long after he'd become convinced of the man's guilt. This is the "morally indefensible" position she speaks of on the book's first page.
Reaction
The book provoked a wide-ranging professional debate when it was serialized in The New Yorker magazine. Joe McGinniss, who was one of the subjects of the book, described Malcolm's "omissions, distortions and outright misstatements of fact" as "numerous and egregious" in his rebuttal. As The New York TimesThe New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
reported in March 1989, Malcolm's "declarations provoked outrage among authors, reporters and editors, who rushed last week to distinguish themselves from the journalists Miss Malcolm was describing. They accused her of tarring all in the profession when she was really aiming at everyone but themselves." Although roundly criticized upon first publication—by both newspaper reviewers and media observers like former CBS News
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of American television and radio network CBS. The current chairman is Jeff Fager who is also the executive producer of 60 Minutes, while the current president of CBS News is David Rhodes. CBS News' flagship program is the CBS Evening News, hosted by the network's main...
president Fred Friendly
Fred W. Friendly
Fred W. Friendly was a president of CBS News and the creator, along with Edward R. Murrow, of the documentary television program See It Now...
, who descried the book's "weakness" and "crabbed vision"—it was also defended by a number of fellow writers. These included the journalists Jessica Mitford
Jessica Mitford
Jessica Lucy Freeman-Mitford was an English author, journalist and political campaigner, who was one of the Mitford sisters...
and Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron
Nora Ephron is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, novelist, playwright, journalist, author, and blogger.She is best known for her romantic comedies and is a triple nominee for the Academy Award for Writing Original Screenplay; for Silkwood, When Harry Met Sally... and Sleepless in...
. Her then controversial premise that every journalist was in the business of "gaining [a subject's] trust and betraying them without remorse" has since been accepted by journalists like Gore Vidal and Susan Orlean. Susan Orlean
Susan Orlean
Susan Orlean is an American journalist. She has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992, and has contributed articles to Vogue, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Outside....
"endorsed Malcolm's thesis as a necessary evil." As Douglas McCollam wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review
Columbia Journalism Review
The Columbia Journalism Review is an American magazine for professional journalists published bimonthly by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961....
, "In the decade after Malcolm's essay appeared, her once controversial theory became received wisdom." He also writes that "I think both the profession and subjects have paid a high price for our easy acceptance of Malcolm's moral calculus."
The book has since become regarded as a classic by some, ranking ninety-seventh in The Modern Library's list of the twentieth century's "100 Best Works of Nonfiction." However, the way in which Random House composed these lists has been brought into question. Ironically, it appears just one spot below Truman Capote's In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood is a 1966 book by Truman Capote.In Cold Blood may also refer to:* In Cold Blood , a 1967 film and 1996 miniseries, both based on the book* In Cold Blood...
, the first non-fiction novel
Non-fiction novel
The non-fiction novel is a literary genre which, broadly speaking, depicts real historical figures and actual events narrated woven together with fictitious allegations and using the storytelling techniques of fiction. The non-fiction novel is an otherwise loosely-defined and flexible genre...
and originator of the true-crime genre to which Fatal Vision belongs; a quarter-century earlier, it too had been serialized in The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
.
See also
- Janet MalcolmJanet MalcolmJanet Malcolm is an American writer and journalist on staff at The New Yorker magazine. She is the author of Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession , In the Freud Archives and The Journalist and the Murderer ....
- Jeffrey MacDonaldJeffrey R. MacDonaldJeffrey Robert MacDonald , is an American convicted in 1979 for the murders of his pregnant wife and two daughters in February 1970. At the time of the murders, MacDonald was an Army officer, medical doctor and practicing physician...
- Joe McGinnissJoe McGinnissJoe McGinniss is an American author of nonfiction and novels. He first came to prominence with the best-selling The Selling of the President, 1968 which described the marketing of then-presidential candidate Richard Nixon, and has authored 11 works since that time...
- Fatal VisionFatal VisionFatal Vision is a best-selling true crime book published in 1983 by journalist and author Joe McGinniss. The following year it was made into an NBC television miniseries under the same name. Fatal Vision is the real-life story of Captain Jeffrey MacDonald, M.D., who in 1979 was convicted of the...
- Media StudiesMedia studiesMedia studies is an academic discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history and effects of various media; in particular, the 'mass media'. Media studies may draw on traditions from both the social sciences and the humanities, but mostly from its core disciplines of mass...
- Media ethicsMedia ethicsMedia ethics is the subdivision of applied ethics dealing with the specific ethical principles and standards of media, including broadcast media, film, theatre, the arts, print media and the internet...
- Journalism ethics and standardsJournalism ethics and standardsJournalism ethics and standards comprise principles of ethics and of good practice as applicable to the specific challenges faced by journalists. Historically and currently, this subset of media ethics is widely known to journalists as their professional "code of ethics" or the "canons of journalism"...