Please! The news has been a branch of the leisure and entertainment industry for a long time. The first syndicated interview with Knox will prove that. I'd trust everything on newstatesman.com before I'd believe anything on Mail Online. The outcome has all the hallmarks of the OJ case. The press knows it but can't say it, so, instead, we are having the hoopla you describe. It passes for journalism.

And the Black guy will be the, 'fall guy' for the other two involved; which by the way, I suspect may be Knox and her boyfriend, Sollecito.

Why is the life of a Black person worth? Nothing as far as the Western world are concern.

You give them far too much credit in assuming that the quotes had been obtained beforehand to reflect either eventuality. I suspect they were made up, just like the visual account.

The jury has spoken! Wait for the book, titled "Foxy did not do it but here is what happened if she had done it. In many ways (forgive me victims parents) this is a bit like our blacks killing each other no real problem as long as they keep it in the family. Italians do not throw paper money like our gay Judiciary!

Presumption is the root of all ignorance. Biggest mistakes ever are to presume the world is not barbaric and that acting civilised will keep us safe.
Civilisation is transparent but people are opaque.

Knox was originally conviceted on the strength of her non-monogamous lifestyle and the stigma attached to women who are not sexually meek and tractible, by the word of a prosecutor so obsessed with satanism that he has illegal wiretaps put on local politicians in order to catch them worshipping the devil together.

This is press dynamite, which explains the media circus on what would have been just another tawdry rape/murder case, which the press don't like if they can't blame the victim.

Add to this the general vileness of the Daily Fail and their gaffe seems almost inevitable in hindsight.

As to the Victim's family, the man who did it is in jail, and has been for some time, and will be for some time to come, what more justice did they get from innocent people being imprisoned as well?

Some points for all of the posters here:

If so much of what the MSM does is appalling, then why do you continue to consume it?

The reason is because not all but many people just can't be bothered with doing their own research. Finding reliable alternate sources to get facts from. It actually makes some peoples day to have a go at Paxman (like he's actually going to read it and care?).

Yes, it is insulting to use your "we are superior" attitude to have a go at other countries judicial systems. Several times I heard Knox's mother say how rubbish the Italian system is. But not once did she say, by the way, so is the Stateside system. If she had, would she have gotten the same amount of global coverage?

Now, the fact that a woman was killed doesn't matter. All that matters is hype:

What did she say today?
What did she eat for lunch?
Who's her agent?
How much is she getting in the book and movie deals?

The sad truth is six months from now, until the book and movie come out, nobody will remember who she is.

@Mejoff

I am sorry but I have to disagree with you there. All this media circus was started by her own family who had all interest to keep the American press attention directed on the case of her daughter: how could such an 'angelic looking' girl be guilty of such an abominable crime?! An American (especially if white and rich, and goodlooking) is innocent by definition. At any rate, the judge who released Amanda Knox and Sollecito confirmed that more than one person (the convicted Guede) were involved in the murder. And what is most appalling is the attempt by the American lobby to impose their kind of justice in another country (ie.if you can prove that there can be even a little shred of doubt about the innocence of somebody you must let him walk) -Poor Mez, your murder has been turned into a media stage opportunity for an egocentric brat.

Though tragic, is there something about this that made it more newsworthy than the >600 other murders that occur each year? (That's the figure for the UK alone.)

Is there something special about the situation here to do with the nationalities of the people involved or the country that it occurred in? Or was the case spun into something big for more cynical reasons?

I must concur with Frank and Cath. I do not believe that Knox is innocent. I feel complete and absolute sympathy for the Kercher family. Let us not forget that Meredith died in the most horrific of circumstances and yet the British press do not seem to care much for the feelings of the Kercher family. A crime expert from Strathclyde University spoke on the radio this morning on five live. What he said was crucial: these types of cases are notoriously difficult to prove regardless of the DNA evidence. I am reminded of the OJ Simpson case where he got off on a technicality whereas most of the evidence pointed to his guilt. I am reminded too of the Louise Woodward case where a baby dies in her care. She was acquitted; and like Knox all the attention was on her rather than the baby that had died.

In some ways the beauty of the post-internet press is that they can't help but reveal themselves to be the unscrupulous hacks that they are. This extends to both the Daily Heil and its Janus-faced twin The Guardian. Both exist primarily to distract the middle class from the real news with a steady drip-feed of moral outrage.

As Derek Elder said above, news is now a branch of the entertainment industry and the commercial/political pressures heaped on to the papers and their journalists mean truth doesn't even enter the equation.

There is still some genuine investigative journalism out there but you won't often find it in the mainstream media.

Websites like http://churnalism.com/ reveal how most of the 'journalism' on the web and in print is just copy & pasted from press releases, agencies or PR (propaganda) firms. For the most part journalism isn't even journalism any more.

The film 'Starsuckers' shows just how little interest the press have in facts or truth. Often they'll print any old rubbish without fact checking so long as it fits their preconceptions about the subject.