Ethics and Truth
In the heart of The Journalist and the Murderer, the thorny terrain of journalistic ethics is laid bare. Malcolm opens with the provocative assertion that every journalist is akin to a "confidence man," exploiting the vanity, ignorance, or solitude of others, securing their trust only to shatter it with cold indifference. To substantiate her claim, Malcolm delves into the dramatic saga of the MacDonald-McGinniss lawsuit. Central to this tale is MacDonald's allegation that McGinniss failed to preserve the "essential integrity" of his life's narrative. In stark contrast, McGinniss, in a post-publication interview following Fatal Vision, contended that his "only obligation...was to the truth." This truth, as perceived by him and the jury at the MacDonald trial, was MacDonald's guilt, diverging sharply from the innocence he professed to MacDonald.
McGinniss denied any misconduct. At the trial, his defense team summoned fellow journalists and nonfiction writers to justify his actions. Among them, William F. Buckley, Jr., candidly confessed he might "tell [a subject] something you don’t really believe in order to glean more information from him." Joseph Wambaugh, known for the true crime work The Onion Field, sought to distinguish between a lie and an untruth: "A lie is something that’s told with ill will or in bad faith," he argued, whereas an untruth serves "as a tool to unearth the actual truth." Despite these defenses, they failed to sway much of the audience, including the jury, who remained unconvinced.
Trust
The lawsuit MacDonald filed against McGinniss was born from what he perceived as a monumental breach of trust. McGinniss, under the guise of a false ally, convinced MacDonald of his supposed belief in his innocence to ensnare the intimate details of his tale. The depth of MacDonald's trust in McGinniss is almost palpable. Following MacDonald's conviction and subsequent imprisonment, the letters exchanged between them unveil a relationship that transcends the usual author and subject dynamic. Time and again, McGinniss decried the unfairness of MacDonald's conviction, pledging his unwavering camaraderie. So profound was MacDonald’s trust that he allowed McGinniss the liberty to inhabit his vacant apartment and even remove critical documents—artifacts McGinniss would later wield against him in a damning portrayal.
Malcolm observes that despite his ordeal with McGinniss, MacDonald remained open-hearted towards journalists, engaging with them in interviews and offering materials, a behavior she views as a "childish trust" in the press—a trait she finds prevalent among those who find themselves in the public eye.
The Moral Quandary of Journalism
Delving into the moral complexities of journalism, Malcolm examines the guilt reporters often feel when they deceive their subjects—drawing from her own experiences. In her view, McGinniss’s conduct towards MacDonald was nothing short of disgraceful. Yet, she was eager to converse with him. However, McGinniss chose to terminate their anticipated discussions. While this decision hindered her investigation to a degree, she expressed relief, noting that it liberated her from the moral burden of engaging with someone she deemed unethical. After all, as she remarked, "you can’t betray someone you barely know."
Psychoanalysis and Psychology
In the tapestry of her work, Malcolm intricately weaves the threads of language and insights harvested from her explorations into psychoanalysis and psychology. Time and again, she draws a vivid analogy between the journalist's interviewee and a therapy patient. Early in her narrative, she vividly illustrates how a subject's realization of manipulation echoes a renowned psychological experiment from the 1960s. In another instance, she probes the depths of trust subjects often place in journalists, observing, "The journalistic encounter seems to have the same regressive effect on a subject as the psychoanalytic encounter."...
(This entire section contains 290 words.)
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Malcolm skillfully bridges the journalist-subject dynamic with the analyst-patient relationship. The subject, much like the patient, pours out their story to any attentive ear, naturally assuming the leading role. Malcolm's relentless pursuit of these revelations mirrors the therapeutic journey itself. As a journalist, she deciphers the subject's behaviors, akin to an analyst discerning a patient's patterns. Yet, Malcolm is not solitary in her use of psychoanalytic language. The spouse of MacDonald's lawyer, a therapist in her own right, draws a parallel between McGinniss's deceptive camaraderie with MacDonald and a therapeutic scenario.
Psychological Underpinnings in "Fatal Vision"
The realm of psychology also casts its shadow over McGinniss's creation, Fatal Vision. Within the pages of this book, he casts MacDonald in the light of a psychopath and a pathological narcissist, drawing upon numerous texts that delve into such disorders. Although psychiatrist Michael Stone, who testified for McGinniss's defense, validated this diagnosis, he candidly acknowledged that he had never encountered MacDonald personally; his conclusion stemmed from absorbing McGinniss's narrative years prior. Malcolm surmises that branding MacDonald as a psychopath held immense significance for McGinniss, as it enabled him to regard his betrayal as targeting an "it," rather than a human being.