The Journalist and the Murderer

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Janet Malcolm examines the psychopathology of journalism using the lawsuit of Jeffrey MacDonald, a convicted murderer, against Joe McGinniss, the author of Fatal Vision, a book about the crime. McGinnis lived with MacDonald's defense team during the trial, concealing his opinion of MacDonald's guilt until publication. McGinniss additionally diagnosed MacDonald in the book as a "pathological narcissist" based upon his own amateur research. Malcolm argues that McGinniss's actions were both immoral and professionally indefensible. Hugely controversial upon initial publication, her thesis on the ethical dilemma behind every journalistic profile has become widely accepted today. Malcolm produced a work of journalism as well as an essay on journalism. She interviews the leading and subsidiary characters in the MacDonald-McGinniss case -- the principals, their lawyers, the members of the jury, and the various persons who testified as expert witnesses at the trial. Hovering over the narrative is the MacDonald murder case itself, in which MacDonald's pregnant wife and two daughters were slain