The Journalist and the Murderer

The Journalist and the Murderer is a nonfiction book by Janet Malcolm that explores the complex relationship between journalists and their subjects. Originally published in 1990, the book remains a provocative and influential work in the field of journalism.

Janet Malcolm is an American writer and journalist who has written extensively on a variety of topics, including literature, photography, and psychoanalysis. She is perhaps best known for her work in The New Yorker, where she has been a staff writer since 1963. In addition to The Journalist and the Murderer, Malcolm has written several other books, including The Silent Woman, which explores the life of Sylvia Plath, and Psychoanalysis: The Impossible Profession.

In The Journalist and the Murderer, one of the best books on journalism, Malcolm examines the case of Joe McGinniss, a journalist who wrote a book about convicted murderer Jeffrey MacDonald. MacDonald had been convicted of killing his wife and two young daughters, and McGinniss had been granted unprecedented access to MacDonald as he researched his book. However, after the book was published, MacDonald sued McGinniss for breach of contract and fraud, claiming that McGinniss had promised to write a sympathetic account of his case but had instead portrayed him as guilty.

Malcolm uses the MacDonald-McGinniss case as a lens through which to examine the often fraught relationship between journalists and their subjects. She argues that journalists are fundamentally deceivers who use their subjects for their own purposes, and that their subjects are often complicit in this deception. Through a series of interviews with both McGinniss and MacDonald, as well as other journalists and writers, Malcolm explores the ethical implications of this relationship and raises important questions about the nature of journalism itself.

Author: Janet Malcolm

Link to buy: https://www.amazon.com/Journalist-Murderer-Janet-Malcolm/dp/0679731830/

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#203 in Journalism Writing Reference (Books)

#679 in Communication & Media Studies

#1,215 in Murder & Mayhem True Accounts