In the finest traditions of the dandruff-ridden hacks of Fleet Street

We have all heard the story (apochryphal or not) of the theatre critic who became 'tired and emotional' in the pub before the theatrical opening and coming to with five minutes to spare before his deadline phones in a rave review especially praising the famous leading actor, only to discover the next morning that the theatre burned down, or the leading actor dropped dead, or whatever.  The hawk-eyed Anna Raccoon has spotted an absolute corker in this genre which is all too real:

Last night, young Nick [Pisa] filed a story as Italian ‘expert’ fact gatherer on behalf of the Daily Mail. He was covering the Meredith Kercher story for the Daily Mail.

That's the good bit, from now on it's all downhill:

In a lengthy article published at 8.50pm Nick gave us a first hand account of the scene as ‘Amanda Knox looked stunned’ as she dramatically lost her prison appeal against her murder conviction. He was on the scene to witness this you see….he detailed how ‘she sank into her chair sobbing uncontrollably while her family and friends hugged each other in tears’.

Oh no, say it ain't so!

He even had useful on the spot quotes to pad out this distressing scene, as Prosecutors said ‘it was sad two young people would be spending years in jail’.

He witnessed and recorded Knox and her co-defendant Sollecito ‘taken out of court and escorted by prison guards […] into a waiting van which took her back to her cell at Capanne jail’.

I cannot continue.  I am rarely embarrassed for myself but I dissolve in sweat when other people make a complete prat of themselves.  Please go over to Ms. Raccoon's place and read the whole grisly thing.  In the meantime, I can't help wondering where Mr. Pisa actually was at the time?  It must have been somewhere without a TV or radio, or at least, in circumstances where the intrusion of either would have been a distraction from, er, more absorbing matters.  I mean, he's quite a handsome bloke, after all:

'Oh God', he looks as though he is thinking in this photo, 'Where was I? Who am I? Who was she? What in hell's name were we drinking? Oh God, it's the editor on the 'phone!'

 

Comments

[Andra]

I think he's unconscious.
Obviously somebody slipped him a Mickey Finn and took over his identity.
It's quite simple really, when you look at it from an Aussie point of view. This sort of thing goes on all the time here.
It happened to me only last week and, to tell the truth, I haven't been the same since.

[David Duff]

You'll always be the same Andra to me, er, Andra!