Just days after the Turner Broadcasting System CEO claimed that CNN “is a serious news network,” it aired a childish report on “Anderson Cooper 360” about convicted murderer Amanda Knox that appears to have been written by her parents. Next up: “The Charles Manson story, reported by Squeaky Fromme.”

Amanda, you may recall, was charged, along with her Italian boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, and another acquaintance, of sexually assaulting and murdering her English roommate, Meredith Kercher, in Perugia, Italy, in 2007. Amanda and Sollecito were convicted, had their convictions reversed and then had that reversal reversed.

Among the overwhelming evidence for her guilt is the fact that the murder weapon was found — freshly bleached — in the apartment of Amanda’s boyfriend with the murder victim’s DNA on the blade and Amanda’s DNA on the handle.

CNN’s case for Knox’s innocence consists primarily of making snarky remarks about the prosecutor. This is going to be a long series if CNN plans on vindicating Knox by sneering at all those who say she is guilty. That would include most judges who heard the case, forensic scientists, the police, the other defendant convicted of participating in the murder — as well as a man Amanda falsely accused of committing the murder.

According to CNN, prosecutor Giuliano Mignini was a total jerk for diligently investigating Meredith’s murder, which could only mean that he had caved to media pressure. Then — his jerkiest move – he actually believed Amanda’s lies.

Thus, according to CNN’s Drew Griffin: “As the media circus grew, so did the pressure on police to solve the case. On the night of Nov. 5, the police interrogated Amanda all night and into the next morning.”

Amanda didn’t show up that night at the police station until nearly 11 p.m., so “all night” means “a few hours after she arrived.” She and Raffaele came voluntarily. But when she told the cops she was present during Meredith’s murder and she knew who the murderer was, yes, they did want to chat with her a bit longer.

CNN’s Griffin: “It was during this session Amanda confessed she was at the house that night. Her boss, Patrick Lumumba, was there as well. At that point Amanda Knox officially ceased to be a witness. She became the suspect.”

Manifestly, Amanda did not become “THE suspect”: Patrick Lumumba did — for the sole reason that Amanda accused him. Griffin skipped over that detail with the strange statement: “Her boss, Patrick Lumumba, was there as well.”

No he wasn’t — as we now know. But Amanda told the police he was.

Until that night, Amanda had been lying to the police, claiming she was at her boyfriend Raffaele’s apartment all night the evening of Meredith’s murder. It was only when Amanda found out Raffaele was no longer backing her alibi that she turned around and accused an innocent man of murdering Meredith.

For anyone other than Amanda’s parents and CNN producers, Amanda’s falsely accusing another man of the murder would tend to raise suspicions.

Griffin tries to soften the blow, claiming: “Almost immediately after police say she confessed to her crime, Amanda Knox recants.”

Except she didn’t, not for weeks and, even then, only after her story had been proved false.

The next morning, she wrote out her confession from the night before. (Her story that night couldn’t be used by the police precisely because Amanda had not been a suspect, only a witness, just like Meredith’s other friends and roommates voluntarily providing information to the police.)

Far from “almost immediately” recanting, Amanda again falsely accused Lumumba, in writing this time, and did not retract her story for two weeks, as Lumumba sat in jail, waiting for the evidence to prove him innocent.

Griffin: “She tells her parents she broke under stress. In court, she would tell jurors how a police officer struck her from behind, how she was denied water, food, a translator, and how she says under pressure by police she was asked repeatedly to dream up, imagine scenarios for how it could have happened.”

No. 1: The police had absolutely no reason to pressure Amanda into fingering Lumumba, who wasn’t a suspect, and never would have been, but for Amanda accusing him. He had no connection to Meredith whatsoever. But he was Amanda’s boss.

No. 2: Is CNN aware that there have already been lengthy proceedings in this case? Had they checked the record, they would have discovered that Amanda dropped her nonsense claim about the police hitting her. Her lawyers never filed a complaint about it. To the contrary, Amanda is currently being sued for slander by the police for having made the allegation. (Maybe it was Lumumba who hit her!)

Next, Griffin goes into full sneer-mode at the idiocy of police for believing Amanda.

Griffin: “That’s not all that wouldn’t make sense because it turns out virtually everything Amanda Knox told her interrogators the night of her so-called confession was a lie. Amanda Knox in this statement told police she was in the house the night of the murder and saw her boss, nightclub owner Patrick Lumumba, and Meredith Kercher go into Meredith’s room, and she heard screams. … Police apparently didn’t bother to check the facts about Lumumba.”

The dolts! But wait — what on earth is CNN talking about? The police promptly investigated Lumumba’s alibi — which, unlike Amanda’s, held up — and tested his DNA. They released him the day after the DNA evidence came in, clearing him — but implicating another of Amanda’s acquaintances, Rudy Guede.

On balance, isn’t CNN’s heroine Amanda a little more to blame for the police arresting Lumumba than the police are? Lumumba certainly thinks so. In court, Lumumba’s lawyer called Amanda “Lucifer-like, demonic, satanic, diabolic,” pursuing “borderline extreme behavior” and “devoted to lust, drugs and alcohol.”

Guede, incidentally, was later convicted– whereupon he said that both Amanda and her boyfriend had participated in Meredith’s murder.

But as Alan Dershowitz has said, the American media just adore Amanda — who is at best, a liar and terrible person, at worst, a murderer — because she’s pretty.

That’s how a “serious news network” operates.

COPYRIGHT 2013 ANN COULTER

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