Canadian Politics Today

Imagine being the imbecile who wrote this:

A new documentary series about the extraordinary story of South African Paralympic and Olympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius (...)

The Trials of Oscar Pistorius tells the story of the 'Blade Runner' - an international hero who inspired millions with his determination and dedication until Valentine's Day 2013, when he suddenly found himself at the center of a murder investigation.

It's the inspiring story of an international hero who shot a woman four times while she pleaded for her life behind a bathroom door!

He's an extraordinary man who murdered a young woman.

You know, one reason that "suddenly found himself at the center of a murder investigation" is that he murdered someone.


I think the reason this made my blood boil is that it makes it seem like the important thing to remember about Oscar Pistorius is that he could run really fast on his flipper thingies, and posits his murdering a 29 year old woman as sort of an unfortunate footnote to the story.  It has a kind of "Well, aside from that, how did you find the play, Mrs Lincoln?" tonedeaf idiocy.

The BBC got seriously shat upon for this post, as well as for a trailer for the program which barely mentioned that he murdered a woman.

We have removed the trail for The Trials of Oscar Pistorius that was posted on social media earlier today.

We regret that the original trail did not refer to Reeva Steenkamp directly.

We are aware of the upset it has caused, which was never the intention. We have removed the trail and it will be replaced by something more representative of the series, which examines in detail a number of complex issues connected to her murder.

They replaced the promo with a short blurb that says:

This four-part documentary looks in detail at the life of Oscar Pistorius, the tragic murder of Reeva Steenkamp and the issue of gender-based violence in South Africa.

Which is slightly better but still makes it sound like her murder was some tragic event that happened somewhere and some time during the Oscar Pistorius space-time continuum, as opposed to acknowledging that he murdered her.  Why can't they mention that he murdered her? Does that take too much shine off the inspiring international hero?


 -k