South Africa made an attempt at creating a criminal investigative documentary on what happened that night at amputee sprint runner, Oscar Pistorius, home when his girlfriend was shot. It was a huge disappointment! This is the first African-created investigative report I would be watching on my favourite channel, Crime & Investigation network, and it was punctured with impulsive analysis, unapologetic bias, lazy conclusions, and all-round partial judgments like nothing I have ever watched before. It left me bitter. In this criminal analysis, they introduced the parents of the victim, Reeva Steenkamp, at the beginning and…that was it! For the rest of the 45 minutes programme they were missing as the viewers were brain-washed with fiction- how it must have all been a huge mistake…that Pistorius must have thought there was, indeed, an intruder in his house. They tell us he has been threatened many times and has become increasingly fearful… They recreate the murder scene: how it was impossible for him to know that his girlfriend was not in bed as he headed to the bathroom to defend himself from this intruder because the room was “pitch black” (you would think that the first reaction of any human being would be to, first, check beside you to see if your partner is awake and can hear the sounds you claim to have heard from the bathroom). They shower us with pictures of him in active sports…share with us emotional clips of Pistorius wearing his prosthetic legs. Trying hard to gain our empathy. If this was a sponsored documentary then it should be banned since the case is still in court, no? And why should anyone have a sponsored programme on a criminal case?! Why do we have a team of examiners scurrying to build a case on TV without balance? The issues that should be tackled on an investigative programme of this nature should be done with a professional zeal to seek facts, throw all the possibilities around and work on evidence. Bring in (unbiased) professionals to share their opinion based on years of experience- dealing with issues of this kind. They took all of 45 minutes to show us the inspiring/amazing world Pistorius would be leaving behind if found guilty, but not ONE clip of what his dead girlfriend had achieved and left behind. Reconstructing the crime scene, you would think at this stage of the investigation urine result would be made available to determine if she was really in the bathroom at the time OR she was shot whilst they were moving around, arguing like couples do- from one end of the room to the other; which would make him a liar (that they seem, through this documentary, not to be interested in). How long did it take him to wear his prosthetic legs to defend himself from the so-called intruder and yet he didn’t bother to look by his side to alert his girlfriend? He claimed there was a broken window, how so? Who broke the damn window if there was no intruder after all? These issues were not addressed! The last word from this pathetic charade was from a friend of Pistorius: “I strongly believe it was a mistake; he didn’t mean to shoot her.” Imagine that! Those were the words they hoped would remain with the viewers. The victim was barely represented. None of her friends were interviewed to talk about their opinion or observation of the relationship; her parents were largely missing. The audacity of these people!
Posted on: Sun, 06 Apr 2014 20:25:19 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015