Posted: Friday, 4 January 2019 @ 13:43
I have been folllowing the Oscar Pistorius trial in South Africa and it feels just like the OJ Simpson trial again. A celebrated athlete is on trial for a shocking crime.
Just some other thoughts:
There is some excellent media coverage, Aislinn Laing in the Telegraph really stands out. I wish she was judging it.
It is not worthy of such high media coverage. As a journalist, Sipho Hlongwane observed today covering the proceedings, "I have seen and spoken to battle-weary hacks who were in Côte d’Ivoire when Laurent Gbagbo was deposed by the Forces Nouvelles of Guillaume Soro fighting for Alassane Ouattarra, when Col Muammar Gaddafi lost Libya and when the Central African Republic fell into anarchy, and when police tried to stop a wildcat strike with a barrage of machine-gun fire at Marikana. All these worthy journalists are now following this "meaningless trial". Why?"
What I find most perplexing is that i do not think with all the media coverage and the fact that we can see the trial happen is necessarily going to change our opinions.
Every time we hear evidence of a woman sceaming, it reinforces our view that he is guilty, every time we see evidence of police expert incompetence, we view Mr Pistorius as innocent. We will not be swayed by what goes against our prejudices.
Effectively our minds are made up.