The Guardian is currently running a particularly distasteful article which claims that Oscar Pistorius "wants to contact" the family of Reeva Steenkamp. The only part of this article which isn't offensive is that they've actually remembered to name Reeva Steenkamp; the woman Pistorius murdered by shooting her 4 times. The fact that I am actually grateful that the Guardian remembered to name Steenkamp makes me so very angry.
Hannah Curtis wrote a very powerful blog on Steenkamp's murder and the real consequences of the media's objectification of women last week. This Guardian article is precisely what Curtis was outlining in her piece: the Guardian has just published what is effectively a PR statement which completely minimises Pistorius' responsibility for murdering Steenkamp whilst simultaneously piling the guilt onto Steenkamp's family to forgive him.
This is not a news story. This is not about the murder of Reeva Steenkamp. There is nothing new in this piece. We already knew that Pistorius got bail. We already knew that Pistorius' family think it was an "accident". Now, we know who Pistorius' new PR team is because, obviously, we needed to know that.
This is the hateful nature of our celebrity culture and our obsession with forgiving the violence perpetrated by male celebrities: instead of focussing on the murder of a beautiful, intelligent and amazing woman whose family and friends are desperately grieving her loss, our media is running stories written by PR firms.
I think it's past time our celebrity-obsessed mass media culture is destroyed.
Hannah Curtis has started a petition here to force for the Sun to apologise for their disgusting coverage of the murder of Reeva Steenkamp. Please sign it.
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