WHAT THE PAPERS SAY: Fall of sports icon starts media frenzy

THE NEWS of the murder charge against Olympic and Paralympic sprinter Oscar Pistorius who as “The bladerunner” had become an icon to hundreds of millions, has sent shock waves around the world.

It has also brought the spotlights back on to the Rupert Murdoch publishing empire which is still under scrutiny after the phone hacking scandals, UK parliamentary inquiries and the arrest of some of his senior editors, including the former czar if The Sun newsroom.
Nothing it seems, holds back Britain’s leading scandal tabloid.On Friday, The Week ran this story:
THE FRONT page of today's Sun newspaper, showing murdered South African model Reeva Steenkamp in a pink bikini next to the headline "3 shots. Screams. Silence", has drawn an angry reaction led by former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott…
In a message addressed to Rupert Murdoch's Twitter account, Prescott described the cover as "a new low" for the paper. "Do you really think this is appropriate?" he asked. Prescott also tweeted the telephone number of The Sun and editor Dominic Mohan's work email address, with the hashtag #HerNameWasReevaSteenkamp.
Prescott claimed The Sun had paid £35,000 for the picture of Steenkamp and said he hoped members of the Shadow Cabinet would now think twice before writing articles for the newspaper. So far there has been no official response from either Rupert Murdoch, Dominic Mohan or The Sun.
The fact that the paper had described her on its cover as "Pistorius's lover" rather than using her name, was also a source of anger.
In a letter addressed to the Sun's editor and posted online, a Bristol blogger calling herself Sian wrote: "Her name was Reeva Steenkamp. Her name was not ‘Pistorius's lover'. She had her own name, her own identity. She was not just defined by her relationship to a man."
A petition posted on the website Change.org callson The Sun to apologize . Supporters are asked to put their name to a letter that says the tabloid's treatment of the story is "inhuman and repugnant says. The cover was called "amazingly crass", "tacky" and "disgusting" on Twitter today. It was suggested that "major retailers" should withdraw today's Sun from their shelves.
In the meantime the appearance of Pistorius in court in South Africa charged with the murder of his girlfriend Riva Steenkamp dominates the press.
At the London Games last summer, Pistorius established himself as an international sporting icon. The trappings included a model girlfriend and a host of lucrative sponsorship deals.
Today, many of the sports journalists who feted the first man to compete in the Olympics and Paralympics at the same Games are concentrating on "the dark side" of his character.
Tales are being recounted of his love of guns; of an arrest for assault in 2009 when he was accused of slamming a door on a young woman; of a speedboat crash that same year that left him badly injured; and of claims last year he threatened to "break the legs" of a man he believed had slept with a former girlfriend.
Much has been made of a quote from an ex who once said: "Oscar is certainly not what people think he is." Then there was his angry and disrespectful reaction to being beaten by Alan Oliveira in the 200m at the London Paralympics, for which he later apologized.
He has a "dichotomous personality", says the Daily Telegraph. Pistorius appeared disciplined on the track and in his battles with the authorities over whether he should be allowed to compete against able-bodied athletes, but his life was "far less structured" away from athletics.
"We assumed that we knew him, found ourselves persuaded by his facade of smooth diplomacy, and yet it transpires we may have known nothing at all about the contradictions that lurked beneath," the paper muses.
"A streak of pugnacity simmered under that placid exterior; would you believe his idol is Mike Tyson? This aggressive tendency is alleged to have manifested itself alarmingly in his personal life."
The Guardian concurs. "Beneath the glossy image, and the sincere accounts of his humble nature, there were some signs of a more complex side to the inspirational tale of the poster boy for the Paralympic movement," writes Owen Gibson.
The Times carries a leader which states that "the reputation of a man hailed not only as a great Paralympian but as simply a great Olympian lies in shards, like a Lalique vase dropped onto marble".
Pistorius was "an athlete who tilted the world of Paralympian sport on its axis". Now, "a man celebrated as a sporting hero has revealed his flaws. It is a further tragedy that Oscar Pistorius's heroic accomplishments now risk being buried along with his name."
Jere Longman of the New York Times notes: "We are reminded yet again that it becomes risky to equate sporting accomplishment with heroism and incorruptible behavior." •