One might disagree with the right wing’s “enemy of the people” stance, insofar as once in a blue moon journalists produce valuable information, among the mountains of trivia (such as politicians’ tweets).

A consistent side effect of recent documentaries based on murder cases where those convicted were proven innocent (or almost proven, respectively) has been the realisation that the mainstream media is useless in terms of maintaining neutrality while someone is being tried. In fact, they are vultures seeking sensationalist headlines, distorting perceptions internationally (including those of prospective jurors).

Making A Murderer (1 and 2), The Staircase and the Amanda Knox documentary share a few important traits – among them, the superficiality and vulgarity of scandal-hungry propaganda outlets rubbing their hands together for a good hanging, ignoring facts brought up by the defence or the blatant malignancy of the prosecution.

At various stages of the proceedings, time and time again, viewers can compare what was being reported to the reality of these cases; the discrepancy is baffling.

We can all pause for a second and wonder whether every case reported on is being shown the same diligence (there is no reason to suspect otherwise).

Of course, the core of Making A Murderer is the absurd judicial system allowing people to be convicted based on fabricated evidence and coerced confessions, as well as dragging them through the courts for years on end, appealing to keep them in prison even after repeated exoneration. The drive and insistence to ruin someone’s life, as well as those of their family members. Though in a country which has kill lists targeting their own citizens abroad, the callousness is not really that surprising.

The fact that masses of people just accept the absurdity, or don’t even become aware of it, is mainly due to the language these vultures use, simply repeating what they are told by the state and even embellishing it.

The language is particularly important.

Note how as recently as last year a news program called Brendan Dassey, whose confession was found to be coerced and inadmissible on two occasions, “the most notorious convicted killer” in the area, as if his clearing by one judge and subsequently, another panel of judges, simply had not taken place. What kind of effect does that produce in the minds of those watching and being none the wiser?

Even now, after so much more has come out, the media scrutinises the documentary series to find faults, even when anyone with half a brain can tell two innocent people were convicted. Their complicity in covering up the facts is obvious.

In Amanda Knox’s case, covered internationally, they were too busy embellishing the fantasies of a (potentially satanic) sex game, which contradicted all evidence, to even notice the prosecutor had accused multiple people of satanic rituals and free-masonic conspiracies in the past. The salacious details of said fantasy, now proven as having no basis in the first place, were far more marketable.

There is still so much speculation about Amanda Knox, even though the highest court in Italy admitted the case had been shamefully mishandled and cleared her completely. There are a plethora of videos claiming to analyse her body language and so forth.

Any honest actor providing information to millions of people (potentially billions, on the internet) would take all aspects into consideration when covering a person or case. If you google Michael Peterson, whom The Staircase is based on, the Wikipedia article comes up – Michael Peterson (criminal). There isn’t one shred of evidence this guy was a criminal in his entire life, being convicted on circumstantial “evidence” and having to enter an Alford plea just to get away from the hell hole he had been imprisoned in, but wanting all along to prove his innocence, over so many years. Anyone would’ve done the same just to get out.

The way the media covered the case as it was unfolding was infuriating, as the documentary presented the information available at the time, against what news outlets were feeding their audiences.

How often does this happen? What do we really know about every serious event such as a murder or mass murder?

These people claiming to keep the public informed obviously don’t care about the truth. Make no mistake because they sometimes cover real human struggles and humanitarian crises; they only do so when it benefits them politically, ignoring those which don’t fit the narrative. Of course it still helps, as some things would go unnoticed if no media covered them at all.

But they can’t be trusted; they are all subservient to some agenda – and when it comes to riling up entire countries against individuals for crimes they are suspected of, the consequences can be dire.