There is a much bolder programme struggling to get out of I Cut Off His Penis: The Truth Behind the Headlines. By and large, it sticks to the traditional format of the behind-the-headlines genre, which is to recap the famous examples of whatever phenomenon is under discussion then add the context, the information that came out later and/or at trial and the distortions and omissions made by the media at the time.
Here, we have Lorena Bobbitt, who notoriously dis-membered her husband, John, with a kitchen knife in 1993, and, as she fled the scene, threw the severed appendage out of her car window into a field. She called 911, told them what she had done and where they could find the organ, which was then reattached to John in a nine-hour operation. What came out at her trial, and which she has spoken about in a handful of programmes since and as part of her activist work around domestic violence, were accounts of years of abuse – including rape and beatings, denied by John, who was acquitted of rape – that she says she suffered during her marriage. She was acquitted of assault by reason of temporary insanity, served a mandated 45 days in a psychiatric hospital, which she says now was a welcome refuge from the media attention, then rebuilt her life without him.
