I read few local media now. A few years ago I noticed a decline in the quality of the Sunday Times, the country's leading newspaper. It became more noticeable around the time Tiso Blackstar acquired them and they introduced the tabloid-style look with large headlines and images, City Press style, to unsuccessfully hide lack of content. More op-eds replaced news. I think with this latest debacle it transitioned fully into a tabloid.
Supported by the holy of holies, the Press Council and its “code”, the media presents itself as moral and ethical arbiter and font of all wisdom. But when it suits itself, promotes agendas, are tendentious, censors and self-censors and often is afraid to offend political and business elites rather than following the story wherever it leads and serving the public interest. And the line between reporting news and making it has been crossed.
One form of censorship, and self-censorship, is online publications not having comments or blocking commentators if they’re deemed “uncivil” even if they’re not (I experienced that once on The Conversation) but are merely politically incorrect or brutally honest.
Supported by the holy of holies, the Press Council and its “code”, the media presents itself as moral and ethical arbiter and font of all wisdom. But when it suits itself, promotes agendas, are tendentious, censors and self-censors and often is afraid to offend political and business elites rather than following the story wherever it leads and serving the public interest. And the line between reporting news and making it has been crossed.
One form of censorship, and self-censorship, is online publications not having comments or blocking commentators if they’re deemed “uncivil” even if they’re not (I experienced that once on The Conversation) but are merely politically incorrect or brutally honest.
They self-righteously deem readers are ignorant and immature children and they’re our self-appointed moral and intellectual guardians. Daily Maverick used a word like “misbehaving” to justify resisting comments. And after its revamp (NB oversized visuals), reneged on its promise to return them. (NB the grand old dame of publishing, The New York Times, has comments, often feisty ones too. Ironically, DM’s donors include the Open Society Foundation which promotes transparency.)
The editor and publisher of Politicsweb James Myburgh wrote this week: “In this context [of the county’s economic problems], an independent, critically-minded and oppositional media able to analyse where we went wrong, push back against the most dangerous trends, and illuminate an alternative path forward is desperately needed. A large part of the press has been captured however, our leading newspaper [Sunday Times] is currently in a state of disgrace, and far too much thinking remains conditioned by decades of ANC hegemony”. (Disclosure: I’ve contributed to PW but don’t adhere to all views expressed there.)
“ANC [including liberal-left] hegemony” is true and informs the often outrageously politically correct and dishonest way the media and its contributors report and opine on news and current affairs. Cases in point are the left’s social agenda, particularly instances of real and imagined racism, where they go into hysterics and paroxysms of witch-hunting. (As I expected no article appeared in The Conversation about the Velaphi Khumalo Equality Court decision. Contributors like this one didn’t hesitate with the Vicki Momberg and Penny Sparrow cases, though, which illustrates the hypocrisy I’m referring to.)
Sunday Times may illustrate the worst of this hubris and dishonestly but is not the only one – it applies to all the country’s media groups and independents I’ve read.
The media should go on retreat and try and determine how they lost their credibility and purpose and forgot what ethical, balanced journalism means. The “when” is not difficult – it happened when they uncritically fell under the ANC’s and left’s spell.
Also see this post.
The editor and publisher of Politicsweb James Myburgh wrote this week: “In this context [of the county’s economic problems], an independent, critically-minded and oppositional media able to analyse where we went wrong, push back against the most dangerous trends, and illuminate an alternative path forward is desperately needed. A large part of the press has been captured however, our leading newspaper [Sunday Times] is currently in a state of disgrace, and far too much thinking remains conditioned by decades of ANC hegemony”. (Disclosure: I’ve contributed to PW but don’t adhere to all views expressed there.)
“ANC [including liberal-left] hegemony” is true and informs the often outrageously politically correct and dishonest way the media and its contributors report and opine on news and current affairs. Cases in point are the left’s social agenda, particularly instances of real and imagined racism, where they go into hysterics and paroxysms of witch-hunting. (As I expected no article appeared in The Conversation about the Velaphi Khumalo Equality Court decision. Contributors like this one didn’t hesitate with the Vicki Momberg and Penny Sparrow cases, though, which illustrates the hypocrisy I’m referring to.)
Sunday Times may illustrate the worst of this hubris and dishonestly but is not the only one – it applies to all the country’s media groups and independents I’ve read.
The media should go on retreat and try and determine how they lost their credibility and purpose and forgot what ethical, balanced journalism means. The “when” is not difficult – it happened when they uncritically fell under the ANC’s and left’s spell.
Also see this post.
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