At the moment a momentous story is unfolding in the US that has pushed even the coronavirus pandemic from top story: nation-wide protests and riots over the death of George Floyd after he was choked by a policeman. It's the lead or second lead of international media.
This morning I did a roundup of a few local media - Biznews, Daily Maverick, News24, Timeslive, IOL - to see if and how they're covering the riots. BN had none and the others relegated to a minor story down their site. I didn't see it on IOL but perhaps it was there lost in the usual verbiage. Local media's omission is so typical - mediocre.
Ignoring the US riots is not an isolated event either. They didn't report on the coronavirus pandemic until about March 1 give or take a few days. Suddenly they woke out of the Rip van Riebeeck stupour and now it's all we ever read. Suddenly, each and every reporter is an overnight epidemiologist when before then they never gave it a second thought.
The events in the US is significant for the country. It's on a precipice and at a "crossroads". Floyd's death, coming soon after similar killings by police and white lynch mobs recently and before, and the pandemic where black, Latino and Native Americans are disproportionally affected compared to whites in deaths; massive unemployment of 20% the working population, far worse than peer nations, and Trump stoking the fires, has pushed society to the edge.
How it plays out shall affect the world because of the US' global influence. As the New York Times said today, around the world a "chorus of criticism broke out, reflecting growing unease about America’s rapidly eroding moral authority on the world stage".
"The widespread condemnation reflected growing unease about America’s rapidly eroding moral authority on the world stage. President Trump already faces criticism across the globe for a response to the coronavirus pandemic that has led the United States to relinquish its longtime role as a global leader in times of crisis."
But South African media and society are ignorant and oblivious. As they ignored the pandemic as a Chinese virus before and concentrated only on SA's petty and irrelevant issues, they're once again making the same mistake and treating this as an American issue.
This weekend there was another event that in normal times would've been the top story: SpaceX's launch taking US astronauts into space, a major event for American technology and space exploration after the closure of shuttle programme. But the riots pushed it into other news including in the US.
This morning I did a roundup of a few local media - Biznews, Daily Maverick, News24, Timeslive, IOL - to see if and how they're covering the riots. BN had none and the others relegated to a minor story down their site. I didn't see it on IOL but perhaps it was there lost in the usual verbiage. Local media's omission is so typical - mediocre.
But BN had a news brief of the SpaceX launch under the fulsome and false headline "SA’s proud moment in space history: Musk’s SpaceX docks". It's false and inappropriate, and typical of local media stealing others' thunder. SpaceX and Tesla are entirely American ventures, built with American (and other nations' probably but not SA) know-how and resources. The only tenuous connection to SA is Musk who left SA at 17. He's lived in US and Canada for 30 years - almost twice as long as he was alive in SA. Nothing he learned in SA in his first 17 years is applicable to his latter efforts.
Ignoring the US riots is not an isolated event either. They didn't report on the coronavirus pandemic until about March 1 give or take a few days. Suddenly they woke out of the Rip van Riebeeck stupour and now it's all we ever read. Suddenly, each and every reporter is an overnight epidemiologist when before then they never gave it a second thought.
The events in the US is significant for the country. It's on a precipice and at a "crossroads". Floyd's death, coming soon after similar killings by police and white lynch mobs recently and before, and the pandemic where black, Latino and Native Americans are disproportionally affected compared to whites in deaths; massive unemployment of 20% the working population, far worse than peer nations, and Trump stoking the fires, has pushed society to the edge.
How it plays out shall affect the world because of the US' global influence. As the New York Times said today, around the world a "chorus of criticism broke out, reflecting growing unease about America’s rapidly eroding moral authority on the world stage".
"The widespread condemnation reflected growing unease about America’s rapidly eroding moral authority on the world stage. President Trump already faces criticism across the globe for a response to the coronavirus pandemic that has led the United States to relinquish its longtime role as a global leader in times of crisis."
But South African media and society are ignorant and oblivious. As they ignored the pandemic as a Chinese virus before and concentrated only on SA's petty and irrelevant issues, they're once again making the same mistake and treating this as an American issue.
The ostrich ought to be the national bird.
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