SHODDY JOURNALISM - A MOUTHPIECE OF FACTIONALISTS IN OUR MOVEMENT
A journalist at the ANC National Policy Conference approached me last week asking why the SACP seemed reluctant to have an interview with him and his newspaper. I responded, tongue in cheek and said it may be because some of them have stopped being journalists; they have effectively become the mouthpiece of factionalists in our movement.
He retorted and said, "Some of you guys in the NEC leak information to us". I responded by pointing out that I sometimes wondered if there isn't a two-way relationship that maybe some of them get paid by their NEC sources? A suspicion that's it without any evidence so far! The conversation ended rather abruptly after that. Alas! When I read the Sunday Papers after the policy conference the same journalist is one of those who wrote an article that portrays a conference that never happened.
If anyone needs any example to confirm that South African media has, at worst, become an organised opposition voice to the ANC and government, and at best, a factionalist player in the politics of our movement, must look no further than the headlines of the Sunday papers this past weekend.
The Sunday times read: "Chaos at the ANC conference". This paper should be ashamed of itself. To run such a headline after a conference whose opening and closing sessions were broadcast openly to both free to air and pay television as well as radio channels - including daily briefings on the outcomes of commissions - is not only shocking but is taking South Africans for granted.
Anyone who participated in the proceedings must ask as to which conference the Sunday Times is writing about. High levels of debate characterized the policy conference, and the delegates displayed intellectual depth and rigour. One can only wonder where exactly the so-called chaos took place, unless the Sunday Times is deliberately seeking to mislead and misinform the public, in a manner that is in fact tantamount to a lie!