A WISE man or maybe a woman told me never to write about journalists or journalism because although journalists love to read about themselves, readers don't give a fig.
But this morning I am going to break that rule - because, as the EFF could tell you, rules are made to be broken.
The sad news (though it's not news) is that journalists are simply not as good as they used to be. I'm talking about knowledge and simple common sense. Remember those words from the Book of Exodus (23:2)? "You must not follow the crowd in doing wrong."
It seems that these days journalists love to be sheep. Or is it monkeys?
Trouble is that the world economy has been in a slump for almost a decade. There has also been a move throughout the world to digital media. So newspaper owners are struggling to make profits. So they pay badly. And if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
However, it is very senior journalists, the ones who choose what goes into the pages, who I am thinking about this morning. This past week has seen detailed coverage of the spy cables "scoop". This has turned into one of the most embarrassing weeks in the history of local journalism.
Not all the cables are silly. Peter Fabricius is a good and informed journalist, probably because he's older than 75. He wrote: "The cables also deal with serious stuff, such as disclosing a plot . . . to assassinate Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Chairwoman of the African Union Commission . . ."
We also learned that terrorists have been operating locally and that Iranian spies work as carpet merchants. But the rest of the information, especially the stuff chosen by local editors, is just anti-Israeli guff! We all know it's fashionable to hate Israel these days, and sometimes there might be good reasons for this, but the cable stuff has been just ridiculous!
Some editors think we, ordinary citizens, are very stupid. They run endless stories about boring old stuff and pretend that it's new and shocking, just to make Israel seem more evil than it might be. I think they must be friends with those youngsters who don't want me to buy vegetables at Woolworths. Nothing is going to come between me and those juicy Israeli tomatoes.
But enough about good food and more about bad journalism. Here's just one example: "Al Jazeera reported that Israel has long maintained ties with African countries based on its own security and diplomatic needs."
Duh! Every country in the world runs its foreign affairs based on its own security, diplomatic and economic needs. You think China is all over Zimbabwe like a rash because it likes Ms Mugabe's dresses?
I LIKE writing for Sunday Sun because this is a newspaper that doesn't think its readers are stupid. But Al Jazeera, The Guardian, and certain local newspapers also want you to believe it's shocking that Israel is interested in buying African diamonds and minerals to be used for nuclear fuel. But there's nothing shocking about this. Many other countries do the same. We do, after all, have a lot of minerals to offer the world!
Another local newspaper used information from a book, Gideon's Spies by Gordon Thomas, published 16 years ago as the source for its supposedly surprising new revelations! I worry about the state of journalism. We have the ignorant, deceitful, politically correct, and poorly-paid leading the passionate, young and ignorant. It's a recipe for disaster. In the end though, what can you do but laugh?
Fake news website ZANews had the best "spy cables" story of the week. It was a made-up article about the Israelis stealing the formula for Mrs Balls Chutney, and a much better example of journalism than we saw from the so-called serious media. If the chutney story were true, it also would have been more newsworthy than telling us that security guards search passengers about to board flights for Israel. We knew that too, without any spy cables.
Tell Mr Potatoes what you think:
This article first appeared in the Sunday Sun.
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