*Are South African Newspaper Editors Immune
*/from Falling Prey to Rupert-Murdoch-Like Owners?/
The article by Mashele "calling political analysts dogs is dangerous"
was the most disingenuous and disappointing work ever published by
SOWETAN. Even more disappointing is when Sowetan editor makes a hill out
of a mole by pulling all stops to protect Mashele by hiring a cartoonist
to boost their outright lies about what Nzimande actually said about
certain political journalists on Zuma. It is an outright lie that
Nzimande said Karima Brown, Steven Friedman, Aubrey Mashiqi and Adam
Habib behaves like a pack of dogs when writing about Zuma. It is an
outright lie by Mashele but despite Mpumelelo Mkhabele's (SOWETAN
Editor) knowledge of the facts; he nonetheless published it with those
lies. Considering that other newspapers also uses Mashele for similar
jobs as in SOWETAN, is it not reasonable to question whether we don't
have in South Africa hired guns to commit character assassination of
certain politicians by their rivals? If that is so, should newspaper
editors be willing partisans to such?
Never mind Mashele's well-documented ferocious views about Zuma and the
fact they have gone beyond the rational. It seems like a trend has been
established to accommodate views of disaffected individuals in the ANC,
disguised as honest leadership debate. The question of whether such
one-sided views are not sponsored with deliberate complicity of editors
and their owners in similar style of the British media boss Rupert
Murdoch is really what concerns us. We are also concerned that certain
politicians who own shares in media houses might resort to abusing their
own papers in order to win what they have lost on the political terrain.
Most South Africans knows that whenever Mashele opens his mouth or takes
up a pen Zuma is his key word.Ironically while all newspapers make use
of political analysts, it appears Mashele and SOWETAN are the most
aggrieved by Nzimande's comments. I wonder why? Is there something
SOWETAN and its owners are unwittingly telling us? We have heard of
brown envelop journalism before, we have heard of Rupert Murdoch's
unethical press conduct, incorrect testimonies and illegal surveillance
of his subjects, is this the road Mashele and SOWETAN are traversing? Is
this not a danger to our young democracy? Only Time will tell.
*Tshepo N. J. Semudi
Political Commissar
SACP HQ
(011) 339 3621 or 078 456 3518
*
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