Coverage of the Oscar Pistorius trial was momentarily displaced by the public protector’s Nkandla report. Let me say up-front I believe advocate Madonsela’s marathon media presentation of her report came across as generally thoughtful and appropriately measured, says Jeremy Cronin. Of course, in the coming weeks details of that report will and must inevitably be […] Read more
The eminent American scholar-activist Noam Chomsky published a celebrated critique in 1988 of the media in the United States. The book, entitled Manufacturing Consent, exposes the incestuous relationship between big business and the supposedly ‘free press’ in the US. The gist of Chomsky’s critique is that a capitalist-friendly national consensus projected in the media is not […] Read more
We are now already deep into the silly season of an ANC-led movement electoral year. At the forefront of trying to promote the silliness are some of the usual hacks in the commercial media – especially those with the attention span of a tweetable headline. Last night the SACP head-office was contacted by one of […] Read more
A comrade from Pietermaritzburg has just brought to my attention an editorial in last Friday’s The Witness (‘Spectre of Censorship’, June 1, 2012). It is a confused piece of Cold War-era, pseudo-liberalism that betrays the political illiteracy of much of the media commentariat. Its entry-point is, as you would expect, outrage at the groundswell of […] Read more
Recently appointed Sowetan editor, Mpumelelo Mkabela, has been trying to impress his bosses by boosting sales with trashy tabloid stories. Most South Africans will remember how his career as editor got off to a salacious start with a front-page picture of a policeman and correctional service officer caught with their pants down while on duty. […] Read more
In the course of last year the SACP along with its Alliance partners attempted to open up a debate about the state of the media, particularly the print media, in our country. The debate quickly became ill-tempered and acrimonious. Because much of the debate was conducted on the terrain of the print media itself, we […] Read more
