TELEVISION: Hazel Friedman
IT doesn’t require an analyst to read between the lines of the SABC’s first public forum for discussion of the weird and wanton ways of the print media. In fact, after three episodes of this long-overdue, well-intentioned but weakly conceived programme, the cracks in Between the Lines can be measured on the Richter scale.
But the fault lines are not simply located in the Morkel’s lookalike studio set or in Muff’s fluffs, even though ex-MK colonel-turned-anchorwoman Anderson is ideal cannon fodder for a cynical press. Rather, the problems with Between the Lines have to do with the SABC’s tradition of tiptoe journalism, as well as the inherent differences between the print media and television, and the difficulties of hopping from one to the other.
I heard somewhere that it is written into SABC staff contracts that mud-fights are permitted solely behind the scenes — which makes it easier to understand the corporation’s cottonwool approach to investigative journalism. As even semi-conscious members of the media will confirm, rigorous reportage entails relentless drain-sniffing and even blood-letting, if necessary.
But if it’s a good old gloves-off, no-holds-barred battle you’re after, you’d be better off tuning into a fake wrestling match. In front of those studio lights, in the comfort of the cushy couches, the unspoken SABC credo is coyness at all costs. With its focus on the uppermost layers of the epidermis and its polite inoffensiveness, Between the Lines is in danger of becoming an in-house occupational therapy session. Apart from the occasional street insert, it remains studio-bound. Guests sit around like hapless marionettes, forced to regurgitate a stodgy diet of vaguely relevant but embarrassingly well-worn topics like objectivity and hate speech.
In short, Between the Lines should hop off the sofa and into the streets, digging up grime and throwing it in the face of all self-styled emissaries of truth. After all, the print medium has emerged from the apartheid era with its virtue intact. It can cope with the odd sound-bite.
Instead, Anderson soft-shoes her way around the sacred cows of the media, like the IBA, or gets caught in an ideological web of smug consensus. For example, there’s no better way of getting the right response to a contentious issue by simply replacing a full stop with a question mark.
Anderson: “It is fair to say, then, that in their coverage of labour issues newspapers in general have been biased in favour of business?”
Cosatu representative: “Er, yes, it is fair to say so.”
Viewers would have been forgiven for thinking they’d switched to a multiple-choice quiz, instead of a session of press demystification.
One only has to conduct a survey of some of the less syrupy American shows to understand the difference between live television and dead wood. Even though, in shows like Oprah Winfrey’s, an IQ is not a prerequisite for comprehension.
Associate producer Joyce Ozynski, widely respected for her integrity as a print journalist, admits there are flaws in the series. “In the next few weeks we plan to take Between the Lines directly to the newsrooms and adopt a much more hands-on approach to contentious issues.”
She also admits to inexperience in the new medium, and the difficulty in making the transition from print to television. “With the latter, one has literally to think on one’s feet, tying the threads of a debate together, following up on pertinent points and asking incisive questions while keeping one eye on the clock. The press, by contrast, is concerned primarily with deadlines and the constraints of space.”
She adds: “This is such a wonderful opportunity for South Africans to discuss issues in and about the press that was restricted during apartheid. It would be a great pity if the programme were condemned before it had a chance to get off the ground.”
In all fairness, Between the Lines is in its infancy. It remains to be seen whether it grows up symbolising everything that is stodgy, smug and superficial about the old SABC — or truly lives up to its name.
Between the Lines is on SABC 3 on Thursdays at 9.40pm