Crack cocaine? More like serious cracks in the craft.
Next column, I promise, will try to celebrate rather than carp about the media. For now, my beef is about unresolved problems with the Sunday Times.
I was party to recently hammering the newspaper on e.tv’s media programme, Between the Lines. The reason was the paper’s reportage on rat poison in the cocaine that allegedly killed pop icon Brenda Fassie, and its response to Peter Snyman, her manager, who objected to how he had been quoted. The problems persisted after the e.tv programme — hence this column.
What wasn’t clear at the time of the e.tv show are some ”behind-the-scenes” points that add significant context to this whole wrangle and my role in it.
The programme is presented by Mathatha Tsedu — a towering figure in South African journalism. This person is a highly respected journalist. From being deputy editor at The Star, he went rapidly on to head up the number-two position at SABC News. He was briefly news chief there before being headhunted to take over the Sunday Times last year.
While in that post, Tsedu’s professional reputation was enhanced by his refusal to publish the unproven spy allegations against National Director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka. It took everyone by surprise when, some months later, he was fired by Johncom management, which said he was neglecting the paper. Fast forward a few months, and the man is now editor of the country’s second-largest Sunday paper, City Press.
Seen against this background, it is not uncomplicated when Tsedu provides a platform for criticism of his former employer. This is not to say I believe he abuses his e.tv programme to settle personal scores with the Times, but some at that paper think this. The point is: it’s all a bit of a minefield.
And it follows that my participation in Tsedu’s television show, with me laying into the Sunday Times, is a delicate thing. I have no particular gripe with the paper (excepting over its inability to get beyond clichÃ