This editorial was supposed to be about the “public sphere”. The intention was to link a number of the debates raised in the October issue, like Icasa’s struggle to protect public ownership of the airwaves, the consequences of media training institutions not appreciating or integrating the observer/activist dichotomy, and the important differences between “state” and “public” broadcasters in Africa. The plan was that the editorial would end off with a quote by a prominent media theorist like Edward Herman or Ben Bagdikian, explaining what happens to a country when certain voices get marginalised.
But in the middle of September the Audit Bureau of Circulations put out “ABC Alert No. 9”, their response to Allan Greenblo’s article (“Circulation Conspiracy?”) in the August 2004 edition of The Media, so the plan for this editorial had to change. As the ABC alerts are sent out to all their members – practically every big print media owner in South Africa – we were soon inundated with calls and emails asking whether we had “a response to the response”. We do.
On the whole, we think the ABC’s response is fair comment – the organisation is fully entitled, perhaps even obliged, to protect the integrity of its auditing methods. That said, there were certain statements in the alert which challenge our integrity, specifically: “the article went beyond the bounds of legitimate reporting” and “The Media, which positions itself as a balanced commentator on industry issues, has in printing a one-sided report forsaken fair reporting in favour of sensation.”
What the alert failed to mention, in citing “the author” of the offending article, was exactly who that author is. As the founding editor of Finance Week and former managing director of BDFM, the company that publishes Business Day and Financial Mail, we think Allan Greenblo knows a thing or two about legitimate reporting. We also think that if anyone has an inside track on the ABC’s loopholes, he does. And beyond that, we ourselves have had a number of discussions with senior media owners that suggest there’s a bit more where Greenblo’s article came from. A letter of this issue is just one example.
Finally, every industry has its skeletons and we wouldn’t be doing our job if we weren’t rattling those in the media’s closet. So coming back to the “public sphere” debate, maybe we can end off with a quote from Bagdikian anyway: “There are other media voices outside the control of the dominant corporations. Most are small and localised, and many still disappear as they are acquired by the giants. [But] the small voices, as always, are important, a saving remnant of diversity.”