We don’t need fake news in SA
Fake news is currently one of the hottest topics of discussion worldwide, with numerous top level investigations getting daily coverage in the world’s media.
Questions are being asked about Russia’s role in getting Donald Trump into the White House while Germany is officially bracing for a flood of fake news ahead of the general elections there.
It has become such a hot issue that nearly two-thirds of Americans say the mainstream press is full of fake news.
This is if you believe The Hill,a “top US political website, read by the White House and more lawmakers than any other site”.
According to The Hill, 65% of voters believe there is a lot of fake news in the mainstream media. They get this information from a Harvard-Harris poll, which was provided exclusively to The Hill.
These polls seem to be a dime a dozen, with a recent one claiming Bernie Sanders is America’s most popular active politician.
Now, now, no nasty comments about flying pigs.
Here in South Africa, we are, of course, in the fortunate position that we really don’t have to fake it. Not when it comes to news, anyway. Here we make it, no matter how absurdly fake it seems.
Like the story about the Black First Land First (BLF) movement holding a land imbizo in Soweto this weekend. White people, the BLF claims, still own 95% of the land. Oh, and white people are not allowed at the land imbizo. I kid you not.
One of my favourites this week was the story about the Tshwane tender scam. Tender CPD-032014-15 was officially named “The identification and packaging of catalytic interventions and projects required to fast-track the development of East Capital to realise the required economic growth”. And nobody smelt a rat? Talk about gullible. And let’s not forget Brian Molefe’s unpaid leave while his employer was under the impression that he had retired and wanted to pay him R30 million in pension money but then reinstated him because he was, in fact, too young to retire and then discovered it was all a big misunderstanding and that he has completely recovered from his breakdown ... Fake? Not here. With the utmost respect to my media colleagues, nobody has the imagination to make this up.