Carnie’s departure a blow to journalism

I KNOW that I speak on behalf of a great number of people in the broad environmental/ conservation field throughout KZN in expressing my dismay at the voluntary retrenchment of Tony Carnie from The Mercury.

I don’t speak on behalf of him, of course, when I say that his leaving The Mercury after decades of often quite exemplary journalism has, I suggest, more to do with the overall leaning of the Independent Media management group, than the drastic cost-cutting exercises being carried out by the print media. If it was simply the latter, he surely would have been enticed to stay on.

Whatever reason one might postulate for his departure, it should not be lost on the owners, or your readership for that matter, that his departure is a significant blow to best practice in journalism.

Carnie exemplified those dwindling qualities of impartiality, balance, rigorous research and investigative nous; qualities that come with experience and should, at the very least, be nurtured in print’s battle for survival against the digital onslaught. A great deal of this legacy was externalised by Carnie over the years.

The balance and thoroughness of his reporting, frequently acclaimed in numerous awards, will, I believe, provide a commanding yardstick against the increasingly uncritical tenor of modern journalism. RICHARD COMPTON Knysna