Newspapers, truth hit by inflation devil

I WONDER if this comment will reach the public eye:

When a reader complained that there was “no Mercury on holidays”, the response was that “this was purely a business decision, to do with profit and loss”.

That brief explanation sums up, very sadly, the sorry state of world affairs in general and most seriously the state of the print media worldwide.

Newspapers originally were the brainchild of people passionate about presenting “news” as quickly as possible at the cheapest viable cost. Adverts were invented slightly later to offset expenses. Most newspapers relied on hard-working people committed to making certain the papers contained the very latest news and reached the public as early as possible.

Thankfully, some of that is still true today. Newspaper deliveries are as early as 3am. But that unexplained evil devil, inflation, has affected not only the number of daily editions, the time of their appearance and their disappearance during holidays, but most alarmingly, the content, quality, honesty, sincerity and purity of news.

So truth (whatever that means!) doesn’t hurt any longer. Now truth gets hurt. Badly!

EBRAHIM ESSA | DURBAN