DJ pours out his heart in blog
SACKED Idols SA judge Gareth Cliff has penned a blog post to share how he feels about M-Net’s decision to fire him.
Cliff was fired after his involvement in the Penny Sparrow debacle.
He begins by asking: “How has your 2016 been so far?
“Sadly, in South Africa, instead of celebratory fireworks to launch the year, we have witnessed social media explosions on a monumental scale – many of which could have led to constructive engagement, but spiralled into witch hunts and lost opportunities.”
The DJ was criticised for viewing a racist Facebook post by Sparrow as freedom of speech.
He said: “This weekend # SparrowGate very quickly escalated into # IdolsGate after M-Net made an announcement that I would no longer be part of the judging panel. This came after demands on Twitter to have me removed.”
Cliff believes the channel fell into a frenzy right before the matter was about to die down, but he added that he was unfazed by the decision.
“My response on Twitter was not to Penny Sparrow but to a tweet about a survey on freedom of speech which spiralled out of control… Instead of engagement and reviewing the context, the ANCYL (my ANC!!) tweet out with a call to march on DStv until they remove me.”
Cliff said he would now focus all his energy on his radio station, Cliff Central.