10/11/07

IN THE NEWS TONIGHT II..............

This is not a post to join the wagon and call for Mpofu's head in the event that he does not want to implement the recommendations of the Sisulu Commission (which he has not done) but to throw the buck back into the SABC court. Here's what is wrong with the way politicians want to dictate news instead of policy;

When I indulge myself and try to look at SABC Africa's 180 Degrees, which is one of its main news bulletins I can't help but feel like I was watching one of those indicted overseas news organisations. I bet my last dime there is no way you will watch it without seeing soldiers with kalashnikovs and RPG7 launchers lounged on camouflaged jeeps and high on cocaine and bad weed. The stories are about the civil war in Somalia, Darfur, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Central African Republic and other continental hot spots. SABC Africa is not re-routing public opinion about Africa but riding the stereotype. The only time you see something positive on the channel is when they play old tapes of Generations, Zola 7 and many of the former SABC stories which are now seen as fresh in other parts of this continent. SABC Africa looks like Channel 102 (African Magic)

What Mbeki and his friends wanted, which is stories about the beauty of the Sahara Desert and the number of tourists who come to visit the Victoria Falls, Table Mountain, Lake Tanganyika and the massive mineral reserves currently being mined with good economic spin-offs for those country's fiscuses in Angola, DRC, Uganda and Sudan are not exploited. And we have the nerve to blame foreigners for telling the same stories.

The SABC must clean its house first before it expects foreign broadcasters to do the same. Cleaning means spring-cleaning which involves sending some folks packing. I often watch the Qatar based Al-Jazeera satellite television and what I see is news about the way Egypt treats the Muslim Brotherhood and massive arrests, I see stories about how Iraq is divided and burning, how Iran is readying itself for an American invasion or an Israeli nuclear attack, how Lebanon's members of parliament are being car-bombed and how Syria is playing puff-adder games with Israel about the Golan Heights and the Jewish state's provocative air attacks.

I don't see anything about how the sheiks in Dubai are converting deserts to golf courses and F1 racing tracks. I don't see how Michael Jackson is living it up there, how the biggest mall in the world is attracting foreigners, including deputy president Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka to Arabia.

After the news.......... WHAT ARE NEWS?

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