HANS PIENAAR: News has always been a little fake, and now the mobs are striking back
The checks and balances of the old media are being abandoned, and any attempt at replacing them needs to be thought through carefully
The media just can’t stay out of the news. As the xenophobia time bomb sputters, the police, at least one philosopher and Julius Malema’s own supporters have joined the world’s Twitter president, Donald Trump, in shouting: Fake news! Rumour! And then there is the pending ruling in the case between the SA National Editors Forum (Sanef) and the EFF.
The medium remains the message. The inventor of that phrase, Marshall McLuhan, would have tilted his head wryly at Trump, Americans’ medium to the ghosts of their insanity. In SA we might say the medium is your inner Malema. One personality who perfectly understands McLuhan is Helen Zille, with her “Tea with Helen” podcasts and her tweets about getting the proper teapot and cups. ..
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