MEDIA IN THE SPOTLIGHT
STEVEN FRIEDMAN: Political journalists are often pawns in factional fights
It should not be a surprise that Sunday Times journalists were used by political parties to take swipes at opponents
The only surprise about the Sunday Times’s admission that it was used by political factions is that people in the media are surprised. The newspaper has apologised for being used in its reporting on Cato Manor “death squads”. Earlier, its reports on the South African Revenue Service “rogue unit” were found to have been inspired by people who were trying to make Sars safe for cigarette smugglers. But this, however, was no freak accident — it was waiting to happen. The only puzzle is that only one news source has been forced to admit that it passed off as truth the claims of political factions. A fair chunk of the political reporting we read, hear or see is a product of “leaks” by politicians to the media. There are factional battles in all the major parties and one way in which factions fight is to feed the media embarrassing nuggets about their opponents. One sign of where this can lead is the case of the senior political reporter on a major newspaper who covered an entire ANC confe...
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