TOM EATON: Pretty vacant on Muizenberg beach
Now can we get real news from people with real knowledge?
The reports coming off Muizenberg beach at the weekend pretended to be real news. But behind the earnest questions and patiently held microphones there was the unmistakable faux-professionalism of the patronising tabloid writer who keeps a straight face, nods sympathetically and then asks: “So when did you first start suspecting that aliens had turned your husband into a jar of Bovril?”
The voyeurs knew exactly what they were looking for — online advertising for the event featured the dog-whistle “scamdemic” — and they weren’t disappointed. An elderly woman, looking serenely vacant, claimed that she was a skilled virologist, immunologist and quantum physicist, before explaining that viruses were parasites that couldn’t be transferred between people and that masks were therefore useless...
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