Comments on: On making history or making a difference

By: Nicholas Williamson

Nicholas Williamson — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 03:19:10 +0000

And all along here i was thinking you worked for the Citizen… the only place i have read your stuff before. Strange that after 32 years you had still not learned the life rule that if you piss on your boss’s leg he is likely to kick you outof the doorway …this is standard employer’s fare and applies to all organisations in my experience rather than exclusively to a newspaper that couldn’t make up its mind which end of the market it wanted to service… Still sometimes the only recourse is to piss on their legs
Nonetheless may you thrive on the catastrophe which some would say you sought out.

By: Nomfundo

Nomfundo — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:51:36 +0000

Free speech is a bitch!

Go fishing, swim with the ducks and come back full force.. this may be a blessing in disguise*

By: zukile

zukile — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 16:07:57 +0000

Hey Coach
It happened again. You got the boot for not toeing the line. Like Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, you continue to march out of step and like her, you have joined the growing ranks of the unemployed. Join the club coach. I was at INKZN when the big bosses showed you the door for telling them the working conditions there – which sucked – sucked big time. Some, masquerading as journos, lobbied against you for saying some of the publications in that stable sucked. You spoke truth to power as it were. But those who speak truth to power are often forced to jump ship. A select few of us coached by you from wet-behind-the-ear journos respect the work you do and the passion you have for good journalism. An even fewer, yet more powerful lot, do not appreciate this and will labour on to exclude you from this intellectual space. But knowing you, the way I do, you will be back in media in no time. In the meantime, just know some of do not necessarily agree with your commentaries but we love the Kafferboetie that you are. Keep your head up coach!

By: Louise Miller

Louise Miller — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 10:09:38 +0000

The rot of course started when Tony O’Reilly entered the world of newspapers in South Africa. But he alone is not to blame. Editors sold their souls, and that of their newspapers, when they gave up their editorial independence to management and bowed to the great god of mammon – advertising. Tragically what followed is now history. Editors do not run newspapers, the bean counters do. And we all know what they stand for. The bottom line. It happened in the UK, it happened in the States and it’s been happening here for more than 10 years. Lew is just a very high-profile casualty. Sandile Memela is right. Lew wasn’t the first. He just became a highly visible casualty because he is not scared to speak (or write his mind) which I believe will be a blessing in disguise because now outsiders/readers/advertisers will see what goes on behind closed doors and the types of people they are dealing with. Now if someone would just blog about the girlfriends of all the chiefs who attend bosberaads with them at company expense. There are a lot of skeletons in the cupboard. There’s the one about the woman who was sexually harassed by a very senior male member of staff. She got absolutely no support from anyone in the company but she persevered until the culprit eventually had to resign in the face of this tyrannical auntie. And the office parties! Lots of scandal there too. Shooooooooo! Watch that can of worms. Even the worms will turn – especially when they have been rankled. Sandile talks about BBK and Abdul Milazi – what about Moses Mudzwiti? The best journalist this side of the equator but they pushed him out because of xenophobia. The list goes on.

By: Sarah Britten

Sarah Britten — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 09:40:33 +0000

Indeed. Kriel is presumably under no more obligation not to waft dirty laundry about, since he has nothing to lose.

By: Leo Africanus

Leo Africanus — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 21:36:49 +0000

One unintended consequence of Kriel’s bloggings, by the way — for people like me interested in the workings of South Africa’s mainstream media –will now become rich archive, especially in the context of cutbacks, etc.

By: Sandile Memela

Sandile Memela — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:20:47 +0000

Now, dont you get carried away, now, broer. YOU have not made any history, here. You have cited “20 cases” of people who have been pushed out. Just because they do not have a blog should not take away the fact that YOU are not the first.
In fact, this sick development confirms a tragic phenomenon that characterize the culture of newspapers today: a visible and aggressive assault on people who do not “toe the line.”
Let us admit it, to become a good employee in the newspaper world, you must not only “sell your soul” to bean counters but reduce yourself to an arse-licker. Gat-kruiper is more like it.
You can go ask, BBK or Abdul Milazi, to name two casualties, about what happens to people who “challenge authority” or refuse to treat what the big bosses say at the Sowetan.
It is sad that newspaper corporate culture promotes self-humiliation. This is the greatest threat to freedom of expression. Yes, it would be interesting to see what those who profess to stand up for free expression have to say.
This is the age of transparency and oppenness. Those who demand that from government, for instance, must be willing to be subjected to the same scrutiny.

By: T. Kwetane

T. Kwetane — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:32:46 +0000

Sowetan is in the same stable as the Sunday Times, right? The Sunday Times’ PlanetBlog sucks, and you write great articles for the competition. Maybe you deserve to be fired.

What were you thinking?!

I guess I would have fired you too!!!

By: T. Kwetane

T. Kwetane — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:27:50 +0000

Sorry for losing your job. I agree with you, Sowetan is a paper in trouble. I no longer buy that thing.
In your next place of employment, please make sure that your right to blog is protected.

Keep up the good work.

By: Akanyang Merementsi

Akanyang Merementsi — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:04:40 +0000

It’s their loss. Not yours!

Just Like that!: There goes our “freedom” of expression