Posted inBusinessMediaNews/Politics

The paranoid Mr Zuma

Daniel Gross, financial columnist for online magazine Slate, bumped into Jacob Zuma at Davos this week and nominated him as “the world leader with the most aggressive bodyguards“. It seems that Mr Zuma’s paranoia is not limited to the remote possibility of being molested in the Swiss Alps. He also believes the media in his […]

Posted inBusinessLifestyleMedia

Get me a fake Springbok jersey!

Canterbury, the Springbok kit sponsor, is complaining that “counterfeit” goods are damaging its business and could lead to job losses. What hogwash! Canterbury’s argument, a familiar complaint by branded-goods manufacturers, is based on a false assumption: that people would buy the “official” goods if alternatives — the far cheaper “fakes” — were not available. For […]

Posted inNews/Politics

What’s in a name?

Grahamstown, the city which I call home, is in danger of losing its name. This has been in the pipeline for some time, but the whole thing flared up again when President Mbeki called Colonel John Graham, after whom the town is named, a butcher; and the excellent local newspaper Grocott’s Mail has been running […]

Posted inMediaNews/Politics

You didn’t get this from me …

Al Neuharth, the founder of USA Today, the United States’s largest newspaper, once remarked that “anonymous sources are the root of all evil in journalism”. That may have been an overstatement, but not by much. In many cases, journalists can’t do their jobs without using anonymous sources; often, however, they are simply an excuse for […]