By Adam Kurtz The case of Llewellyn Kriel poses some intriguing questions for South Africa. Kriel (54), a fixed-term contractor to the Sowetan working as senior revise sub-editor (one of two end-of-the-line quality controllers), was found guilty of “gross misconduct” by an internal disciplinary hearing for “bringing Sowetan into disrepute” by criticising its management and […]
Llewellyn Kriel
Posted inGeneral
From cyberspace to an ancient space …
I am blown away! Just when you think no one cares about some over-the-hill pale male hack who had his arse kicked for venting his frustration in cyberspace, you find out people care. A lot of people care a helluva lot. My inbox quite literally reeled under the load of messages of support after last […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics
On making history or making a difference
Yesterday I made history. But it’s a distinction I can do without. I became the first South African to be fired for blogging. It’s a dangerous thing, this blogging. Even if your judge doesn’t have the foggiest idea what a blog is; even if he thinks sub-editors are not journalists and even if he thinks […]
Posted inMedia
The ‘gross misconduct’ of blogging
It is one of the most bizarre, frustrating and terrifying experiences to have to defend yourself for doing precisely what you have been trained and employed to do. At my rather outlandish and constitutionally questionable disciplinary hearing last week, I found I often had to pinch myself so weird it all was. My fellow employee […]
Posted inLifestyle
Talking music
Seeing as there’s so much hellfire, damnation and slimy things with slimy legs crawling upon a slimy sea, I thought I’d really wind my neck in and talk music. Or rather the music you just gotta get, ’cause in the magical list below exist the latest, finest and most versatile stuff today. Seek you the […]
Posted inGeneral
Oh, wind your neck in!
Am I missing something or are we rapidly putting our ability to take criticism in the same parlous condition in which we’ve put our planet? This isn’t about the futile he-said-she-said roundelay or the kind of puerile my-view’s-better-than-your-view nonsense. This is about listening, really listening to what people are saying, questioning their propositions, their motives […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
The secrets of the Order of the Brain
The amount of research being done in the field of neurosciences is staggering at present. More amazing are the discoveries being made each passing day. They don’t command headlines because most of us can’t understand the stuff, let alone interpret these to make them accessible to the layman. I have a strong suspicion they are […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, News/Politics
Reckon ye the number of the Beast
At the Grand Scaly Whale (RDM) in the old SAAN building, resplendent with Benjy’s Bungle jutting like a defiant middle finger into the Jo’burg skyline, we used the Atex electronic editing system. As with today’s zooty jobs, each of us had a password or login code to access the system. One of our cadets — […]
Posted inBusiness, Media
Grovel time
Although I never in my Spielbergian imagination thought I’d have to post a blog like this, I apologise sincerely for any offence I caused with comments in my blog headlined: “Working on that pig’s ear, baby“. It was not my intention to hurt my young colleagues and I acknowledge I used some harsh turns of […]
Posted inMedia
Working on that pig’s ear, baby
Copiers are buckling under the strain of CVs being prepared at Johncom these days. Maybe not so much at FM and Business Day, but at Sunday Times and Sowetan the pace is frenetic. An official email has now hit the screens banning all new appointments with immediate effect. Oh, of course, except for absolutely vital […]
Posted inGeneral
A fair cop
On Monday I stumbled, eyes wide shut, into a metro police roadblock in Main Reef Road in Roodepoort. I will now have to contribute 500 smackers to their Xmas gooi — talking on a cellphone. What a doos, Kriel! I don’t have any alibis. It was a fair cop, as my mates in Wimblefontein would […]
Posted inGeneral
It’s all about the ‘people’
Just when one feels convinced of the grand immunity of one’s views, irony daubs Banksy-style graffiti all across their Plascon-coated protective surface. Oh, sure you can wash it off and your walls are good as new, but it’s Banksy. And it’s so darned pretty too. Take the first rule of Thought Leader — “Discuss the […]