Media coverage of racist pool incident leaves much to be desired
IT HAS become a stock type of news story in our country. A racist incident leading to outrage, promises of prosecution by politicians, opportunity for anti-racist lectures, a flashpoint for hotheads followed by calls for calm by moderates.
It is not tame media coverage which is to blame for the way in which we digest these stories, it is a total lack of engagement with the subject matter compounded by a flagrant disregard for news objectivity which is to blame.
Witness the manner in which our print media along with their commentators (rank-and-file influencers and opinion-makers), jump to conclusions, treating readers like absolute morons requiring remedial aid for a disease known as racism, one associated with our nation’s egregious past.
In the process, editors fail to provide readers even the basic facts of what is known about the story.
A video circulating on social media, for instance, shows a man pushing a youth into a pool. The situation rapidly escalates into a confrontation. Violence needs to be condemned, but why is this incident racism and not hooliganism?
Instead of focusing on the material evidence which follows, our media cover nothing more than the allegations, statements made by the boys, the police docket followed by the charges. All the videos require further investigation.
The first colour video circulating requires that viewers turn up the sound. A man can clearly be heard telling a youth to “get out of the pool”. This is an objective fact.
The CCTV footage shows an altercation at the gate, people are turned back while one youth jumps a fence. These are all facts bolstering the allegations.
Another segment shows some people getting out of the pool when a black youth (the fence jumper?) jumps in – mere coincidence or rather an extraordinary detail, all adding to the allegations of racism at a Bloemfontein resort on Christmas Day? Instead of maintaining an objective tone, the press unfortunately doubled-down on a well-known theme (yet another racist access drama).
DAVID ROBERT LEWIS | Cape Town