I suppose we should be grateful to Sipho Masondo, the Sunday Times reporter who recently confessed the shortcomings of journalists so aggressively denied by his industry. Commenting on yet more daft remarks from Phumzile van Damme, the former Democratic Alliance MP and sometime hobbyist in the sub-media scam of “misinformation”, Masondo confirmed suspicions that have festered within the reasonable public for close to two decades: “Often, very aggrieved sources with a serious axe to grind leak information that is of huge public interest – we have to report it.”

Or not, we would add, but take nothing away from Masondo’s wider candour: the admission is a reminder of the demented judgement resulting in the Cato Ridge death squad, South African Revenue Service “rogue unit”, Zimbabwean rendition, and Luthuli House auction media hoaxes, among others.

In his exchange with Van Damme, Masondo was referencing the overwhelmingly flattering coverage afforded to Andrea Johnson, formerly the head of Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC). Ignoring that the majority of the country identified weight in Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s remarks, here the country’s most popular news platform descended into the same, sceptical, paranoia-adjacent treatment of Mkhwanazi that Johan Booysen (the former head of the Hawks in KwaZulu-Natal) once experienced. For reasons it never managed to express.

Frustrated as to exactly what is happening to its media, most South Africans have shifted beyond the terms of reference of the Satchwell Inquiry of 2019 into media ethics that concluded in recommendations, some vague. This concern is also elevated above standard criticisms of access, CYA (cover-your-ass), and selective journalism, rampant in places like Great Britain, the United States and Canada, evident in South Africa too. What ordinary citizens appear most intrigued by is why their media hates them.

Demonstrably True

This is a reliable foundation to establish a private inquiry, because it’s simple and demonstrably true. An inquiry’s leads would be able to evidence examples of extreme prescription (“Mandela”), race-baiting, double standards, doxxing, censorship, blatant dishonesty, intellectual fraud, and bias, of course. And then to ask the central question: in the name of what?

Faced with a set of unique environmental complexities that distinguished the country from Washington or London’s political theatres, local media was never destined to express such loathing for regular citizens. But suggesting this position originates from the bad habits of journalists themselves, or the grudges of the people who taught them, does not provide the conviction required. Wider context is important.

When English-speaking media consciously pivoted to the theme of social justice, a new profile of reporter emerged – university-educated, often with inherited, extravagant views and who didn’t seek to extract presentable information from a story as much as align it with assumptions. Reporters were no longer reporting but marshalling supposed higher purposes – “speaking truth to power” to stop “democracy dying in darkness”. Everyone had become self-appointed and self-congratulatory.

The consequences of this influence are realised once a year in the queerest of victory laps. Every June News24 brings out the JC Le Roux for an annual digital news report published by the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford. The arrangement looks something like this: Chris Roper, a mostly brainless left-wing media agitator, authors the Reuters Institute South Africa page populated by YouGov-initiated surveys finding (that it admits is not exhaustive).

When the survey expires, News24, the most prominent media brand in the country by virtue of its association to Naspers, is crowned “the most trusted news in South Africa” and a closed loop Soweto gangster funeral erupts spontaneously (despite overall trust this year tanking from 61% to 50%). Roper’s politics are identical to editor Adriaan Basson’s, whose politics are – funnily enough – identical to deputy editor Pieter du Toit’s and in-house/outhouse ombudsman fixer George Claasen’s.

Echo Chamber

What emerges is one echo chamber reporting into another. Sea Point and Johannesburg’s northern suburbs nod approvingly. The Ramaphosa faction of the African National Congress too: the narrative is sold for another year. Meanwhile, erstwhile local thinkers dotted along the lines of critical analysis commentary shrug: “They just carry on doing what they are doing.”

Respectfully, that is bullshit. Masondo’s admission – layered atop recent bizarre and probably unethical coverage of Tony Leon together with the scrambled defence of Andrea Johnson until the 11th hour of her resignation – proves our largest platforms are being used by factions in plain sight and subsequently feeding us rubbish. “Trust” becomes a moot point.

There are obvious limits to crowdfunding an inquiry. No authority to compel or subpoena. Voluntary participation. Finances. And yet the benefits outweigh any acknowledged challenge.

Previous inquiries have failed probably because they were set with warped scopes. The South African Human Rights Commission’s Faultlines report of 2000 was a joke. The Satchwell Inquiry was more an academic, theoretical grasp of function than a practical exploration. A private inquiry in as formal a setting as possible could chronicle examples of intentionally bad practice in ways few others could.

Because it would be honest, basic, and accessible. Holding editors – even in their absence – to account for their abuses of privilege as the first phase would then open the door to the second. And when all the country is talking about commercial relationships between legacy media and security agencies, or deals struck in private, when the strength of evidence reduces coincidences to illusions – trust me – something will break, and the disinfectant we seek will flood in.

*This column was written before Adriaan Basson, editor of News24, admitted that his platform had "got it wrong" on Andrea Johnson. This admission, like Masondo’s, serves to emphasise the importance of instituting a citizen-led and -funded inquiry.