[Debate] (Fwd) Was Ray Hartley stupid or malevolent (or both)?

[Patrick Bond]

(I had lunch with him once twenty years ago, and I'd say 'stupid', i.e. 
forgetful plus opportunistic. Our old friend, Debate-list-departed 
Dominic, thinks there's a race plot - beyond, that is, selling more 
newspapers with breathless, bogus 'scoops', a long-standing Sunday Times 
disease.)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	[SOS Relay] Hartley must go
Date: 	Mon, 29 Aug 2011 07:34:29 +0200
From: 	Dominic Tweedie <dominic.tweedie at gmail.com>

	

	




*Hartley must go*


The publication of the three- or four-year-old 'Facebook racism' 
photograph on the front page of the Sunday Times was a deliberate 
provocation.

The editor, Ray Hartley, knew better than almost anybody else in the 
country that this story was at least three years old, because before he 
was editor of the Sunday Times he was editor of The Times, which ran 
this very same story prominently in October, 2008.

Why then did he fake the story up as news and run it again on the front 
page of the Sunday Times, yesterday? Why now?

It is because thousands of young people full of vague talk of racial 
"nationalisation" are going to start arriving in Johannesburg, today. 
Hartley, a white person with the same interest as the white people who 
faked the photograph, wanted to stir up racial trouble in the country.

At the same time as putting the incendiary image on its front page (and 
on its web site, still up to now), the Sunday Times was busy, inside, 
trying to twist its own previous allegations of Julius Malema's 
corruption into this: "State institutions should not be used to settle 
political scores - no matter who the target may be." It was trying, in 
this editorial, to suggest that Julius Malema is the victim of misuse of 
state resources - because the state is investigating the allegations 
that the Sunday Times itself had published!

The Sunday Times' timing is more than suspicious. This front page story, 
and the editorial allegations, were attempts to pour petrol on a fire, 
and potentially, to burn down the whole country.

There are black people, like Julius Malema, who live by playing with 
racial fire. And there are plenty of black people who are hurt and 
vulnerable and who will react to this kind of provocation. This is the 
background to what Ray Hartley and the Sunday Times did yesterday, with 
full knowledge and malice aforethought.

The Sunday Times’ intentional use of the photograph is no different from 
those who made the image in the first place.

These newspapers have not changed at all. They cannot be trusted. It is 
now time to move to the Media Appeals Tribunal as fast as possible.

In the mean time, with or without the MAT, Ray Hartley must resign or be 
fired, quickly.


*VC*

***


*Sunday Times 'Facebook racist' story is 3 years old***

/Inflammatory image given front page splash was extensively reported on 
in 2008 /


*Politicsweb.co.za, Johannesburg, 29 August 2011*

On Sunday the /Sunday Times/ - under the heading "Wanted: Facebook 
racist" - led with a story 
<http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2011/08/28/wanted-facebook-racist> about 
a picture of a white man posing "over the apparently lifeless body of a 
black child - like a hunter celebrating his kill." It said that the 
"undated picture", which it published prominently on its front page, "is 
on the social networking site in the profile of a user called ‘Eugene 
Terrorblanche'" and that "While it is not known if the photograph is 
genuine or has been manipulated, a child protection charity has 
expressed concern for the well being of the youngster."

The newspaper had sent a link of the picture to the Hawks unit of the 
South African Police Service and they had immediately launched an 
investigation. "The search is now on for the person or persons 
responsible for the picture, for whoever created the user profile and 
for those who have seen the photograph but failed to report it."

Although the /Sunday Times'/ did not date the picture or establish 
whether it was posed, digitally created or real, its report was picked 
up by AFP which sent the story around the world.

The picture, seemingly documenting, at the very least, the degradation 
of a black child by a white man, provoked a Tsunami of fury and outrage. 
DA leader, Helen Zille, released a statement calling for "all South 
Africans to assist in finding the originators of this picture so that 
the law can take its course."

At about the point where this tidal wave was peaking Mandy Wiener, the 
Eye Witness News reporter and author of Killing Kebble, commented on 
Twitter that she was " surprised by /Sunday Times/ lead story re 
Facebook racism. I did the story for EWN several years ago & it was well 
known then."

In a follow up message she said that in May 2008 "EWN exposed the 
picture which is on the front page of the SunTimes on a FB group called 
'Ek laaik nie 'n houtkop nie so what'." In answer to a query as to 
whether the man with the rifle was ever tracked down she added: "I tried 
at the time and seem to recall it was a hoax."

The story on the racist Facebook group - established by a few students 
at the University of the North West - was extensively reported on in the 
press in early October 2008. A Sapa report on October 6 2008 stated:

"The North West University (NWU) on Monday expressed shock over the 
existence of a racist group on Facebook and the involvement of some of 
its students as officers of the group...It was reported that the group 
called "/ek laaik nie 'n houtkop nie, sou what/" (I do not like a 
'houtkop', so what?) contains inflammatory comments posted by members. 
The group apparently also showed a photograph of a young white man 
holding a gun while posing over the trophy of a young black boy lying on 
the ground."

The Facebook group and the photograph were subsequently mentioned in 
reports and analyses in /Beeld/, /Die Burger,/ /Volksblad/, the 
Independent Group newspapers and the /Mail & Guardian/. (In November 
2008 a student linked to the page was expelled from the university, an 
action which again received extensive coverage in the press.)

_*/The Times/, then edited by **Ray Hartley*_, also reported on the 
incident. In an article (*October 7 2008*) it stated that the 
university's management and the Human Rights Commission had been alerted 
to the existence of the Facebook page. Adding: "the ‘k-word' is used 
frequently page, and a picture of a white man holding a gun while 
standing over a young black boy on the ground is displayed. The picture 
has been removed."

On Twitter on Sunday _*Hartley - now editor of the /Sunday Times/*_ - 
defended the decision to publish this extremely racist image on the 
front page of his newspaper despite its being at least three years old, 
saying: "Our story is about an extremely racist image being published on 
Facebook now, in 2011. We must find the person who published this image."


*Update:* /Beeld/ reports 
<http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Jagfotomaak-opnuut-opslae-20110828> that 
the Hawks are now saying that the police had already investigated the 
photo in 2007. The man concerned told the police back then that he had 
paid the child to lie like that.
*/

The Times/ report of _October 7 2008_:*



*From: 
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71627?oid=253131&sn=Detail&pid=71627 
<http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71627?oid=253131&sn=Detail&pid=71627>* 

**
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