Episode 2 - DON'T FALSELY SHOUT "HE HAILED HITLER!" IN A NEWSROOM. Part 1

In the first of a two-part series, we focus on a debate sparked
by a lecture by UCT academic Dr Lwazi Lushaba on the history of
the study of politics. The online lectuee has now been widely
reported on. The Sunday Times reported him as stating that Hitler
"committed no crime" based on, by their own admission, 12 seconds
taken from a 54 minute video. They declared him "Mampara of the
week", 'mampara' being local slang for 'loser'. 





We explore here, in Part One, how truth, evidence and context are
smudged by hasty journalism that aims purely to sell product
rather than getting the story correct. We examine the
implications for democracy and discourse generally. 





Chris Roper, deputy CEO of Code for Africa, drops in and
carefully explains the factors in our newsrooms that account for
such evidence-averse journalism, and warns about the implications
for the value of truth.