Editorial: Our parlous mediascape

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Two weeks ago leaked documents were widely circulated that revealed a troubling nexus between actors in the US/NATO military industrial complex and the Daily Maverick. The correspondence revealed that the lines between the Oppenheimer’s Brenthurst Foundation and the Daily Maverick are so blurred that they might as well not exist. The subsequent chatter within newsrooms, on social media, and from the named parties was remarkably revealing about the parlous state of our media landscape. That is why the Pan-African Institute for Socialism (PAIS) is going on record outlining the context, and rationale for why we will continue to publish media research, analysis and critique.

The public interest and journalistic ethics

Firstly, it is in the public interest to publish and comment on stories where journalistic ethics and the integrity of the media is at stake. In the case of the Daily Maverick and the Brenthurst Foundation’s coverage of geopolitics and international relations, it is hard to tell where the publication ends, and where the foundation begins. Having Mills, a former Nato operative and the director of the Brenthurst Foundation as the Daily Maverick editor-at-large conflates roles that should never be co-mingled, period.

In the past the Pan-African Institute for Socialism has written about the ecosystem of funders, institutions, and governments that create and maintain this influence network. They illustrate a vertically integrated propaganda machine that serves Western interests and how the component parts of this system interface.

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What makes the Daily Maverick correspondence between Mills, Brkic and the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence jarring is that it is a snapshot of this interface in action. Content that is created by the Brenthurst Foundation is reproduced and given prominence on the Daily Maverick. It is a brazen manipulation of the discourse by Mills, Brkic, and the Oppenheimer’s Brenthurst Foundation. Of course, editors have the right to pursue their own editorial line on any matter. But the Daily Maverick has been guilty of the blatant manipulation of the discourse in publishing, and still not retracting, apologising for, or qualifying the now debunked Eskom Dirty Dossier. It is as flagrant a violation of ethics as any that they have pointed out among their competitors in the media space

The Daily Maverick have some fine journalists in a post-journalism age. The newsroom is no more. Where there used to be journalists, there are now content creators. Where once sources were cultivated and stories were written, the parlous state of the global mediascape relies on SEO writing, content marketing, and keyword content. The Daily Maverick fosters some truly great old school journalism. Just not in the walled ecosystem of geopolitics, a curious exception.

Weaponised information, muddied waters, bad actors

Secondly, we seek no succour or validation from actors within the media and political arena who weaponise our reportage to fight their own battles and advance their narrow agendas. We just simply don’t care about making common cause with those who, like Mills and his ilk, look to sabotage our institutions and subvert democracy. When our reportage is weaponised by these actors, it misses the point altogether, and in fact muddies the waters. It allows bad actors such as Mills the latitude to tar all critics with the same brush, and diminish and debase legitimate issues of media ethics.

Building Pan-African Socialism

Lastly, our focus is on building Pan-African socialism, and to contribute to thought leadership that is shaping African sovereignty. We are a small organization with a big vision and a long-term strategy. The Pan-African Institute for Socialism is in the process of appointing an advisory board and directors from around the continent, drawn from the disciplines of political economy, history, economics, movement politics, and activism. We are planning events, putting the finishing touches on research papers that seek to answer a fundamental contradiction – if Africa is so rich, why are Africans so poor?

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When we examine these questions, we will no doubt bump against the vested interests that have shaped Africa’s history of colonialism, slavery, exploitation, and capitalism. One of these factors is the entrenched liberal media on the continent who have long enjoyed the privilege of institutional authority in shaping the discourse according to a pro-western framework. We don’t shy away from these examinations, but they are not the raison d’être of our organisation.

Independent media is important, but only when it is accountable to a standard that entrenches its credibility. By every metric, the Daily Maverick falls short of even the most basic adherence to journalistic ethics when it comes to its coverage of international relations and matters of geopolitics. It can continue to be compromised by being the dog that is wagged by the Brenthurst tail, or it can be the game changer that it claims to be.