Sunday Times got Bono-'Shoot the Boer' story right

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And so we have had the bizarre Bono-"Shoot the Boer" saga over the past two weeks, complete with Afrikaans singer Steve Hofmeyr dumping his U2 concert tickets into the Jukskei River. Many U2 fans and media luvvies got in a frothy about the Sunday Times apparently misrepresenting the Irish pop star's comments to Sunday Times journalist Buddy Naidu on questions he asked about struggle songs and the controversy over ANC Youth League Julius Malema singing "Shoot the Boer."

(If you've been in a cave recently and haven't followed the soap opera, click here to read The Daily Maverick's account of it. I would recommend you also read the comments thread in which the article's author and Sunday Times editor have a bit of a go at each other.)

Not being either a Bono or Hofmeyr fan nor personally offended by "Shoot the Boer" (I have sung it myself at student marches in times past), I wrote it off as a storm in a teacup - which, incidentally, is what Sunday Times editor Ray Hartley told The Daily Maverick. If the Sunday Times did mislead anyone, I reckoned, it was unlikely to be intentional or malicious - and more likely to be in error. And, quite frankly, Bono the Billionaire is big enough to fight his own battles.

Rather extraordinary step

But that was until the Sunday Times took the rather extraordinary step this last Sunday of running an article by Naidu, giving a lengthy account of his interview with Bono - all recorded on a dictaphone as Sunday Times reporters are required to do. (Click here to listen to what Bono said.)

So not a storm in a tea cup then - not to the Sunday Times by the end of last week. Naidu's piece made for interesting reading - not because he proffered an opinion, though he was a tad smirky about Bono (then again, I am, too), but because it was a straight account of the "interview" that involved all the band members and four other journalists besides Naidu and a brief one-on-one afterwards between Bono and Naidu.

Having read this article - and it is taken from Naidu's dictaphone recordings so there is no reason to doubt its veracity - my reading of the situation is that these were good questions for Naidu to ask. Further, it is clear that Bono was aware of both the "Shoot the Boer" controversy and Malema, and that he said there was a place for struggle songs but, sung at inappropriate times and places, they were obviously offensive.

First two paragraphs

Go back to the original Sunday Times piece, and the headline is: "Struggle songs have a place - U2" while the first two paragraphs of the story say:

Julius Malema may have found an unlikely ally in U2 frontman Bono who, on Friday, waded into the debate over the singing of the controversial Shoot The Boer song.

The Irish rocker, who has never met the ANC Youth League president, said there was nothing wrong with singing political songs - but not at public gatherings."

Well, blow me down for weighing in on the side of the evil Sunday Slimes but this all seems correct. The paper got it right and played it straight: Bono said struggle songs were kosher when used appropriately and his comment was indeed in the context of his knowing about the "Shoot the Boer" Constitutional Court case and of Malema.

Some ambiguity in poster

There may be some ambiguity in the "Bono guides Juju" poster as it could imply that the two men had met. But then the choice of the word "guides" is also not inaccurate as it says Bono gave advice or his opinion - which is what he did, otherwise he could have told Naidu: "I'd really rather not comment on that". The demands of space dictate that street posters use a bold shorthand and, by comparison, had the Sunday Times poster declared: "Bono backs Juju", that would certainly have been pushing it.

So how did this become a voracious media feedback loop in which the Sunday Times was the villain?

Well, an inaccurate Times Live headline on a wire story from SAPA proclaiming "Bono backs Malema's 'Shoot the Boer' song"on the Monday following the original Sunday Times article had a lot to do with it. It seems the international press picked this up and, on the same day, The Daily Maverick interviewed music journalists at the U2 interview with Naidu, who accused the Sunday Times of distortion based especially on the TimesLive headline.

Bono didn't really help matters when he told Talk Radio 702 that he was "puzzled" by the furore, that he didn't give unequivocal support to singing struggle songs and that there was a place for them.

Culprit was Times Live

So, once again the original Sunday Times article and headlines and poster were correct. The culprit then was that Times Live headline, now long gone as Hartley told The Daily Maverick that it was changed because it was over the top.

In her interchanges with Hartley, The Daily Maverick journalist Mandy de Waal makes something of the fact that she has a screen grab of the original Times Live headline but this is neither here nor there. Hartley - whom we must remember does not oversee Times Live, which is a separate Avusa division to the Sunday Times - said it was wrong and that it had been changed.

I think there are three interesting little wakeup calls here:

1. Online sub-editors are more likely to make a mistake in a headline than print sub-editors because they tend to be under pressure to get stories up as fast as possible and the deadline is ever-present.

   By and large, print sub-editors have a bit more time unless it is fast approaching the daily or weekly deadline. Online sub-editors also know that a mistake can be rectified later. And indeed it can, which is the great thing about the web, but that doesn't mean that someone's not going to pick it up and run while the incorrect version is out there.

2. Much has been made of the Sunday Times pushing the envelope in order to sell newspapers. I don't think it pushed the envelope here but let's not forget that headlines and posters are indeed designed to pique your interest, to get you to pick up and buy the paper or read the article in print and online form. The covers and titles of novels do the same - otherwise they'd be dry academic journals.

3. And, finally, when it comes to all things Malema, we South Africans can get a little knee-jerk hysterical. Which is understandable but it can also make us myopic.
   

Shrill voices feed off each other

The comments thread on The Daily Maverick article is so interesting because it shows how shrill voices feed off each other and up the tempo even more. Only one commentator that I could see - "Malome Tom" - stood apart from the crowd and asked:

So what's being said here? that bono couldn't have possibly said what he was QUOTED as saying? that there's a disconnect between headline and body of article?

maybe the real issue people have with bono, is that he SEEMINGLY 'broke ranks' (go figure) with fellow tribesmen. this article seems to be saying, "hey, wait a minute, he couldn't of possibly meant THAT?!!?!?" and then goes on to attempt to 'redeem' him somehow, it's all one big misunderstanding. and yes, he didn't endorse malema, but that is hardly the story is it.

aside, disclaimer the above in way speaks to my views around malema and the songs he sings just pay mind to my views on the silliness of this article. [sic]

For more:

• Sydney Morning Herald: Beating the wrong drum for an interesting Australian perpective on the saga
  
• The Independent: You can't silence songs of the past by UK writer and broadcaster Terence Blacker, who is researching "trouble-making" songs