Did the Sunday Times make up it’s story about SA male prostitute?
Posted on May 28th, 2007 by Richard Catto 4,953 views
Yesterday, the Sunday Times published an article about sa male prostitute, wherein they claim to have had email contact with him.
They apparently initiated contact by posting a comment in his blog and received a reply by email. He allegedly calls himself Skye, is 30 years old and is living in Australia with his girlfriend.
Thing is, there’s no comment in his blog by the Sunday Times. Although comment moderation is turned on, he has already approved two comments, both of low quality. Comments by myself and another blogger, Johan Swarts, have not been approved (yet). It seems to me that a comment by the Sunday Times would be approved merely for the status value of having a major South African newspaper comment in your blog.
According to the Sunday Times, Skye says he has received only two emails so far. One from the Independent Democrats, threatening him with investigation by the Scorpions and another allegedly from one of the people he blogged about.
SA male prostitute publishes a contact email address on his blog. I sent an email to it on Friday evening (May 25 2007) and got a bounce back. The email address does not exist. The yahoo address he published ends in co.uk. I changed it to .com and that email did not bounce, indicating that it does exist. The yahoo ID was created on the same day as he made his first blog entry, so I am reasonably confident that my second email was sent to the correct person, yet Skye says he only received two emails, neither from me.
Skye, apparently, according to the Sunday Times, doesn’t know about all the fuss around his blog. However, he has been using his WordPress.com blog account and the WordPress dashboard would show him all the incoming links from all the many bloggers that are now linking to him. When bloggers see a new incoming link, curiosity compells us to go look at what they are saying about us.
Was Skye playing dumb? Or did the Sunday Times invent the whole story?
One last thing – if the Sunday Times is indeed in possession of emails from Skye, and they originated from yahoo, then they may also have his real IP address which would allow Skye to be traced. Supposedly, the police are investigating this matter, even though no crime seems to have been committed. Are the police, who are apparently investigating a civil case, now going to demand that the Sunday Times provide them with the emails they received from Skye?
When can the public expect to hear a straight story from the Media on this whole charade?
Tags: hoax, Independent Democrats, lying swine, Patricia de Lille, sa male prostitute, Simon Grindrod, Skye, South African Blogosphere, Sunday Times
Filed under South African Blogosphere | 13 Comments »
Vincent Maher said “Media is a grown-ups’ game, not for kiddies”
Posted on May 25th, 2007 by Richard Catto 1,925 views
In response to Media is a grown-ups’ game, not for kiddies by Vincent Maher.
One thing is for certain, a few of them seem to think being small-time is tantamount to bravery. The Cape Town News blog explains how mainstream media are too scared to link De Lille’s call for the government regulation of blogs to a particular sex blog that the Mail & Guardian did a story on yesterday.
I’m saying that the Mainstream Media hasn’t got any balls, yes.
Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." Matthew 5:13
If the media no longer has the courage to publish and be damned, it has become worthless.
5. It will be up to the judge to decide if the story is a lie, not a bunch of scrofulous nerds
And until it is actually deemed a lie by a judge, it is what it is. It is neither lie nor truth.
4. When you spread a lie about someone its the same as telling the lie in the first place
Only if it is my intention to defame. I am linking to sa male prostitute’s blog to facilitate discussion of its merits and demerits.
In my opinion, it seems to have a ring of truth about it. It could be true.
6. If the lie turns out to be true then thats the right time to talk about it and make it public knowledge
Actually the media is already talking about it, but in the cagey, indirect, dishonest way I criticised.
I’m also not prepared to put my life on hold waiting for a judge to tell me if it’s okay to blog about and link to material that I feel is newsworthy.
7. If the lie is a lie, and you helped spread it, you are guilty.
Judge Vincent Maher has spake. Please note this down. I am guilty. Mea culpa.
BTW, Maher, you link your blog to my blog which links to sa male prostitute. Hence, you are also helping to spread the "defamation". Maybe we can be cell-mates?
Thinking you are above he law because you are using the Internet is the dumbest thing you could ever do.
I don’t think I’m above the law. What I think is that the media has lost its course. It no longer knows where True North lies.
Perhaps if enough bloggers point the way, you will remember? Trouble is, the media doesn’t want to believe the Blogosphere. It thinks to itself, "What do they know? They’re just kiddies."
It is easy to track you
So track down sa male prostitute already, if it is so easy.
If someone was doing that to you, you might understand this point a little better.
It has been done to me already. All manner of slander has been posted about me by various people on Usenet. I even had their IP addresses. Only fuckwits sue. You just ignore. That’s what you do.
Spreading slander to millions of readers a day is an irresponsible use of press freedom and the freedom of speech.
I’m not asking them to spread slander. I’m asking them to report honestly and truthfully.
I believe that I have done so in this blog.
Filed under air guitars of journalism, blogger, Blogosphere, blogs, Independent Democrats, Mail & Guardian, Patricia de Lille, sa male prostitute, Simon Grindrod, South African Blogosphere, The Media, Vincent Maher | 1 Comment »
