SCRUTATOR
This week I bring you the mother of all scandals.
For some time I have not said anything about that Voiceless paper because something about their recent editions had fooled me into believing they were improving.
But after a casual perusal this week I was shocked to discover what is considered the worst criminal activity in journalism.
While I was busy spanking other scribes for gaffes and giving the prestigious mediocrity award to Misa I did not know that the journos at that Pravda were up to some serious monkey business.
This week I caught them with their hands deep in the cookie jar.
It’s incredible how Theko Tlebere and Mpati Matla took readers for imbeciles by hacking stories from other publications and passing them off as their own work.
Without shame, the two reporters attached their names to other people’s stories.
My sister Mpati, can you deny that “your” story titled “Building trust during time of change in the work place” on Page 5 of this week’s edition is stolen goods?
She looted that story word for word from the website www.selfgrowth.com.
It was written by one chap called Charles A Breeding but Mpati liked it so much that she could not resist the temptation of stealing it and passing it off as her own work.
I am anticipating a strong denial from the lousy paper so I have since written to Breeding, a respected writer himself, to check if he is the one who stole Mpati’s story.
Ha-ha-ha-ha isn’t it just ridiculous the lengths some journalists go to prove they are sophisticated!
It’s called plagiarism and it’s the worst crime in journalism.
I also caught Tlebere red-handed stealing acres of paragraphs from Wikipedia for his column misnamed Diplomacy of the Elites.
He stole six of his eight-paragraph column from a Wikipedia article on leadership in organisations.
I did not bother to check where he plundered the other two paragraphs but I have no doubt that they too are not his.
What worries me about this particular story robber is that he has the nerve to put his picture on a column full of pillaged ideas.
There he was smiling from ear to ear as if bootlegging of ideas is anything to be proud of.
At least the other columnists in the paper, though dreary, have the decency of admitting that they get heavy assistance from other proper writers.
Why does a paper that prides itself as patriotic employ journalists that are not proud of their own ideas?
I have been wondering why the copy in that paper had suddenly become a bit clean but now I know that they are in the business of pinching copy from other writers.
And where is Misa when journalists are butchering ethics with such impunity?
I know it is merely an advocacy group but I think this is where Misa should raise the alarm.
Even a toothless bulldog can bark too.
I am worried about Misa’s silence because this was the week of scandals in the media.
Intelserv, an online publication, was up to some impishness as well.
They distorted the statement that Sir Ketumile Masire issued after visiting Lesotho last week.
They proudly announced that “Intelserv got hold of Masire’s report and is given below exactly as he wrote it” but they did not mention that they intervened to change the meaning of one crucial paragraph in the statement.
They copied Masire as having said: “It is unusual practice to limit the amount of time for an election petition to be brought, and the period during which the petition must be heard and determined.”
Scrutator read the statement 10 times but still could not find that paragraph.
In his statement Masire used the word “usual” and not “unusual”.
If the aim was to get Scrutator’s attention then they sure succeeded.
From now on Scrutator will be watching them closely.
But hold on . . . you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Last week I was gobsmacked after reading in the Informative that someone was planning to make a movie about that controversial Lefate boy.
I mean the dreadlocked one.
They said the movie will focus on his life’s trials and tribulations.
Guys, what rank bunkum is this?
That 20-something-boy who is still learning to say the word “enough” to beer must work hard first before he starts clamouring for hero status.
I mean he is still struggling to leave behind his boyhood days but someone is already making a hero out of his juvenile delinquency.
I have no doubt if I were to come up with such an idea those who care for me would rush me to a psychiatrist before I descend on the streets of Maseru in a feat of lunacy.
For starters, Scrutator wouldn’t even know this boy from a bar of soap.
At best he is a struggling musician and at worst an undisciplined wannabe.
He doesn’t even know that when you have a car accident you must report to the police.
Yet someone wants to make a whole movie out of his self-inflicted misery.
This country has many heroes that will make worthy subjects for biopics.
No one is yet to make a movie about the founder of this nation, King Moshoeshoe I, and his collaborating chiefs.
I want to see a film about Mohlomi, the son of Monyane, and Joshua Makoanyane, Moshoeshoe’s lieutenant.
Chief Leabua Jonathan is also a good subject for a movie.
And how about documenting the political disturbances that have rocked this country in the past?
That boy will have to wait in a very long queue and his turn will probably come in the next century.
But that is only if he changes his ways and starts doing something useful with his life.
