To join Suidlanders: Email: homestays@gmail.com
Text of News24 fake news article (retracted):
HEADLINE: LOVING LIFE: FAKE NEWS FROM ABROAD
2019-08-29 05:00
NEWS24
Many people from South Africa and abroad have found a voice in the channel called Loving Life. The channel however has made many errors in reporting factually on the news writes Adriaan Basson.
At the time of writing this the two channels on Youtube known as "Loving Life" and "Loving Life 2019" has a total subscriber base of more than 60,000 followers. The channel is owned by a south African expat known as Scott Balson.
Scott uploads videos onto the popular video platform, Youtube, and his videos accumulate tens of thousands of views. In these videos, he talks about current affairs taking place in South Africa. It has to be noted however that his channel has also been known to spread misinformation regarding South Africa.
Apart from the obvious trap of failing and reporting on fake news, Scott has also hosted controversial guests like Suidlanders on his livestreams. For those of you who aren't aware of the Suidlanders they are a far right wing prep group that was established by the controversial Gustav Muller. In his latest livestream with Suidlanders he discusses why South Africa is heading for a civil war. None of which can be substantiated by him or the spokesperson for Suidlanders, Simon Roche.
It is therefore quite unfortunate that, with such an influential platform, Scott from Loving Life doesn't do due diligence before reporting on events in South Africa. He solely relies on his subscribers, who emails (sic) him, to report on the news in South Africa and this when he is proven wrong or wanting on specific topics, he merely blames the person who sent him the email. Under South African law we know that this doesn't excuse you from a lawsuit as you can't claim ignorance when reporting on events that can create a panic or frenzy in South Africa, fortunately for him, and in this case, unfortunately for us, he doesn't live in South Africa.
Scott lives in Australia, and has been doing so for the past 20 years... or more. Which begs the question, why is he so interested in what is going on in South Africa? Why does he rely on emails from subscribers to inform him as to what is happening in South Africa? Why does he not return to South Africa and report from the ground like so many of us do? These are questions that we will unfortunately not get answers to. News24 tried to make contact with Scott Balson but unfortunately, all our emails remained (sic) unanswered as of the time of writing this opinion piece.
News24 prides itself on reporting the news that is accurate and fair, and ... when we do get it wrong you can trust that we will correct our mistakes. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the Loving Life channels, just one example of this was the now infamous election fear mongering video from Scott in which he proclaimed the ANC was planning on cutting the power so that the elections could be avoided in South Africa. This is but one example of unsubstantiated claims made in his videos, that run into the thousands of videos.
It is therefore of critical importance that we, as South Africans, unite against fake news and the most vocal of its supporters. We are a divided country at present, the last thing we need as a country are fake news reporters like Scott Balson. It is because of all this that I warn you of the danger that is the Loving Life Youtube channels because clearly .. he isn't loving the facts.
- Basson is the Editor and Chief of News24
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