 |
| Fighting on: Nelson Mandela |
THIS is a tough blog to write. I’ve blundered. Got it wrong. Disrespected a great statesman. Messed-up unforgivably. For the nearly 10,000 followers on twitter and 2,000 friends on Facebook, utter apologies. To everyone I offended, including the great man and his family, I have no words other than SORRY.
On Thursday at 1pm I tweeted: “Nelson Mandela’s passing will be announced at a press conference just after 7pm tonight. Good source. #madiba #rip.” IT WAS RUBBISH. UTTER BOLLOCKS.
Within minutes, over 50 retweets. Dozens of replies. Then the phone started ringing. Then President Jacob Zuma emerged from the hospital in Pretoria to tell us Madiba was “critical but stable” and was showing signs of improvement. And his family had a go at the foreign media. I started to fidget.
I tried to get in to my tweets on the blackberry. eNCAnews demanded I remove any mention of their station from my site. I did. Then they called to say I would never appear on their station again. I made a couple of calls. Panic. And as soon as I bloody well could, I deleted the offending tweet.
Unforgivable. I couldn’t go near my twitter account. I felt nauseous. Sickened by my own actions. I didn’t emerge from the pits all day on Friday. The madness circled in my head. No sleep, mental self-flagellation. I still haven’t read the avalanche of condemnation which, rightly, came down on my stupid head.
This morning, I will try to explain my actions, but this in no way explains THAT tweet. I don’t expect a tweet like that to be forgiven, or forgotten.
But for what it’s worth, here’s how it happened.
It was just after I went live with the second edition of my new show “BOLLOCKZ” on www.ballz.co.za, my phone had been ringing during the show. I was on a high. Good show. The phone rang again, about 1pm. It was a producer from a global 24-hour news station who had asked me to go on air on Saturday morning to talk my usual bollockz about sport.
He referred to the email below, which I quote, mistakes and all, word-for-word:
“I am a producer with Arise TV and is producing the show you have been invited to as a guest on Saturday.
“I need to get in contact with you to talk through some questions. At this point we believe that most of the discussion will be around Nelson Mandela and the impact he has had on the sporting scene in South Africa.
“There is a news conference later this evening and we are expecting that it will be an briefing on the passing away of Mr. Mandela. It that is the case, our Saturday interview will be a look back and a reflection and the sport interview will be very important.
“I tried calling earlier. If you get this message, please call back or answer in an e-mail and I will call you back.”
The producer almost glossed over the actual press conference. We talked through how to deal with the situation on the Saturday morning, how I would talk about Madiba’s extraordinary actions – portrayed in the Hollywood film “Invictus” – during the 1995 World Cup. We agreed I would take the story on, talk about Nelson Mandela’s belief in the unifying power of sport and how, perhaps, current president Zuma could use a bit of the same.
And as I came off the phone. Another email from… let’s just say a foreign journalist. Saying the same thing. Press conference 7pm. And another call soon after. “We’ve got all the programming ready, we’ll push the button as soon as the announcement is made.”
Of course, that morning, there was a sombre feel to the day. President Obama’s visit was called into question, rumours were flying. I sent the tweet. There was no way to check it's veracity. I don't blame the people mentioned above, they were just keeping me informed. I don't know how I could have gone public with it.
Within an hour, President Zuma was telling us Madiba was improving and the family were having a go at people JUST like me.
In a matter of seconds, I had turned in to a vulture. One of those unfortunate news reporters assigned to hospital watch. Only I went a step further. After largely staying away from the saga outside the hospital in Pretoria, I was knee deep. And I’d twisted a knife I really should have stayed well away from. I'm a sports journalist not a bloody newsman. Unforgivable.
As we all know, deleting tweets is no good when twitter.com offers a retweet button. There is no escape. I hold my hands up. Idiot. Unfollow by all means. Never read my stuff again. I understand. I know I would.
I am deeply, deeply sorry.
0 comments:
Post a Comment