Patricia in porn shocker and the Daily Voice’s flight to the bottom

Paging through the Mail & Guardian the other day, someone asked me whether I’d seen that Patricia had been in a porn movie.

Patricia de Lille in a porn movie? Had she been fingered in the training of MDC operatives by the Zim government and this was an attempted smear? Was it something she did in her wild youth, perhaps even after inhaling? Is the Mail & Guardian sinking to the same level as the Daily Voice?

No, it turned out the Patricia in question was Patricia Lewis. Now I don’t know about anybody else, but when someone mentions Patricia, I certainly don’t think of Patricia Lewis! Good thing it wasn’t Patricia de Lille really. South Africa’s favourite politician keeps her squeaky-clean image, and the porn movie will probably enjoy better sales than in the scenario I’d imagined.

The Daily Voice meanwhile still leads the race to the bottom, but for how long? With headlines bordering on hate speech, such as Moffie geskiet in sy gat, it seems the rival Kaapse Son is springing into action, and also going daily. Apparently they had a humourous editorial about “johnny-come lately Irish moguls”, a reference to Tony O’ Reilly, who owns the Independent Group. The Daily Voice will apparently soon be going national, and the Sun, currently Joburg only, will possibly be doing the same. So Cape Town will soon be blessed by three stimulating new tabloids. Watch out Durban, it’s coming your way too.

I wonder what effect tabloids have on the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index?