Well, not quite a march of the ents, but I spotted this snippet in the Argus:
The City of Cape Town has ordered the owners of two properties near Gordon’s Bay to rehabilitate their land after bulldozers ripped up endangered fynbos.
A small item, with even less detail than the original article. But good news nevertheless. I’d still like to know who the slimes were.
What’s also interesting is this issue as an example of media sensationalism. I am equally interested in both the destruction and the restoration order. However, the destruction was made into a highly prominent news item, while the restoration order was a 2 line snippet hidden away. I can’t say its made me more disillusioned with the media companies, as that would be difficult, but it’s an affirmation of my negative opinion of them. The recent Mbeki/Tutu spat is another example. The actual wording both used during their ‘spat’ was quite mild, but if you’d only read the headlines it would have looked like World War III between them.
The real question I have is does this work, or are the media executives being silly? I personally don’t purchase media that indulges in that sort of blatant manipulation going on, and most people I know have similar views. When the Argus had ‘good news week’ or some such thing a while back there were scores of letters of support. Did sales really suffer? I wonder…