Media bullies should not be shielded by popularity

In the late ’90s, the Jerry Springer Show surpassed the queen of talk shows, Oprah Winfrey, in the television viewer ratings.

It left many shocked and in disbelief. Winfrey’s show had for many years ruled in the ratings because it was deemed as a wholesome show based on promoting family values of respect, love, honesty and healing.

It had just been surpassed by a show that depended on the shock value of violence, nudity, sex, prejudice and just plain crassness to attract viewers. Fast forward 20 years later and South African television and podcast space is experiencing the same thing.

Podcaster MacGyver Mukwevho, popularly known as MacG by the over 1.5 million subscribers to his Podcast And Chill YouTube offering, is to be summonsed to appear before a parliamentary portfolio committee for vulgar and disrespectful utterances about celebrity television host Minnie Dlamini.

Mukwevho’s podcast has partnered with commercial industry entities, among which are the channel, Moja Love, in the MultiChoice stable.

ALSO READ: MacG’s commenting goes beyond the bounds of free speech

The channel and MultiChoice were quick to distance themselves from the vile utterances but the question is, have they done enough?

The reason he has been summonsed to appear in parliament is that Deputy Minister in the Presidency Mmapaseka Steve Letsike says they view his utterances to be unhelpful in the fight against gender-based violence (GBV).

She is not off the mark.

But, as is always the case with our parliament’s intervention in matters that affect ordinary citizens, this comes a little too late in the game, 1.5 million subscribers too late.

Mukwevho has been riding the shock jock wave for years without consequences at all.

ALSO READ: Minnie Dlamini breaks silence following controversial MacG comments

The same tactics that the Jerry Springer Show used to gain viewer ratings have been adopted by broadcasters like Mukwevho and many programmes on the Moja Love channel that have commercialised the social lives of the poor and vulnerable, especially women and children, and somehow turned them into regular entertainment for the same audiences.

There’s been little recourse for those who feel violated by either the insulting content, or the invasion of cameras into their private spaces in the false guise of “fixing the country”.

The lame defence that supporters of broadcasters like Mukwevho and his ilk have is that those aggrieved by their utterances must “report them to the nearest police station”.

This is a joke because it is known that in South Africa, reporting anything hardly ever works.

Even worse, they hide behind the astronomical costs that act as a barrier to private individuals suing a moneyed entity. But the question is why would a podcaster with over 1.5 million subscribers not care that they are considered vile and undesirable by portions of society?

ALSO READ: MacG says his partnership with MultiChoice is ‘a natural evolution’ despite it being criticised as a lazy move by the broadcaster [VIDEO]

The simple reason is the more viewers going to the platform to see what the fuss is all about, the more money they make from their commercial partners.

It works the same way for traditional television channels. The more eyes they have glued to their screens, the more they attract advertisers and the more money they make. So, it pays to degrade women and vulnerable communities.

Parliament should not back down because someone feels they are so powerful that they are “uncancelable”, so uncaring that they’ve left the podcast on to garner views while the dignity of another human being continues to be imperilled by the podcast in question.

It is time that parliament went into spaces that have been left to fuel GBV unregulated because the broadcasters think freedom of speech allows them to bully other people.