Good news is no news....

[Arnd Herrmann]

Wrong way round? No, exactly the way I mean it:
Good news just don't sell - and if something is good, it's get turned into some negative anyway. Clem Sunter has run a project with his PA, and asked her to cut out all newspaper headlines with good news and to collect them - I can't recall the exact figure, but I think she found not even 10! 10 positive headlines in two years....

[Anthony & Chantal]

C & I were discussing this some time ago.

There is good news out there, but I don't think the newspaper reporters are schooled, or even in a mindset to actively go out and get good/positive news, as there is a belief that this doesn't sell newspapers.
Take for example the headline we saw this weekend - something about "SA's Olympic Flop" - I didn't buy the paper, cos I don't want to support this negative reporter and his bosses. What kind of person writes stuff like this? The reporter could have written about the extreme discipline of the athletes and all the training they had to endure to get to the level they need to be to just compete in the olympics, but no.

I truly believe that what you are immersed in will control your mindset, and ultimately your actions and fate. We try our best to ignore this negative propaganda, but its very difficult when its is so pervasive. Its gotten to the stage where we choose not to watch the news because its just so depressing.


If you drive along Wm. Nicoll for example, you are bombarded by bad news headlines stuck up on the lamp-posts. What does this do to one's state of mind? What would happen if we could convince the newspapers to actively go out there and find good news, and success storys and print them instead? Maybe just for one day?

[Gregory Hart]

Yup, although we aren't hear to complain I feel the same, we are bombarded by trash from paparazzi smut dealers from You magazine to Heat and people magazine and newspapers who don't even care about facts and just try to sensationalise everything by magnifying only the bad. Most of our swimmers swam personal bests, qualified for a lot of finals and set All Africa records - no mean feat, but its all been put down by the press as not good enough when in actual fact its pretty cool. Same with our track athletes - we had some guys in the finals of their events again justifying their being chosen! Plus I have gotten a real kick out of the Jamaican and other African athletes who have really shown the world that Africans aren't just a bunch of beggars! Go SA go Africa!

[Marcel Deacon]

Hi Anthony and Chantal

I agree with you the media are always looking for bad news or to make matters look worse than it is.