Ann Crotty is creating fake news, not “breaking news” as published by BusinessLIVE last week. South Africa experienced fake news similar to this in the US elections recently. Is it not ironic that in the same week that our competitor, TMG, advertised that readers now have to pay for business news on its fledgling business live unit, Crotty published fake news about Independent and its relationship to Sekunjalo?
Are TMG now expecting consumers to pay for fake news? Well, the loyal readers of Business Report can rest assured: You can find factual and truthful news in Business Report, and IOL, for free!
Crotty, also referred to as Ann Grumpy by some, is a disgruntled former Independent and Business Report employee (and wane-be independent purchaser) who wrote a bizarre, laughable and factually incorrect article that I, as the executive editor of Independent Business, could not ignore; since this is one of various attempts to slander Independent Media and the Sekunjalo Group.
Audacity
Is it not ironic that Crotty does not declare that she was, not so long ago, leading a grouping of two people that approached the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) to fund them to buy Independent Media from the Irish?
When the PIC rejected her request she had the audacity to approach Sekunjalo Group to be included in the consortium’s proposal, on behalf of a trust that, by the way, didn’t exist at the time!
Perhaps Crotty should look closer to home for why she is so grumpy.
Shareholders of TMG have had a torrid time since TMG experienced declining circulation according to the latest ABC figures. Just ask Tokyo Sexwale’s Mvelaphande who bought theirs at R48 a share
TMG out of all media groups is one that has lost a significant amount of circulation, and is, under the current management, a pale shadow of its former self. Similarly, according to the latest ADX figures, TMG has lost significant market share to Independent Media. It is further known that TMG took away many benefits from its own pensioners by restructuring its PMA benefits, resulting in an uproar between former employees and pensioners. Maybe Ann must check if her own pension will be asset stripped by TMG.
Offered for free
Back to reality, advertisers, fund managers and the public at large should ask themselves:
Why do you have to pay exorbitant prices for substandard business articles or other “media content” (nowadays mostly political copy-and-paste press releases), if you have access to unique quality multimedia content offered to you on various platforms for free?
Can you trust a disgruntled ex-employee that misleads her audience by publishing fake news that will shy even Donald Trump!
Why is it that Aunty Ann focuses her efforts in discrediting Independent Media at a time when TMG retrenched half of their staff, mostly black executives, whilst Independent Media invests in technology, innovation and world class multimedia solutions?
Ms Crotty, at Independent Media our mission, our vision and our value offering to our readers is based on rule one: Trust. No lies, no agendas, no fake. If you can’t do it, don’t fake it. Our country deserves better.
* Adri Senekal de Wet is the Executive Editor of Independent Media's Business unit.