Jan Braai, boerewors rolls and an unfortunate video – the essence of verification

When Nobel Prize laureate in literature William Faulkner was once asked what three novels he would most recommend to a creative writing student, his response was ‘Anna Karenina, Anna Karenina, and Anna Karenina‘.

I was reminded of Faulkner’s words when a Heritage Day rumpus broke out after Food Lover’s Market posted a video on its Willowbridge branch’s social media pages of Jan Braai allegedly skipping a Coloured man in a blue tracksuit while handing out boerewors rolls to only white people.

This started trending on social media on Sunday 22 September, and News24 published a report the next day about the frenzy.

Food Lover’s Market later removed the video, but numerous social media users were outraged by what appeared to be racism, saved the video and later reshared it on social media, News24’s head of news, Nicki Gules, explained.

‘Food Lover’s then posted a new video of Jan Braai handing out boerewors rolls to allegedly just Coloured and black people, which caused further public outrage. The second video [was] still available on Food Lover’s Market’s page, but the comment section [had] been closed,’ Gules said.

For readers to understand the daily complexity of news gathering, I will let Gules explain how the news process and decision-making worked over those two days when News24 was drawn into the social media turmoil after publishing a report about the first video.

This is also necessary to emphasise News24’s accountability to its readers, which a transparent outline of the news route the story followed will give.

Gules said: ‘Food Lover’s posted a statement on Sunday night on their social media pages and website denying the allegations of racism that had been going viral all day. [News24’s] reporter Iavan Pijoos didn’t see it appropriate to do the story at the time because he couldn’t get a number for Jan Braai to get his response to this.

‘The story was brought up for discussion on Monday morning during our 08:30 diary meeting. Pijoos confirmed he had Food Lover’s statement, but not Jan Braai’s number. It was then agreed that reporter Marvin Charles would speak to Jan Braai after a colleague from the Eastern Cape shared his number.

‘At 11:16, Charles confirmed to Pijoos that he had received Jan Braai’s comment and would write the story. In the meantime, Pijoos wrote up the statement from Food Lover’s, in which they stated that they were aware of the allegations making the rounds that only selected shoppers received boerewors rolls.

‘They said: “This is simply not true. This allegation is based on an uncharitable interpretation of a single video, which was a small snapshot of the day. Anyone who was there would find the allegation laughable.” Food Lover’s also admitted to removing the first video it posted on its page,’ Gules explained.

‘In the initial story, Charles and Pijoos agreed to angle the story on Jan Braai and Food Lover’s Market denying the allegations of racism.

‘At around 17:38 on Monday, Charles informed Pijoos that Jan Braai’s PR said CCTV footage of the incident was available.

‘At 18:14 on the Monday night, Charles forwarded Pijoos the updated statement from Food Lover’s which also included the CCTV footage.

‘Pijoos immediately contacted Johannesburg news editor Kaveel Singh and acting night fast news editor Alex Mitchley and informed them that there was an update for the story.

‘At 20:05, Mitchley informed Pijoos that the story had been updated with the video of the CCTV footage and the latest statement by Food Lover’s Market. The story was republished, replacing the original version,’ according to Gules.

Unfortunately, numerous social media users decided to give this another racial slant by targeting News24 reporters. Charles and Pijoos were roundly slammed on X, called ‘racist baiters’ and ‘pathetic journalists’. Some users called Pijoos and Charles ‘Ma se k****’, ‘they must be locked up’, ‘sensationalists’, ‘liars’, ‘Pijoos, how appropriate’ and ‘despicable race gifters’, among others.

As public editor of News24, I also received numerous complaints, some civilised and moderate, but others calling the Editor-in-Chief, Adriaan Basson, a ‘snake’ and the ‘propagandist in chief’ (sic), as well as racially attacking our reporters Marvin Charles and Iavan Pijoos.

Gules further explained, after we also discussed the fallout about our original report and the first updated story: ‘On Tuesday morning, Adriaan Basson and I had a discussion about what to do. He felt strongly that we should add a correction to the update, which we did.’

The headline of this updated story read, ‘CORRECTION | CCTV reveals coloured shopper received boerie roll from Jan Braai, quashing claims of racist incident’, and below it [was] the full video showing the coloured shopper was indeed given a boerewors roll by Jan Braai.

Directly and very prominently News24 published the following correction and apology:

CORRECTION: On Monday, News24 published a story based on a Food Lover’s Market marketing video after people experienced the video as racist. We approached Jan Braai and angled the story around his denial of the racism allegations that stemmed from the video, which were already in the public domain. As soon as the more fulsome CCTV footage came to light, we updated the story. In hindsight, News24 should have insisted on seeing the full CCTV footage of the event before publishing a story about the honestly held views of readers, based on partial video footage released by Food Lover’s Market. We apologise to Jan Braai and the other individuals involved. – Editor

It was the sensible route to follow, that a correction and apology should be published. It showed our accountability to our readers, a very important foundation of establishing the credibility and trustworthiness of the media in general, and News24 in particular (our slogan being Trusted News. First). It is also in line with the broad requirements of the Press Code.

But then I must add: we cannot and should not take any social media rumpus as being trustworthy and credible where, in the words of Jon Ronson in his book, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, ‘group madness’ reigns

In a column for News24 I wrote in April 2020 when we also followed social media trending without verification, I wrote the following (please replace the name Bill Gates with Jan Braai):

In his trenchant exposure of the viral dangers when posts on social media are indiscriminately believed and distributed, the award-winning author Jon Ronson shows how a new person every day ’emerges as a magnificent hero or sickening villain’, creating a ‘stage for constant artificial high dramas’.

He calls it ‘mass online destruction’, a ‘group madness’. It is mostly driven by the confirmation bias of a group targeting the created ‘villain’ – in this case Bill Gates – ‘only taking seriously pieces of information that confirmed its pre-existing belief’, again here that Gates was the culprit in this woeful tale of finding a cure for Covid-19.

In this case, Marvin Charles and Iavan Pijoos became the direct targets of racist attacks on social media, but also News24 broadly and Adriaan Basson as Editor-in-Chief in numerous emails I received from complainants.

It has become paramount for trustworthy news media to verify what is being alleged on social media, even if it comes from an official source. Official sources often release truncated and edited versions of stories they want to be heard and it is our duty to verify the content, especially if it can damage and harm a subject’s reputation

News organisations worldwide have instituted fact-checking divisions. In 2014, the Poynter Institute in St Petersburg, Florida, launched a global fact-checking map, counting 44 such sites globally. Within five years, this number has risen to 188, according to the Duke Reporters’ Lab keeping track of active and inactive fact-checking projects, as pointed out by the researcher Mark Stencel.

The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) at Poynter ‘was launched … to bring together the growing community of fact-checkers around the world and advocates of factual information in the global fight against misinformation’, the Poynter Institute reported. ‘We believe truth and transparency can help people be better informed and equipped to navigate harmful misinformation.’

What our first story did, was to magnify the wrong impression the social media debate was giving about the true events, based on limited and in fact skewed information released by Food Lover’s Market.

True, it was the chain store’s mistake, but we should have made certain what they were releasing was indeed the full story, especially in light of the consequences it could have on Jan Braai but, eventually, also on News24’s reporters and our reputation.

Journalists should always be very wary of public relations spin. The process to determine the truth remains one of the most enduring challenges for journalists, and in ethical codes, verification of doubtful information and fact-checking are usually standard principles

Die-hard editors and mass media researchers Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel describe ‘the purpose of journalism’ in The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect as providing ‘people with the information they need to be free and self-governing’.

To fulfil this task, they identify 10 elements of journalism, including ‘its essence … a discipline of verification’.

Which brings me back to Faulkner: I think we erred when we, as a trustworthy and award-winning news site, differ substantially from social media. Our slogan of ‘Trusted news. First’ can only be valid if we do the same triplicate emphasis of ‘Verification, Verification, and Verification’.

We should not have published this story without direct confirmation from Food Lover’s Market that the video it posted reflected the real state of affairs.

• The article was first published here
• George Claassen is News24’s public editor and a board member of the Organization of News Ombuds and Standards Editors
• Want to respond to the columnist? Send your letter or article to [email protected]
• News24 encourages freedom of speech and the expression of diverse views. The views of columnists published on News24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of News24