Dear Noseweek Readers,
As
Noseweek magazine might tell you this
is “News you’re not supposed to know”.
What’s
more it’s so hot I can assure you it will never appear in Martin’s publication,
which he founded 25 years ago as South Africa
As a former Sunday
Times investigative journalist, turned self employed Private Eye, I have
had a hard hitting blog for nearly 10 years to keep me off the streets in my
retirement. From time to time I gave Martin some of the exposés that have
appeared in it. He used them, sometimes crediting only my Dearjon-letter blog,
while on other occasions my name was mentioned as well. An article I wrote
specifically for Noseweek had my
byline on it.
Knowing full well that I was a
pensioner he never once suggested paying me and nor did he ever offer to give
me a free copy of the Noseweek
edition in which my contributions appeared.
It was one way traffic. My blog is not a money making
exercise. On the other hand Noseweek
must be, otherwise it would not have survived for so long. Bad habits die hard.
I just write for fun.
As recently as a few weeks ago Martin phoned me to ask if
he could use the story I broke in 2016 about the Cape Town
The Health
cheques for GP report in the February 2019 edition of Martin’s monthly
magazine took up two pages with a large section of my post used almost word for
word in most of it. I must concede it did credit me and my blog as the
originator of this scoop.
In January this year I published a book entitled Dearjon Exposed. It contains what I
believe are some of the best posts from my blog. As Noseweek features in
several of the posts as well as in the blurb on the back of the cover I thought
I would get Martin to give the book a plug.
Although his magazine is never much more than 30 pages it
does devote one page to Books.
When I gave him a brief run down about my book on the phone
he told me to bring it to him. After driving a considerable distance from my
home I handed it to him in his Cape
Town
“Then we’ll talk” became his mantra for several weeks after
that as he was always too busy to discuss my book. He kept putting me off, but
at no stage did he have the courage to say anything like, “That’s not the kind
of book we would write about in my magazine.”
He kept me on the hook like a fisherman enjoying the torment.
It ended on a Monday or Tuesday I think it was. He was
initially not available when I phoned in the morning so I sent him an email. In
it I asked when we were going to have this “talk” about whether or not he was
going to give my book a plug. I referred to the unpaid writing I had done for
Noseweek and complained that he was often not available when I phoned, but he
never phoned me back when I left messages.
Later that day I did get hold of him on the phone. He sounded
angry and again told me to phone him on another day when “We’ll talk.” After I
told him I had sent him an email he said he would have a look at it. In all my
dealings with him he has seldom, if ever, replied to any of my emails.
I never heard from him again.
This tale had quite a few similarities to the way Lynne
Johns, the news editor of the Cape Times behaved
when I gave this Dr van Rooyen exclusive of mine to her paper in 2016. It was
used as a front page lead without any reference to me or my blog.
Johns and other members of that paper’s staff lied to me
repeated. Much like Welz did over my book they kept leading me on by repeatedly
undertaking to credit me as the originator of this story. Many lies later
neither my name nor my blog had been mentioned anywhere in the Cape Times
Having taken on dubious business leaders and crooks of all
kinds over the years you would have thought that Martin’s ethics would be of a
higher calibre than to play this dishonest game of pretend. He created the illusion that he was
considering promoting my book when, as it turned out, this was never, ever his
intention.
My guess is that he probably didn’t even open it.
Well
Martin a.k.a *Ebenezer this is my side of that “talk” that you actually lied
about because, in spite of numerous undertakings, it never took place. There’s
one consolation: I certainly won’t be out of pocket if my exposés don’t ever
appear in Noseweek again.
Regards,
Jon, a disgusted contributor, who has learnt a valuable
lesson. No doubt this was “News you are
not supposed to know,” but you sure know it now.
*Ebeneza Scrooge was made famous by Charles Dickens in his
1843 novella A Christmas Carol. His
last name has become synonymous in the English language with a person who is
very tight fisted with their money.
P.S. It is
very short sighted of the news media and editors like Martin Welz to treat
people like me the way he did. In this tech age everybody is a reporter on
social media and on blogs that are all over the place, so this makes it harder
than ever for the likes of Noseweek to
get exclusive scoops. He should therefore nurture anybody who is prepared to
pass on good tips or in my case actually write the entire story with an
investigative background. Ironically he was prepared to sacrifice a
relationship that goes back years because he would not promote a book that
actually includes quite a few puffs for his own magazine - Noseweek.
See also: Rip-off doctor and Newspaper's lies
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