Allegedly, some readers of the Daily Friend are a hateful bunch.
I am reliably informed that my article of 25 October 2022 was among the most widely read of the year, receiving 541 responses and 109 comments, while my two subsequent articles received a combined 165 responses and 42 comments.
On 8 November 2022, the Daily Friend received an attorney’s letter demanding that all my articles and all comments be removed from its online publication. The complainants also raised concerns about the editorial standards of the Daily Friend, said that my articles contain false and defamatory allegations, and that readers made ‘vitriolic, malicious, and unmoderated comments and hate speech’ about them.
A few days later, attorneys for the Daily Friend responded in what can only be described as a ‘snotklap’ to the complainants, St Stithians College, which went silent. One cannot help but wonder why they initiated this legal correspondence in the first place. Nonetheless these letters offer insights into the broader issue of free speech, the right to comment, and the responsibility of educational institutions to engage in constructive dialogues rather than trying to stifle dissenting views.
St Stithians clearly doesn’t appreciate the facts and anecdotes about which I write. Neither do they seem to like any of the facts and evidence presented by some other stakeholders.
Ian Macleod, an alumnus of the college, has written several articles about St Stithians, each attracting its own readers and comments. A June 2022 petition by Macleod received over 400 signatures and 140 comments from ‘concerned alumni, parents and other members of the Saints community’.
School capture
Richard Wilkinson, another alumnus of St Stithians, increasingly well-known for his work on exposing school capture in South Africa, references his alma mater several times in his essays, which are attracting thousands of readers and commentators through his X/Twitter account.
I wonder if St Stithians has similarly instructed Elon Musk to remove Wilkinson’s posts and associated comments, and other petitions to remove Macleod’s petition plus comments. St Stithians has indeed been trying to mute both Wilkinson and Macleod for some time now, also unsuccessfully, it would appear.
What is clear is that Macleod and Wilkinson are alumni who, with support of thousands of stakeholders, are clearly concerned by the woke trends at St Stithians and wish to avoid its further degradation.
What is also clear is that the governors and managers at St Stithians don’t like being questioned, challenged, and held accountable.
Failure of governance
I will continue to write about the college and its officials, including subjects such as the complete and utter failure of governance during 2020. All articles are archived here and include ‘24 days to capture St Stithians’, my open letter to PwC, and my call for Dr Sally James to be suspended.
My three original and very naughty articles and readers’ comments are available on the Daily Friend here, here, and here.
Hopefully the Daily Friend will publish more of my pieces in the future and if they do, dear reader, please continue to exercise your critical thinking skills despite St Stithians’ identity politicians and thought police.
[Image: Wolfgang Brauner from Pixabay]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR
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