The best of Inside Politics

by The Editor


FEATURE: Inside Politics has now been up and running for five months. I thought I would use the opportunity to provide a helpful overview of some of the more popular articles that have been featured during that period. I have summerised them by type and included a rough word guide, so you know what you are getting. I hope you enjoy the summary. If its in-depth investigative reasearch you into, breaking news, opinion or liberal ideas, its all here. Have a read and, if you like it, recommend it to others.

The best of Inside Politics

By: Gareth van Onselen


26 June 2012

Inside Politics has now been running for five months and so I thought I would use the opportunity to present an overview of some of the more popular articles run since it started.

If you have been following the site, hopefully there might be one or two pieces in here you have missed if not, the piece may just provide a helpful summary.

If you enjoy the blog, please forward this piece on to others you think might enjoy it too. Encourage them to subscribe, via e-mail (details of how to follow at the end), on Twitter (just click the follow button above and below) or on Facebook (Gareth van Onselen).

Otherwise, here follows the best of Inside Politics so far.

Substantial, in-depth investigative journalism (3000 – 5000 words)

  1. How much government spends on entertainment
  2. 1 in 3 calls to SAPS police stations go unanswered
  3. Mangaung: the ANC’s shame
  4. How Buffalo City was brought to its knees
  5. How the ANC is using the state to target its political opponent
  6. How Sadtu and the SACE have damaged accountability in SA education
  7. Bitou at the brink

Breaking news (1000 – 2000 words)

  1. Some curious facts from a ballooning presidency
  2. How crime is on the increase inside the SAPS
  3. Why ANC departments have contempt for you
  4. How the Western Cape takes corruption seriously
  5. Was Shiceka fired for promoting the DA?
  6. How the WC Office of the Premier scored in the PSC report
  7. Johannesburg’s pothole misery
  8. The media’s stony silence on anti-DA racism
  9. An analysis of the Press Ombudsman’s rulings
  10. Fresh off Twitter: How the ANC in eThekwini abuse public money
  11. An analysis of the Press Ombudsman’s rulings: The best and worst
  12. How Midvaal delivers more to the poor
  13. SA hockey: 1 Government neglect: 0
  14. A Zuma flip flop: On the arms deal in 2004 and 2012

Newsworthy opinion pieces and op-eds (1000 words)

  1. The emperor has no clothes
  2. Who critiques the critics?
  3. The ANC’s all-time top 10 most disturbing quotes
  4. How political correctness makes for bad analysis
  5. Affirmative Action and academic appointments
  6. On the ANC, refugees and offence
  7. Phiyega’s gallery of gobbledegook
  8. The ANC and John Dugard: Feeding the hand it bites
  9. The mischievous deviousness of Jeremy Cronin
  10. The Jacob Zuma painting and the idea of respect
  11. The Imaginarium of Marius Fransman
  12. Is the ANC its own harshest critic?
  13. How parliament misunderstands accountability

Essays initiating a debate (3000 – 5000 words)

  1. The liberal individual, group identity and human solidarity
  2. An essay on mediocrity
  3. Politics and innovation
  4. An Open Letter: Why The Spear is staying up on Inside Politics
  5. What is pornography?

Retrospectives and analysis (1000 words)

  1. 187 votes: How Julius Malema was elected
  2. Cyril Ramaphosa on the need for an independent SABC, in 1992
  3. The ANC and the history of Mao’s infamous quote
  4. Will the ANCWL back Jacob Zuma at Mangaung?
  5. The other election
  6. Learning the hard way
  7. Tolls back then and why this time it’s different; or is it?

The nature of liberalism (600 – 800 words)

  1. The nature of good leadership
  2. What constitutes good argument
  3. Accountability, explanation and consequence
  4. Rationality: Our guide through the dark
  5. Sound judgement is a weapon against moralising
  6. Some thoughts on the idea of respect
  7. History is about questions; propaganda, answers
  8. Secrecy: The drug you slowly become addicted to
  9. Why difference is important
  10. On heroes and villians
  11. The relationship between hope and time

The thing about (300 words)

  1. On authenticity
  2. On callousness
  3. On consequences
  4. On dignity
  5. On exaggeration
  6. On excellence
  7. On generalisation
  8. On gossip
  9. On humanism
  10. On loss
  11. On low self esteem
  12. On offence
  13. On power
  14. On prejudice
  15. On secrecy
  16. On sophistry
  17. On status

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