The South African TV news channel eNCA (DStv 403) on Saturday spread "fake news", erroneously and wrongly reporting as a breaking news "top story" that "Trevor Noah might be out of a job" and wrongly claiming that The Daily Show on Comedy Central (DStv 122) could be cancelled with its "future hanging in the balance".
None of it is true.
Sadly and shockingly, neither the clueless and incompetent weekend worker at eNCA who cobbled together the report from false facts without attribution to any actual original news sources, nor any information checkers, online editors or other gatekeepers at eNCA saw or bothered to check and first verify any of the false information before publishing it.
eNCA with a fake headline "Trevor Noah might be out of a job" that is devoid from all truth, reported wrongly to news consumers that "the future of Comedy Central's Daily Show hangs in the balance".
That is not true and neither is or will Trevor Noah be out of a job, nor does the future of The Daily Show "hang in the balance".
eNCA wrongly reported fake news, saying "This could mean the end of one of the most watched and beloved parody news shows" - again a completely false assumption since The Daily Show isn't and won't be ending.
eNCA wrongly reported that "authorities, AT&T-DIRECTTV plans to drop 22 channels".
Nothing like AT&T-DIRECTV exists.
DirecTV is an American satellite pay-TV service, "DirecTV" is its brand name, and is a subsidiary of AT&T (U-verse is another such similar service from AT&T).
DirecTV is also not an "authority" or "authorities" - it is a commercial pay-TV service, one of about 26 in America.
What is happening but that eNCA doesn't understand nor bothered to, is that DirecTV is in negotiations with Viacom at the moment, with Viacom that provides TV channels to all pay-TV providers in America and worldwide, like South Africa, for the continuation of its channels on DirecTV.
The suppliers of channels - like Viacom - sign what is called channel carriage agreements. This is a contract lasting for a specific period, for instance 5 years, with a pay-TV service that then pays the supplier an amount (usually a few cents per subscriber per month).
This contract for Comedy Central and a dozen other channels from Viacom delivered to DirecTV is now expiring. The two sides are busy negotiating a new possible contract.
If there isn't a new contract between Viacom and DirecTV, Viacom's Comedy Central will continue to exist,it just won't be available on DirecTV anymore.
Comedy Central will continue to be available to subscribers and viewers of more than 20 pay-TV services in America, as well as globally, as well as Comedy Central Africa carried and available in South Africa and Africa on MultiChoice's DStv and provided by Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa).
The same with The Daily Show and the same with Trevor Noah.
Just because it might no longer be on "the authorities" DirecTV, doesn't mean Comedy Central as a TV channel, The Daily Show or Trevor Noah is in any danger, has a "future in the balance" or "might be out of a job".
It is the same as if MultiChoice decided to drop e.tv as a channel from its line-up on DStv.
e.tv would still be available on the satellite TV services of StarSat and on Openview. The future of shows like Scandal! and Rhythm City wouldn't "hang in the balance", they would just not be on DStv anymore, they wouldn't be cancelled, and the soap stars in these shows won't be at risk of a "might be out of a job".
It's absolutely shocking that eNCA would produce and run fake trash like this.
eNCA ended up deleting its Tweet linking to its fake news reporting on Saturday afternoon after TVwithThinus noted the horrific fake news from eNCA.
Later eNCA did another Tweet after altering its fake news story and making the headline "Trevor Noah's Daily Show up in the air at AT&T" - still a clickbait headline and false news.
eNCA also altered and edited its original fake news report, without adding any editorial note that the article has been changed since it was first published and explaining why - something legitimate news sources do when changing and updating stories and correcting mistakes.
eNCA kept the mistake "AT&T-DIRECTV" but took out that it is "authorities", added that it could mean the end of the show for "AT&T-DIRECTV customers" at the end of a sentence and wholly deleted wrong sentences.
On Twitter readers criticised eNCA, saying it's "still a very misleading headline". "Noah's show is perfectly safe. One US TV provider out of many that is making (idle) threats because of a contract dispute. #clickbait".
Another said "This is not accurate. There are middle school papers with better editors".
