Recently the Western Cape – Cape Town in particular – has been the "early guinea pig” in two major developments. First the dams threatened to run dry, and then the coronavirus hit there before anywhere else. A handy “apples with apples” opportunity, you'd think. /1

In both cases, the planning, response and communication in the DA-run governments were the certain difference between disaster and survival, but that didn’t stop detractors from taking pot-shots at the time. Including many detractors in the media. /2

Of course, the coronavirus would spread to other parts soon enough, giving us a handy response comparison. And now we’re seeing various parts of SA – particularly the Eastern Cape – approaching their own Day Zero. Another opportunity to compare. /3

But strangely enough, there seems to be very little appetite for any such comparisons in the mainstream media. All the facts and data are right there on a plate. The only thing missing is the editorial will. /4

While the W/Cape and Cape Town were running massive awareness campaigns in 2017/2018 to reduce water usage, parallel to exploring options to augment supply and setting out emergency plans for water collection, more often than not its efforts were slammed in the press. /5

The press coverage of Cape Town’s looming Day Zero was national, daily and wall-to-wall, and most of it was distinctly critical. But in hindsight its Day Zero response was exemplary, and this has been confirmed in global accolades. /6

Fast-forward to 2020 and NMB’s own water crisis (taps have already run dry in parts of the city), but apart from the odd, scattered report here and there or a lone Daily Maverick feature, you’d hardly know it. /7

There is an almost embarrassingly obvious resistance to publish anything that may seem like a DA success by most publications, just as there is an equally obvious resistance to hold ANC governments to the same standard and scrutiny as the DA. Why is this? /8

Is it newsroom ideology that determines this media bias – in other words are almost all our editors and journalists picked from the same left-leaning, quasi-socialist ideology tree – or is it simply a matter of woefully low expectations for the ANC. Or is it a bit of both? /9