Baba Alex LETTER TO THE 4TH ESTATE: KENYAN MEDIA IS DEAD! To those who may not be familiar with the meaning of the term, ‘4th Estate’, allow me to put it in perspective....Our govt is composed of 3 main arms; the Executive, the Legislature, and the Judiciary. However, there is a 4th arm which plays an equally instrumental role in informing the public of the goings- on. That arm has played a massive role in the destiny of nations. That arm has made and destroyed many a govt and politician.....That 4th arm is ‘The Media’, hence the term, ‘4th Estate’..... Mass Media is all about ‘communication’. It ‘informs’, it ‘educates’, it ‘advertises’, it ‘entertains’, and it ‘correlates parts of society’. All these it must do TRUTHFULLY; the key-word being ‘truthfully’. It tells us what is happening, and it defines our perception of the world and events. That is a very powerful role. Someone once said that, ‘’with great power comes great responsibility’’. Has the Kenyan Media wielded that power effectively? Well, when it comes to entertaining and advertising, the Kenyan media seems to have aced it. Just closely observe the number of adverts that appear in commercial breaks. But does that benefit ‘Wanjiku’ as it should? The big beneficiary is the media itself. Has it done well in informing and educating us truthfully? The jury is back on that one; and its verdict is very gloomy. The Kenyan Media has failed miserably. The Kenyan Media is DEAD! ‘’When did the rain start beating the Kenyan Media?’’, you may wonder. It’s hard to tell when it all started but, it became evident after the general elections of 2013. Do you know what a skunk is? It’s a small, cat-sized creature from the weasel family, with a black and white striped fur. When threatened, it squirts a spray of smelly, irritating liquid from its anal glands. The Kenyan Media started to die the day it allowed that creature into their newsrooms. That creature is the politician....... Information was muzzled and suppressed ‘’for the sake of peace’’. We were told to accept what was being fed to us, and move on. A mighty travesty of justice had begun, right under the noses of the very Estate that we looked up-to to ensure that it never happened. The politician was allowed to squirt his irritant liquid round our newsrooms. He was allowed to determine what goes into press. He was allowed to decide what is aired on TV. He was allowed to get away with threats to the media. As a result, all that remains in our newsrooms is a group of smelly, stinky journalists. The liquid is all over them. They lost their identity long time ago. Our newsrooms have become political wings.....The funny part is that, the same politicians do not even respect the media! They contemptuously and disdainfully refer to their paper articles as only fit to wrap meat in! Nowadays, when you read and listen to our Kenyan Media, all it leaves is a very bad taste in your mouth. You feel like throwing up. Appointments are made on the basis of tribe and political affiliation. Listen to the news anchors from #Citizen, #NTV, #K24, and #KTN. To quote #Ian_Mbugua, they are simply horrendous!! The diction leaves you with a pained expression. To give an example, they all have this disease of starting sentences with the word ‘now’. You are left wondering which school teaches students to start sentences with ‘now’! In some stations, anchors and field reporters have come up with their own style of pronouncing English words; and they do it unabashedly. My children are not allowed to watch news anymore. The words they will learn will leave them scarred for life. It has become customary, during news hour, for me to flip channels at random every minute or so, because i couldn’t stand the annoying manner of reporting from our ‘journos’. A foreigner will be excused to conclude that he’s watching high school students reading to the class! All these has been the result of political and tribal appointments. Kindly observe # CNN, #CCTV, and #Aljazeera, and you will not fail to see the startling differences....It is a corporate rule in news organisations of high repute, that a pregnant woman shall be exempt from covering important assignments (Don’t mistake me. I respect our women, and celebrate them. Pregnancy is a wonderful thing). However, that rule will be shoved aside when a certain heavily expectant lady is well-connected, and is allowed to interview the head of state! You are left wondering, ‘’yeye ni bibi yake, ama ni nani?’’ They even take selfies together! Talk about the wrong professionalism! Read the newspapers, and you will definitely shake your head, and wonder, ‘’what happened to these people???’’ Quality ceased to exist in our newsrooms a long time ago. Convenience and tribal pieces have taken over; all that at the expense of their primary function (see above). News channels no longer have the freedom and liberty to air news clips without wondering whether it will rub the powers-that-be the wrong way. It is not strange to hear of top management from news organisations being summoned to state house to be read the Riot Act, just because word was out that they were about to air a damning piece on the government; and they give in. What we are then fed is a heavily edited piece that leaves you wondering why it was even aired in the first place. Kenyan Media is dead. It died when it was lied to that what matters is peace. It died when it allowed a smelly politician to take over and decide who gets hired, and what gets aired. We are in a dark place as a country. What our Kenyan Media foolishly fail to realise is that, no matter how long you suppress that truth, it will eventually come out....and the consequences will be catastrophic for us all. That peace that they imagine they are promoting is only superficial. It only exists in words. It is not there in reality.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 17:17:33 +0000
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