Has Monitor Executive Editor Fled The Kitchen Smoke? By Jacobs Odongo Seaman You know the dogs are home for the long haul when lightning strikes the same place twice in two years. At Eighth Street, Industrial Area, Monitor Publications Limited staff could find themselves trying to come to terms with the lightning phenomenon after executive editor Malcolm Gibson left By Jacobs Odongo Seaman You know the dogs are home for the long haul when lightning strikes the same place twice in two years. At Eighth Street, Industrial Area, Monitor Publications Limited staff could find themselves trying to come to terms with the lightning phenomenon after executive editor Malcolm Gibson left the country. Now, the official stand is that Prof. Gibson is on holiday. In fact, we are made to understand a communication was circulated by one of the editors to that effect. But make no mistake; the ancestors said lightning does not strike the same place twice. Remember, Simon Freeman, who replaced David Sseppuuya as executive editor in February, last year, left five months later for holiday and never returned. The ‘juice’ on the lightning bolt is that, like Freeman, his successor Gibson left on Monday via Nairobi, not for the flight stopovers per se, but to spell out his demand. The American, who is on a two-year contract running until May next year, demands that a manager is fired as a condition for his stay. He also wants his own budget to run the newsroom. These are the same demands British editor Freeman made as he exited Namuwongo last year. But there are some differences in the lightning bolt, where, for instance, we did not get any allegation that Freeman sold his DMC before he fled the country. Whispers have it that Prof. Gibson has not only placed his RAV4 on sale, but also cleared his desk in Namuwongo. You know, we hope these are bloated bubble rumours. And that is why the whispers that Gibson is out there to attend his son’s wedding is the straw many will hang on. Just for now. Why would Gibson quit? When Prof. Malcolm Gibson agreed to join Monitor, he thought he was coming to the warmest of places. A place of his heart. He loves Africa, according to information published about him before Nation Media Group went scrounging for his signature. But what he did not know was that he was entering a chimney of intrigue. We did publish here of what awaited Prof. Gibson at Monitor. Intrigue was top of the cards. The office he was occupying back then fell vacant when Freeman fell out with the managing director, Alex Asiimwe, and left the country. Freeman, whose reign lasted just five months after replacing Sseppuuya, is said to have accused Asiimwe of interfering in editorial policy. The bitter fallout saw Freeman call his boss names and ask Nation Media Group directors in Nairobi to fire the managing director as a condition for his stay at Namuwongo. He then packed a few belongings and headed for London on July 12, a day after he threw in the towel, leaving NMG in desperate attempts to pour water on the feud and reconcile Freeman to Asiimwe. The pendulum bob swing is back has returned to Point A after a relatively good descent toward Valley S. Last week, sources told this blog that Gibson had fallen out with his boss over allegations of brown envelopes pervading the fabric of the newsroom, with some editors seemingly joining the eating party. Gibson had been investigating allegations that some editors picked up huge pay from an agency embroiled in corruption scandal to do ‘damage control’—write and publish positive stories that would help the accused parties get away with their deeds. However, the closer Gibson got to the perp in the newsroom, the more his arm was twisted from behind, leaving the grey hairs taut. This hurt. More hurting was that the sanity he thought he was out to restore in Monitor was actually suffocating him instead. With his back slumped to the wall, Gibson found himself forming cliques, one of the same things he wanted to weed out of Monitor. With intrigue pitting one camp against another, it became apparent that to operate with a tinge of breeze in your face, one had to have a circle of people answering to them. The brown envelope allegations came as Gibson was planning a newsroom overhaul and he had already lined up some of the names his massive axe would be chopping. But all these developments had to be suspended as the bigger issue took precedence. But polishing a giant size 46 boot requires more “Kiwi” than stitching sandals. And, it appears, Gibson just did not have enough Kiwi. As the grey hairs on his arms stood erect, frustration boiled in and he cut wires with his boss. Now, the professor of journalism who had vowed to serve for a single two-year ‘term’ only and retire for good finds himself back in the States thinking deeply about what he got himself into when he took the job and try to do a job even Jesus would fail given that the present-day Pharisees and Scribes inside Monitor are more cunning than the biblical Serpent in the Garden of Eden. In the event that Gibson quits, who will be next? NMG interviewed three candidates for the position two years ago and two have already served. The third editor, “young and handsome”—he is 46—should already be thinking of how he can turn Monitor around, end intrigue and such things. Yes, a lot of weird things they dream up. Like recently, some manager was mulling forcing all staff to engage in charity car wash in public washing bays to increase copy sales. That those who refuse would not get Christmas shopping vouchers. That is why pigs around Namuwongo’s Soweto slum are learning to fly. The post Has Monitor Executive Editor Fled The Kitchen Smoke? appeared first on Bigeye.ug.
Posted on: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 15:44:34 +0000
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