The media ideally has the agenda setting as one of their responsibilities that’s why any clever government have their foot stepped into the media houses sometimes to help manipulate and work to their tone. When the media decides to make you the agenda of discussion,all focus turns on you and that’s how it goes.
The public trusts the media to report on various agendas,with such powers,manipulation can never miss from the script as one would deliberately opt to play with the cards.
One journalist has come out to expose some of the dirty games that goes on in the newsrooms behind the scenes away from the public’s knowledge:
Ochieng’ Ogodo
As a journalist with one of the leading media houses in Kenya in the late 90s an editor called
me and said we don’t have a lead story.
I would like you to call Raila and deliberately ask him a provocative question on Kalonzo
Musyoka based on the negatives then get the
latter’s reactions.
I refused and walked away to my humble dwelling in Umoja Estate then. Of late I’ve seen a pattern in the media coverage of cooked Kidero vs Raila feud .
Excitable journalists do not go deep. A story is published and then they call some Raila guys to comment on the story.
Why can’t they report about the socioeconomic changes going on in Nyanza? Performance of counties, economic affairs or environmentaldegradation? The deliberate repression and neglect of Nyanza by the successive government for 50 years?
Nyanza is much bigger than Raila and Kidero’s harambees. I do not hold any brief for Raila
but Kidero is an infant in politics and has no political wherewithal to outdo Raila, not in the foreseeable future.
Another unnamed journalist with one of the media houses applauded his remarks saying;
I am familiar with that strain of journalism. It used to happen mostly on Sunday afternoons.
Ikifika 3 pm bila lead, all an editor needed to do was to tell one of the reporters to call/provoke any of the KANU gadflies like Chotara, Nassir, Amayo, Leitich, Barng’etuny
etc.
It would yield comical headlines like: Moi to rule for life-Nassir or Dont come to Nakuru, Leitich tells multiparty activists. I know one
editor (now retired) who was notorious.
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