Post by Onyango Oloo on Jul 7, 2014 21:08:02 GMT 3
By Onyango Oloo
Tomorrow is Nane Saba because the evening curtain has just fallen on Saba Saba.
The CORD orators have made their way from the Uhuru Park podium and their followers, if they can find a matatu that was NOT taken off the road by Jubilee supporting public service owners are also trooping back to their homes in Maringo, Kaloleni, Pipeline, Kawangware, Kibera, Kayaba, Kangemi, Baba Dogo, Mathare and elsewhere.
No bombs exploded in Uhuru Park.
Raila Odinga did not shoot Uhuru Kenyatta dead, nor did Kalonzo Musyoka set William Ruto’s Harambee Avenue office on fire. Much to the chagrin of Jubilee prophets of doom, not a single shop was looted or a Murang’a bound Probox stoned.
Since I am NOT an employee of the CORD PR department, I will let my readers Google details of the demands for a referendum and other points in the Uhuru Park plank.
It is too early to analyze the effectiveness of the rally that just ended.
I want to pour my undisguised scorn on the yellow bellied mandarins of Kenya’s Fourth Estate.
A few months ago we were treated to the spectacle of scribes, photographers and videographers stuffing their faces with a phalanx of surplus masking tape to melodramatize their mock fear of looming state censorship of the media.
I was among the tens of thousands of Kenyan activists who were quite eager to join journalists on the street-until I got the tweets and social media admonitions from the same media fraternity that we who were members of civil society were NOT welcome to show our solidarity, presumably because of the fear that we would “hijack” their noble cause. Of course, the deeply ingrained political ILLITERACY in the Fourth Estate- who routinely talk about “civil societies”- prevents journalists employed in the print and electronic media sector from recognizing that since they are NOT part of the STATE they must be NECESSARILY in CIVIL SOCIETY.
Something despicable happened today-and it was not the first time.
The main media houses conspired to give the CORD rally a total black out in terms of live coverage. I am talking about Citizen, KTN, NTV, KBC, KISS, K24, KASS etc.
Was it because of a rumour mongered by one of my pals that Uhuru Kenyatta met all the head honchos of the press on the eve of Saba Saba to issue a diktat ordering a silencing of the opposition’s big day?
Since I have not had any independent corroboration of this astounding allegation I would prefer to ignore such a supposition.
Of course one can understand the editorial position of KBC, which is a state owned broadcaster kow towing to its Jubilee appointed managers and easier still the Media Max stable (K24, Kameme, Milele, People) owned and operated by the Kenyatta family.
Perhaps one could even extend the same explanation to the Standard Group run by the retired despot Daniel arap Moi.
There are also those who posit that even though the Nation Media Group is owned by the Aga Khan, its top executives have a preponderance of Jubilee leaning hawks.
All the same, if one recalls the sanctimonious, hyperbolic chest thumping by some of the superstar anchors of the media houses just a few months, one has to pause in order to throw up in disgust.
What happened to all that screeching about the “independence” of the media?
I did not see Inspector General Kimaiyo brandishing a bazooka at Nation Centre or the Standard Group’s offices on Mombasa Road.
Nay, unlike the macabre shenanigans of the Artur mercenaries in 2006, in 2014 Kenyan journalists on radio and television probably received a terse memo from their internal supervisors communicating the spineless decision to gag themselves on Saba Saba day.
Let this Monday in July 2014 go down as a day of shame for Kenya’s media fraternity. At a time when their colleagues in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt are preferring to go to prison rather than lick the fat behinds of the powers that be, in our country the ladies and gentlemen of the Fourth Estate prefer to stuff their own socks and stockings in their own mouths, so eager to fulfill the role of state sycophants.
Bear in mind that this but a continuation of a disturbing trend that became manifest especially in the immediate wake of last year’s contested election results.
Remember all that yelping of “We are One” all that bullying about “Accept and Move On”?
Who were the most strident members of the Jubilee Choir?
The Kenyan Media.
Who were the most unhinged pundits preaching about Kenya being bigger than an individual?
The Kenyan Media.
Personally, I was NOT surprised when some of Kenya’s most prominent journalists and social media gurus dropped all pretense and trooped straight to the Presidency to work over time as spin doctors, propagandists, spokesmen and other specimen of paid liars on behalf of the Jubilee regime. It appears many of their colleagues who remained behind in the private media sector are green with envy, wishing they too, could be tapped for those overpaid chatter box positions.
The prolific American linguist, activist and political commentator Noam Choamsky wrote and spoke about Manufacturing Consent.
From Wikipedia, there is this excerpt:
Government and news media
Editorial distortion is aggravated by the news media’s dependence upon private and governmental news sources. If a given newspaper, television station, magazine, etc., incurs governmental disfavor, it is subtly excluded from access to information. Consequently, it loses readers or viewers, and ultimately, advertisers. To minimize such financial danger, news media businesses editorially distort their reporting to favor government and corporate policies in order to stay in business.
Editorial bias: five filters
Herman and Chomsky's "propaganda model" describes five editorially distorting filters applied to news reporting in mass media:
Size, Ownership, and Profit Orientation: The dominant mass-media outlets are large firms which are run for profit. Therefore they must cater to the financial interest of their owners - often corporations or particular controlling investors. The size of the firms is a necessary consequence of the capital requirements for the technology to reach a mass audience.
The Advertising License to Do Business: Since the majority of the revenue of major media outlets derives from advertising (not from sales or subscriptions), advertisers have acquired a "de-facto licensing authority".[4] Media outlets are not commercially viable without the support of advertisers. News media must therefore cater to the political prejudices and economic desires of their advertisers. This has weakened the working class press, for example, and also helps explain the attrition in the number of newspapers.
Sourcing Mass Media News: Herman and Chomsky argue that “the large bureaucracies of the powerful subsidize the mass media, and gain special access [to the news], by their contribution to reducing the media’s costs of acquiring [...] and producing, news. The large entities that provide this subsidy become 'routine' news sources and have privileged access to the gates. Non-routine sources must struggle for access, and may be ignored by the arbitrary decision of the gatekeepers.”[5]
Flak and the Enforcers: "Flak" refers to negative responses to a media statement or program (e.g. letters, complaints, lawsuits, or legislative actions). Flak can be expensive to the media, either due to loss of advertising revenue, or due to the costs of legal defense or defense of the media outlet's public image. Flak can be organized by powerful, private influence groups (e.g. think tanks). The prospect of eliciting flak can be a deterrent to the reporting of certain kinds of facts or opinions.[5]
Anti-Communism: This was included as a filter in the original 1988 edition of the book, but Chomsky argues that since the end of the Cold War (1945–91), anticommunism was replaced by the "War on Terror", as the major social control mechanism.
SOURCE:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent:_The_Political_Economy_of_the_Mass_Media
Decades ago,
AJ Libeling opined that
Tomorrow is Nane Saba because the evening curtain has just fallen on Saba Saba.
The CORD orators have made their way from the Uhuru Park podium and their followers, if they can find a matatu that was NOT taken off the road by Jubilee supporting public service owners are also trooping back to their homes in Maringo, Kaloleni, Pipeline, Kawangware, Kibera, Kayaba, Kangemi, Baba Dogo, Mathare and elsewhere.
No bombs exploded in Uhuru Park.
Raila Odinga did not shoot Uhuru Kenyatta dead, nor did Kalonzo Musyoka set William Ruto’s Harambee Avenue office on fire. Much to the chagrin of Jubilee prophets of doom, not a single shop was looted or a Murang’a bound Probox stoned.
Since I am NOT an employee of the CORD PR department, I will let my readers Google details of the demands for a referendum and other points in the Uhuru Park plank.
It is too early to analyze the effectiveness of the rally that just ended.
I want to pour my undisguised scorn on the yellow bellied mandarins of Kenya’s Fourth Estate.
A few months ago we were treated to the spectacle of scribes, photographers and videographers stuffing their faces with a phalanx of surplus masking tape to melodramatize their mock fear of looming state censorship of the media.
I was among the tens of thousands of Kenyan activists who were quite eager to join journalists on the street-until I got the tweets and social media admonitions from the same media fraternity that we who were members of civil society were NOT welcome to show our solidarity, presumably because of the fear that we would “hijack” their noble cause. Of course, the deeply ingrained political ILLITERACY in the Fourth Estate- who routinely talk about “civil societies”- prevents journalists employed in the print and electronic media sector from recognizing that since they are NOT part of the STATE they must be NECESSARILY in CIVIL SOCIETY.
Something despicable happened today-and it was not the first time.
The main media houses conspired to give the CORD rally a total black out in terms of live coverage. I am talking about Citizen, KTN, NTV, KBC, KISS, K24, KASS etc.
Was it because of a rumour mongered by one of my pals that Uhuru Kenyatta met all the head honchos of the press on the eve of Saba Saba to issue a diktat ordering a silencing of the opposition’s big day?
Since I have not had any independent corroboration of this astounding allegation I would prefer to ignore such a supposition.
Of course one can understand the editorial position of KBC, which is a state owned broadcaster kow towing to its Jubilee appointed managers and easier still the Media Max stable (K24, Kameme, Milele, People) owned and operated by the Kenyatta family.
Perhaps one could even extend the same explanation to the Standard Group run by the retired despot Daniel arap Moi.
There are also those who posit that even though the Nation Media Group is owned by the Aga Khan, its top executives have a preponderance of Jubilee leaning hawks.
All the same, if one recalls the sanctimonious, hyperbolic chest thumping by some of the superstar anchors of the media houses just a few months, one has to pause in order to throw up in disgust.
What happened to all that screeching about the “independence” of the media?
I did not see Inspector General Kimaiyo brandishing a bazooka at Nation Centre or the Standard Group’s offices on Mombasa Road.
Nay, unlike the macabre shenanigans of the Artur mercenaries in 2006, in 2014 Kenyan journalists on radio and television probably received a terse memo from their internal supervisors communicating the spineless decision to gag themselves on Saba Saba day.
Let this Monday in July 2014 go down as a day of shame for Kenya’s media fraternity. At a time when their colleagues in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Egypt are preferring to go to prison rather than lick the fat behinds of the powers that be, in our country the ladies and gentlemen of the Fourth Estate prefer to stuff their own socks and stockings in their own mouths, so eager to fulfill the role of state sycophants.
Bear in mind that this but a continuation of a disturbing trend that became manifest especially in the immediate wake of last year’s contested election results.
Remember all that yelping of “We are One” all that bullying about “Accept and Move On”?
Who were the most strident members of the Jubilee Choir?
The Kenyan Media.
Who were the most unhinged pundits preaching about Kenya being bigger than an individual?
The Kenyan Media.
Personally, I was NOT surprised when some of Kenya’s most prominent journalists and social media gurus dropped all pretense and trooped straight to the Presidency to work over time as spin doctors, propagandists, spokesmen and other specimen of paid liars on behalf of the Jubilee regime. It appears many of their colleagues who remained behind in the private media sector are green with envy, wishing they too, could be tapped for those overpaid chatter box positions.
The prolific American linguist, activist and political commentator Noam Choamsky wrote and spoke about Manufacturing Consent.
From Wikipedia, there is this excerpt:
Government and news media
Editorial distortion is aggravated by the news media’s dependence upon private and governmental news sources. If a given newspaper, television station, magazine, etc., incurs governmental disfavor, it is subtly excluded from access to information. Consequently, it loses readers or viewers, and ultimately, advertisers. To minimize such financial danger, news media businesses editorially distort their reporting to favor government and corporate policies in order to stay in business.
Editorial bias: five filters
Herman and Chomsky's "propaganda model" describes five editorially distorting filters applied to news reporting in mass media:
Size, Ownership, and Profit Orientation: The dominant mass-media outlets are large firms which are run for profit. Therefore they must cater to the financial interest of their owners - often corporations or particular controlling investors. The size of the firms is a necessary consequence of the capital requirements for the technology to reach a mass audience.
The Advertising License to Do Business: Since the majority of the revenue of major media outlets derives from advertising (not from sales or subscriptions), advertisers have acquired a "de-facto licensing authority".[4] Media outlets are not commercially viable without the support of advertisers. News media must therefore cater to the political prejudices and economic desires of their advertisers. This has weakened the working class press, for example, and also helps explain the attrition in the number of newspapers.
Sourcing Mass Media News: Herman and Chomsky argue that “the large bureaucracies of the powerful subsidize the mass media, and gain special access [to the news], by their contribution to reducing the media’s costs of acquiring [...] and producing, news. The large entities that provide this subsidy become 'routine' news sources and have privileged access to the gates. Non-routine sources must struggle for access, and may be ignored by the arbitrary decision of the gatekeepers.”[5]
Flak and the Enforcers: "Flak" refers to negative responses to a media statement or program (e.g. letters, complaints, lawsuits, or legislative actions). Flak can be expensive to the media, either due to loss of advertising revenue, or due to the costs of legal defense or defense of the media outlet's public image. Flak can be organized by powerful, private influence groups (e.g. think tanks). The prospect of eliciting flak can be a deterrent to the reporting of certain kinds of facts or opinions.[5]
Anti-Communism: This was included as a filter in the original 1988 edition of the book, but Chomsky argues that since the end of the Cold War (1945–91), anticommunism was replaced by the "War on Terror", as the major social control mechanism.
SOURCE:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_Consent:_The_Political_Economy_of_the_Mass_Media
Decades ago,
AJ Libeling opined that
" clip, above.
to cover the biggest internal and external story of their land! ----It would be like CITIZEN, NATION, K24, KTN, ALL KBC, ALL decided week-long epic battles in the center of Nairobi city involving 1/2 a million citizens is not newsworthy! even in passing!
in other words, chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.
