One biblical mandate the media hardly fulfils, is in Matthew 7:5. The preceding Verses 3 and 4, are full of rhetorical questions, for those ignoring the warnings in Verses 1 and 2. These are words directly from Christ. The central message is the Will of God. Regardless of how the worldly system structures our daily engagements, the homily of Jesus, must be obeyed.
Somehow, a dog on a permanent watch will have to bark at some point, except if devocalized, through the ventriculocordectomy procedure, commonly known as debarking or bark softening. When this surgical procedure is done on a dog, tissue is removed from its vocal cords, to permanently reduce the volume of its vocalizations. Does that sound like something going on around here?
If the global media, except outlets, locked in direct competition for political, cultural and influence ascendancy as being witnessed in America between conservative and liberal media, is guilty of seeking speck in other people’s eyes and turning a blind eye to the logs in its own eye, the fourth estate, will also be guilty of underwhelming acknowledgement of its worthiness to humanity.
Between 59 BC when the first journalistic product, the ActaDiurna was daily published in ancient Rome and hung in prominent places for people to read and today, when the journalist is almost not worth the ink of his pen in societal estimation, the media has remained a pivot in different turns of history, but very convenient to exclude, when due is due. The pandemic saw the journalist risking all to inform the world, but he would not make it to Forbes’ frontline warriors’ list, maybe because he wasn’t seen as hands-on. Yes, the journalist of today, may not be spartan in discipline like Narada, the ambulatory Indian, considered the first ever journalist of the world, but his relevance, in a dying world, is still that of a physician.
But Jesus also talked of a physician healing himself. In struggling economies, including Nigeria, the journalist is washed up. The syndrome of see finish, has packed all practitioners into the “brown envelope” gang. Societal respect has, over time, dissolved into fear out of disdain, for the one that can’t be avoided but unloved. Even in stable economies like America, media is disdained, almost worse off, due to unmitigated disaster practitioners and media houses have become in the course of expressing biases in the guise of Resistance Journalism. No era has exposed Western media, dubbed the Mainstreamers, like Trump’s four years in office. As God would have it, he was succeeded by a media beloved, further showing the objectivity hopelessness of those controlling the influential media outfits. I wait to be in the midst of these fellows some day, in the name of preaching media values to Africans, to give them a piece of my mind. They should search their souls for the lost ethos.
Struggling-to-survive media back home in Africa, also needs a soul-searching. If conscience was gradually dying about unprofessionalism, Zambian KabindaKalimina has provided the electro-shock, for a reawakening. Kabinda who was working (he must have been fired by now), for a startup KBN TV in home-country, was anchoring a live primetime newscast when he detoured into a major issue tearing the heart of media practice in struggling economies.
Hear him, “Away from the news, ladies and gentlemen, we are human beings. We have to get paid. Unfortunately, on KBN we haven’t been paid. People are getting instruments on KBN…Sharon and everyone else haven’t been paid, including myself . We have to get paid.”
Of course, he was immediately yanked off, but the rest of the world, heard him, loud and clear, because he became an instant social media (what an irony), sensation. His employer, Kennedy Mambwe, who owns the underwater outfit, went brusque and dismissive like archetype CEO, tagging Kabinda a kindergarten with drunken behaviour, “who does not represent who we are as a station. We strongly condemn that despicable behaviour and urge members of the public to treat that ‘One-Night stunt of Fame’ with the contempt it deserves.” Can you imagine a debtor who is also a braggart!
Media of any kind, including the indomie-kind online establishments, is capital intensive and proper planning should go into establishing one, especially a TV station. If KBN is truly two years old, then, it should not be owing salaries, early in life, except it was established for a purpose which it had served. If truly established to be a long time communication tool, at least, financial projections would have cared for consistent payment of salaries, for between three and five years, when a business is expected to break even. Yes, COVID has thrown everything into a spin, but something was wrong at KBN abinitio.
Just like something has been wrong with many media houses in Nigeria. Not acknowledging this would offend the scripture about seeking what is wrong with others, without addressing the obvious malady in one’s corner. Pandemic is an acceptable excuse for any firm, unable to meet financial needs and commitments. But the malaise in the Nigerian media industry predates COVID. Systematically, practitioners are conditioned to unstated work-without-pay mentality, leaving many, particularly those without help, to become scavengers at functions, where the media, should ordinarily, have mention of honour.
God be praised for salary-paying organisations. May mercy speak for those under bad weather. For proprietors who make millions monthly and deem ID cards, as go-to for their employees’ survival, while they roam in opulence, may God forgive them. Somehow, the Kabinda stunt, may soon become a norm, if big men of media, do not stop treating employees, like Idanre extinct monkeys.
It is praiseworthy that stakeholders have mounted a night of dirge for the obvious plan of the Buhari administration, to again, tamper with press freedom. It is heartwarming the impostors are backtracking under pressure and the charlatan Rep, from Oyo State, OlusegunOdebunmi, the sponsor of the draconian media bills, undergoing law-making consideration, being prepared for his proper space in history; the infamy page. But can media owners also stop calling their porcelain plate, a dustpan?
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