The past week has been an awesome one to say the least.
Hon. Uhuru Kenyatta and Amb. Muthaura finally stepped down from public office seeing that they were becoming an embarasment to an entire country for sticking around while they face cases at the ICC. I assume that this is President Kibakis way of firing people so as to leave them some modicum of dignity. Anyhoo, it was a good day for the constitution but an awful one for one ‘cool’ Prof Githu Muigai. Now this guy imagines himself to be swaggerific incarnate but he seemingly missed the lecture by Margaret Thatcher who said something to the effect of ‘Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.’ Being cool is kinda the same.
So today I wake up to the infamous Robert Alai cutting down one Caroline Mutoko of Radio Africa for allegedly calling all those using social media numskulls and armpit scratching baboons incapable of sufficient mustering of intellect. Alai’s argument was very sober, collected and surgical but totally missed Caroline’s point. You can read it here if you haven’t already. Caroline Muoko doesn’t hate on social media users but the hate speech kind of which there are numerous.
Aside from such misdirected antics, the manipulation in our news rooms is utterly repugnant. Some years ago KTN blooped and brought the reults of the opinion poll before the question . It was only for a fraction of a second but I saw the 80% vs 20% on the yes-no answers well. Once the question was asked and later the comments read, I assumed that the outcome would not be in the exact ratios I had observed earlier. The usual farce of reading the user comments and expressing shock, amusement and cracking stale jokes followed before the results were announced. The outcome of the ‘Big question’ permanently confirmed to me that those things are bogus albeit clever methods of social engineering. It was just as had been flashed before the question was asked. They are thus just station funded propaganda machines.
Humans love conforming to society and if everyone answers a particular way, then we are pushed to conform to that. forget the fact that no-one thinks like that and they neglect to point out that theirs is not a scientific survey.
Over the past week annoyingly detailed coverage has been paid to the Ocampo 4 and their feelings. These are people who have been accused of capital crimes against humanity. They are loaded and they have huge families and truckloads of friends. They can handle it and this ass kissing by the media is leaving all our mouths with a horrid taste.
Simple question.
Everyone is concious of the elections and to politics but ramming it down everyones throat every waking moment is rather demeaning and pushing people to other media.
Not that that is a bad thing either. I trust bloggers and the people I follow on twitter more than any ‘Actual Expert’ out there. And you should too.
Online or social media vs traditional media is like science vs religion. If you make a rediculous claim with no proof online, you will be shot down faster than Cessna flying over the White House taking pictures. On traditional media on the other hand, the avenues of complaint or redress are non-existent. you can write an angry letter, or an email or call the station with your complaints but thats a dead end. they will most likely not publish your complaints and that ends like that. Its a-lot like belief. Its a one way street pitting you as the minion against the almighty media. You take all the crap they say because they said it. They can thus go on transmitting all sorts of nonsense and ignore any complaints or corrections. Online the no of commenters is view-able by all and the viral effect will ensure your ignorance goes around the world before you can finish refreshing the page.
Please join me online and shun the media stations hell bent on shoving crap down our throats!
