WHY RADIO GOLD MADE SO, MANY ANGRY

Election in this country raises a lot of heckle and tensions and we had had our fair share of such this year. But the just ended one has taught us that we are not a group of perfect beings but ordinary human with extreme of emotions that can spark conflict. We have shown ourselves by this election that we can be extremist and inciteful even though we love to delude ourselves constantly and pride ourselves as a peace loving nation.Competition for power drove us to the brink. We have an exciting media scene that is extremely partisan and parochial over the last few years a lot of media organizations have sprung up on all fronts. TV stations have more than doubled over the last decade while there seem to be a radio station in every neighborhood nowadays. As for Newspaper one has lost count of the titles we have on our Newsstands with a new title appearing virtually every other month. This is different in the sense that in many places Newspapers have their political stand which coincides with the ideology and positions of parties and in some cases some activist contribute material of these papers. The case with our News papers in that most of them are conceived, planned, executed, operated and edited by hardcore politicians. They end up as propaganda tabloids which lack any sense of objectivity and fair rest. Even the basic tenets of journalism are disregarded while the paper focuses on vendetta propagate character assassination. The News print has turned into dirty and murk of political journalism at disrespect the basic laws or conventions of the profession. What makes this state of affairs troubling is that even though these on the face of it are insignificant given their scanty circulation and poor finishing quality, their content are given oxygen by radio stations with wide-ranging, thorough an extensive review. Now this is the context where Radio Gold comes. in over the last 8 year The NPP has proven to be slick media operators from their days in opposition up till now. They cultivated the major players in the media landscape and learned back then how powerful a tool the media can be both in governance and opposition. This lesson was extensively used when they came into government and occupied the media space at every opportunity with dozens of spin-doctors and apologist. Almost all their media friends whilst in opposition followed them into government and became appendages of the government. They defended the NPP to the hilt even disregarding their principles. What made the matter worse was the perceived (and to some extend real) anti-media posture of the NDC. It was a strange situation when some individual journalists are heard strongly defending issues in favor of the NPP government when we know from their past they are repulsed by it. The media became Guard dogs of the NPP government; instead of the Watchdogs of society they should have been. All the media houses and practitioner that towed the NPP line and sang their hymns were duly rewarded with juicy advertisements, events and foreign travels. Overnight some 4 page pamphlets became full color tabloids. Even some senior journalists in some newspapers were persuaded to start out on their own with assurances of support and patronage. Those that did not tow the line were severely punished and discredited. Salacious and dirty lies were told about such journalists who did not tow the line by their own colleagues and some of them were hounded out of some platforms. They were starved of advertisements and revenues and the only thing that kept them in the newspaper business was their passion for the profession. Now what happened was bound to bring a sharp division on the media front. This division crystallized into two deeply antagonistic sides; pro-NPP and ant-NPP factions. The ANTI NPP front converged under the umbrella of radio gold which has a militant anti NPP posture, the reputation and the platform to pose any challenge to the domineering NPP media machinery. The radio Gold platform had its excesses but in a way one can say it was the right counter to the excesses of the NPP and their media onslaught. The NPP ruthlessly dominated the media landscape and ruled it with swagger. By this they could get away with anything. NPP was so obsessed with the media that they paid more attention to it that the actual act of governing. The president changed his media and public relations teams anytime there was a hitch and there were spokespersons for every conceivable government action. These spokespersons were everywhere, executing a well planned media strategy. Radio Gold necessarily became militant to counter this brazen abuse of the media and they had to become more militant especially during the electioneering campaign and the elections itself if they desired to play their roles properly. Most of the coverage was biased in favor of the NPP or in the least benign to the immoderation of the NPP.