GNA - Liar Liar, Your Pants on Fire!

Ghana News Agency (GNA) is losing credibility in a bid to please the government. Read the following headlines from all around the world and figure the odd one out (it is not hard)

• GNA: Kufuor Clinches Deal In Kenya
• BBC: Kufuor Fails To End Kenya Crisis
• Reuters: AU chief fails to broker Kenya deal
• Al Jazeera: Kenya mediation talks fail
• Daily nation(Kenya): Kufuor leaves as talks fail
• The Tide (Nigeria): AU chief fails to seal Kenya’s deal
• The East African Standard (Nairobi): Talks Collapse As Kufuor Jets Out
• CNN: Kufuor left Kenya Thursday without a resolution to the dispute.
• The Nation (Nairobi): Kufuor left Kenya Thursday without a resolution to the dispute.
• Canada.com: African Union mission to Kenya fails to end crisis
• Forbes: Kenyan post-election crisis talks fail - foreign ministry official
• Pressemitteilung (Austria): African Union envoy leaving with Kenya with no sign of progress.
• The East African Standard (Nairobi): Talks Collapse As Kufuor Jets Out

Why was the NPP-appointed GNA reporter, Kwaku Osei Bonsu, feeding Ghanaians with false information in this age of 24/7 news service and the internet?

Let’s examine the story by GNA.

GNA: "In a communiqué issued at the end of their face-to-face meeting held at the Parliament House in Nairobi, the first, since election violence broke out .."

New York Times: "Mr. Kufuor failed to get the two sides even to meet, but he insisted that all was not lost.

VOA: Kibaki refused to sign a draft agreement that would have led to face-to-face talks

FACT: Odinga never met face-to-face with Kibaki. If they did how come only GNA knew of this meeting since no other news media on this planet reported it. Kufuor met them separately and individually.

Lie II

GNA: The Kenyan Government and the main opposition political party, the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) on Thursday clinched a deal to ease the stalemate and violence over the country's disputed presidential election

The East African Standard (Nairobi):: Ghana’s John Kufuor has left Nairobi with no deal out of efforts to reconcile President Kibaki and his challenger Raila Odinga of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM).

BBC: Talks conducted by President John Kufuor to end Kenya's political crisis have broken down, opposition and government sources have said

Reuters: AU chief fails to broker Kenya deal

CNN: Kufuor left Kenya Thursday without a resolution to the dispute

FACT: No deal was clinched as reported by GNA

Lie III

GNA: President Mwai Kibaki and the ODM's Leader Raila Odinga agreed on interim measures pending the search for a lasting solution

The Nation(Kenya): Odinga for his part refused to work with Kufuor in negotiating with Kibaki because he was "not a credible international mediator".

FACT: Odinga met Kufuor but there was no agreement

The whole world is monitoring the situation in Kenya and so the GNA will do well to report the truth… or maybe the problem is not GNA, but their reporter, Kwaku Osei Bonsu, who was handpicked by the government.

Why the lies? Was Mr. Bonsu put under pressure or this is his way of paying back his unearned promotion?

Late Addition

After mailing my article for publication, I read an excuse from GNA titled 'GNA Goofed'. The flimsy and pathetic excuse goes something like this:

"The meeting, which was set to begin before the GNA Correspondent left to catch a flight to Ghana, was aborted in the nick of time"

Instead of apologizing to its readers, GNA is digging deeper with this blatant lie

GNA – Liar Liar, Your Pants on Fire!