Stop being such an Alarmist

Calm down. Take it Easy. Stop being such an Alarmist: An Open Letter to a Ghanaian Editor

Dear Editor,

These days, I feel like I have been hold at gun point by a punitive murderer and could be pronounced dead by any moment. Except that, that me happen to be my beloved Ghana. Courtesy of the scare mongering enterprise, who have over reported and overhyped the election petition judgment.

Arguably, The Case has gotten more reporting than it rightly deserved. It’s strikingly infuriating to have lived through it. The announcement of the Judgment day came as good news to some of us who are gladly waiting to put it behind us and forge forward. However, it has made a very wild turn. Thanks to the alarmists caucus (which step sister is the media). It’s in this reason that this article is written to persuade the pundits (plus the media) to hold on with the mongering.

Mr. /Mrs. Editor, I write to you not as an all-wise and an all-knowing youth lecturing you on how to do your job; far from that. Neither do I write to you as a wise well-versed journalist coaching you on how to do your job; quite the opposite. But I write to you as a commoner and a Ghanaian who cares about Ghana. Therefore, treat my article as such. Sieve through my article, remove the grains, if there is any, from the chaff.

I suggest that your reporters reduce their reportage on the Supreme Court Case for one reason. In addition, I urge your news gathering sources to truly put Ghana first on the judgment day for another reason.

The Avoidable Undue Pressure on the Justices

First of all, the justices are human beings. They get nervous too. That can affect clear thinking. The absence of clear thinking can leads to the justices not putting up their best on the case. You are right, I have to show you how that is possible before you will agree with me.

Will this analogy work? Say, you are a smart high school student. You have excellent teachers and excellent books. And you have adequately prepared well for your WASSCE. On your way to the exam center: anybody that you come across tells you that the WASSCE is very difficult, and your failure is tantamount to doom for you (and your family-country). Also, people add up they wouldn’t want to be in your shoes. You are right, I will be very nervous too. Expand that further to include; people saying those horror things to you during the exams. You are right. That is really unnecessarily over the top counseling. Multiply it by millions of people saying that to you and compare that to what the pundits have being saying in your platform or what the columnists or reporters have being writing in your platform ever since the judgment day was announced.

Even more astonishing is the fact that, we are getting these warnings from the same usual suspects who have been predicting doom in every election. Although, there is no (and there has never been any) bit of evidence to prove that we need to sweat over the Thursday decision. My guess is, we have always accepted those doom predictions because they sound serious and come from people with fancy credentials. Otherwise, at worst, this judgment is just a test of one of our constitutional instruments. At best, it just another judgment. Skeptics must first remember how we successfully transitioned to President Mahama after President Mills’ death. Without any experience, the laws of the land took it cause. It was successful because nobody solicited advice from the nations so called Serious People Club (SPC). Those SPC, who always see war in every political process, must be ignored. Their flammable peace mongering or justice mongering (which insinuates the possible lack off; because a person will not seek to be in a state of being that he/she is already in) doesn’t deserve the headlines. Mr. /Mrs. Editor let us cut back on the Supreme Court Case reporting. Let us cut back on the speculations. Let us stop courting rumors. Let us give way to the justices to think clearly to do the job we have tasked them to do.

The Virtue of true Journalism

In this our day and age, everybody wants to be the first person to hear the news. This unusual thirst is the birth child of journalism malpractice-Where some reporters fail to independently verify information before reporting them to the public-just to be the first to break the news. I urge you, in the loudest voice possible, to demand your reporters to independently verify every piece of information before it’s reported to the public on the judgment day.

I quite understand that, you might already have such policy in place. What I am only asking is absolute implementation with no exceptions. Reporters must not say “an unverified information reaching us say so, so and so”. Unverified information doesn’t deserve to be uttered by a news staff, Period. You are a credible news organization and not a rumor mill. Rumors have where they belong-Facebook, tweeter, party press conferences, and the like.

It’s clearly understood that guarding rumors (from politicians and pundits) in life streaming program is close to impossible. Wouldn’t five minutes buffer period address that? What about ten minutes buffer period which you can use to sensor wild rumors from politicians or pundits? It might sound inapt at first glance but it’s actually apt. if the audience is informed. After all, it’s easier, more honorable and more rewarding to report verified information than to misinform the public, and then chase them to re-inform them the right information.

The mad man the media has created in my mind is a prank albeit foot soldiers are real. Sadly, the calls for peace or justice have bolstered the so called party foot soldiers. We have given them more powers than they truly have. We have implanted in their minds that, they have eminent military vigor, and must be beg not to unleash their military powers on us, when they truly have none. The good news is; the foot soldiers are now afraid of the foot soldiers (straw men) the media has helped the pundits to create. Franklin D Roosevelt couldn’t have been more right when he said “Only thing we (Ghanaians) have to fear is fear itself”