The Editor,
An excerpt from the editorial “Sorry, CDC, No Apology Here,” of the May 4, 2016 edition of FrontPage Africa (FPA) online newspaper reads: “The irony of this is that none of those athletes considered running for President, Mr. Weah is. Leadership comes with responsibility and anyone eyeing the highest office in the land of any country is subject to scrutiny; no exception.”
True. However if the scrutiny turns into an obsession, an obsession which is deeply rooted in a calculated design to tarnish the good reputation of Senator Weah, diminish his popularity and give his political opponents an unfair advantage in the crowded political field, then there is a problem. The recent negative reporting by FPA on Senator Weah and the Congress for Democratic Change, reeks with all the trappings of tabloid journalism gone terribly berserk.
Here is why. About a week before Senator Weah delivered his acceptance speech on April 28, 2016, FPA published a mistake prone and error ridden story headlined, “Weah, PYJ Get Low Marks, Performing Dismally At Legislature. Dummy Senators? Poor Showing Could Hinder Presidential Ambitions.”
Quoting a quasi-report from a non-entity called the Institute for Research and Democratic Development (IREDD) (in Rodney’s haste to demonize Sen. Weah, he did not even try to get the name right. He referenced IREDD as the “Institute for Research and Democratic Empowerment), FPA reported: “Weah and Johnson are amongst five Senators with the lowest participation in the Senate deliberations.”
In the above quoted article which is a combination of gobbledygook and verbosity, FPA spent 99.9 % of the time labouring in vain to persuade readers to believe the poor performance theory and validate the IREDD as the authoritative and unquestionable critic of the Liberian Legislature.
However, in passing, he referenced a one-liner by IREDD’s Executive Director Mr. Harold Marvin Aidoo speculating whether Senator Weah’s alleged poor showing in the Senate was “…due to their official absence to participate in ECOWAS Parliament among others.”
FPA would have served the readers well had they balanced that reporting by expounding more on “the absence in the Senate” because of official assignment in Abuja, which indeed is the fact. Senator Weah is not omnipresent.
He could not have been in Abuja and Monrovia at the same time. Besides, labelling the Senators (Weah and Johnson) as “Dummy Senators” is not only disrespecting but also insulting and injurious to the Senators’ personalities.
In any case, the masses did not pay much attention to the report. Instead they turned out overwhelmingly during the CDC Blue Day to profoundly support and hear Senator Weah deliver a powerful acceptance speech.
Realizing that the negative reporting did not achieve its intended goal, FPA and some invisible hands embarked yet on another campaign of smear and wishful destruction of the CDC and Senator Weah’s political career two days after the successful acceptance speech, by publishing another damning story under the heading: “Arrest Warrant for Weah in the U.S.: May 11 Hearing Set.”
What makes the FPA reporting of the story so disappointing is not so much the content of the story itself, but has much to do with the timing and the manner in which it was published.
Given the fact that New Dawn, another FPA competition in the newspaper business in Liberia had previously published the story in January of this year; and given the fact that FPA is one of the leading newspapers in the country, I would like to safely infer that FPA might have known about the case long ago.
But in an effort to give it a semblance of authenticity and newsworthiness, FPA wilfully and purposefully withheld the story and only resurrected it to coincide with the Senator`s acceptance speech, firmly believing that the negative reporting about child support would have hurt the Senator and the Party`s popularity.
Again two days later, another story titled, “U.S. Citizenship Debate: ANC, CDC Tango Over Weah, Cummings Nationalities,” — also an old story — was re-published by FPA which had earlier published that citizenship story during the Senatorial election in late 2014.
Did the bad reporting create a distraction on the work of the Senator and the Party? Yes it did but only at the bare minimum. Did it succeed in denting his popularity to cost him his political ambition?
Hell no. In fact what that negative reporting has done, in effect, is emboldened the CDC as a political party and strengthened the resolve of the Liberian people to love and support the Senator and the party even more because they know that it is the same elitist anti-Weah, anti-CDC, and pro-oligarchy political propaganda as usual.
Senator Weah, being the most popular politician in the land, recognizes that from the very moment he decided to enter into politics — considered a blood sport — he knew then, just as he knows today, that his life was going to be an open book.
And knowing that he is running for the highest office in the country where there are many others vying for the same position, he is cognizant of the fact that the kitchen sink and everything else will be thrown at him and the party to knock him off the pedestal. Unfortunately for the naysayers, he has been living a responsible and an exemplary life all along and continues to do so to date.
There is no way that he can shirk the responsibility of being a leader of the Liberian people. Consequently, while the newspaper is calling on the Senator and his party to be responsible, we also challenge the newspaper to be responsible and professional in its reporting as well. There should be reciprocity in this responsibility call.
When a newspaper is imploring others to be responsible but on the other hand labeling Senators as dummy Senators, in my mind, that is not professional and responsible reporting but hypocrisy, mudslinging, and gutter politics a la Donald Trump, the presumptive Presidential nominee of the US Republican Party.
Even more egregious is when good-intentioned people stand up in defense of Senator Weah, FPA tags them as sycophants. I will not be surprised if I am painted with that same big brush also.
Without any doubt, FPA is aware that Senator Weah is the most philanthropic and humanitarian Liberian politician of our time. His good deeds are recognized not only by the recipients, but also by the whole world, which has endeared him to his millions of supporters.
If he can do good deeds for others, what more about his own flesh and blood, his 10-year old adorable little princess whose academic prowess was recognized by President Obama a few days ago?
However, the case being a private matter, I am not at liberty to delve into it now but records of Senator Weah’s universal humanitarian work speak for themselves. Good thing, the Warrant was thrown out by the judge.
The rise of George Manneh Weah on the national and international stage from the 1990s till now is the best thing that has ever happened to the Liberian nation. When warlords were carving the country into their personal fiefdoms and subjecting their own people to sub-human conditions, Senator Weah was the source of pride, dignity, and life support for his compatriots trapped in the country and thousands who fled the country.
When all hope seems lost due to the dismal performance of the so-called educated Liberian politicians and bureaucrats, the Senator is now seen as the beacon of hope for the disaffected masses. That is why they are unfazed by all this negative press report coming from FPA.
By now everyone, including the FPA, should know that Senator Weah is on a mission, a mission sanctioned by his Maker to raise the socio-economic level of the Liberian people from poverty to prosperity and no one and absolutely, nothing will stop him because his work on earth has only just begun.
He is here to make and leave Liberia a better place. Therefore anyone who is in the business of trying to soil his reputation and bring him down politically will NOT succeed.
Consequently, FPA, the Liberian people are not asking for special favours or some form of preferential treatment on your reporting about Senator Weah and the Party. What they want to see done is FAIR PLAY. As members of the Press, you have a duty to perform as a neutral referee in this new political dispensation.
We as politicians and a political party have a role and a responsibility to our people and country also. Together we all have a shared responsibility to make our nascent democracy work properly.
Therefore stop hiding under the cloak of press freedom to demean, bully, and destroy others and their work simply because you have the ability, the capacity and the platform to do so with impunity.
Jerry Gbardy,
[email protected]