Enough of the sycophantic Journalism ‘The Herald Newspaper’; someone should call them to order

• Posted on June 3, 2014June 5, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

In this age where it is easy to see the political nudity of media in Ghana, many Readers and listeners of media brewed in Ghana have to do their background checks to be sure if a reportage is not politically motivated before pushing the information down their throats.

One medium in Ghana which is making it difficult for Ghanaians to trust Reporters in Ghana, exhibiting high level of sycophancy and is blatantly dragging its feather-weight name through the mud is ‘The Herald,’ a newspaper which is as irrelevant as the ‘p’ in psychology.  When the newspaper should be focused on how to get 80% of their circulation which are always returned to the office, the Reporters of the medium are preoccupied with inapposite reportage.

I was personally ‘magneted’ to this newspaper when a headline which read “Unemployed Sammy Awuku builds US $3million Mansion ….. whilst crying poverty and economic hardship” and the headline was a frontpage story of their Monday November 4 – Tuesday November 5, 2013 edition 121/13 of the paper. I must confess that I fell in the love with the high command the Reporters had over the English language and since then started getting a copy of the print.

Since November last year when I started flirting with the paper, I have not read any of their news item which has been used as a radio discussion; something every Reporter and medium aims at. Neither have I seen any major advertisement in the paper except the ones from DSTV and load shedding guide from Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).

Page 7 of the sordid Herald is dedicated to insulting high-profiled Ghanaians. The page was dedicated to tainting Nana Akufo-Addo for more than 3 months and convincing Ghanaians why Alan Kyeremanten is a better choice for NPP. Subsequently, it was dedicated to The Chronicle Newspaper, University of Ghana, Joy FM and currently Daily Guide is enjoying free publicity on the page with the headline ‘Daily Guide adjudged best and worst private newspaper.’ Funny how a medium which is only good at getting stories on busted cocaine barons would not work hard to get advertisement to solve their delaying of paying their workers on time and aiming to be on stands daily instead of the 3 times a week.

Lately, their prowess in writing has reduced to the lowest ebb as mistakes are always seen in the paper weekly. It would be my greatest joy to see a Reporter from Herald winning ‘Best Journalist’ of the year but on the part they are speeding on, it would only happen in the next life.

There are so many things to be considered and resolved by Prime Mark Company Ltd, Publishers of The Herald newspaper than wasting their time on NPP and their senior colleagues in the media. I would succinctly draw the attention of the medium to a few; the paper is not displayed on the front row of news stands in Accra and Ghana, the paper is always sourcing their entertainment news, the proof Reader should sit up, they should work on their internet presence and the paper should report more on pressing issues than leveraging their Reporters with stories defaming the NPP and other media 60 times powerful than them. I have no idea what the contents of the paper would be tomorrow but I can bet on it that, story defaming Nana Akufo-Addo, the NPP or a medium in Ghana would feature.

I know many people would ask if ‘The Herald’ is a print medium in Ghana, yes, it is but because their only job is to write to defend the Mahama administration, President’s family and Political Party in order to get ‘soli’ and taint Nana Akufo-Addo to their 30 Readers a day, their relevance in the media circle is like dropping a saliva in the sea.

ENOUGH OF THE SYCOPHANCY, don’t sell your pride for presidential benefits!

This is an UGLY TRUTH! and I hope it would be taken in good faith, nothing personal.

Author: Nana Kwesi Coomson (www.233times.net)